arXiv:2510.09416cs.LGcs.SI2025-10被引 4

探究时序图模型真正学到了什么特征,揭示其学习能力的局限性。

What Do Temporal Graph Learning Models Learn?

  • 系统评估8种模型对8类图结构特征的捕捉能力。
  • 模型能较好学习密度与近期性,但难以建模同质性等机制。
  • 适合关注模型可解释性与评估可靠性的研究者参考。

时序图表示学习已成为图学习的核心课题,尽管现有基准测试显示先进模型表现优异,但近期研究质疑了基准结果的可靠性,指出评估协议存在缺陷,且简单启发式方法竟表现出惊人竞争力。这引发关键问题:时序图模型究竟利用了底层图的哪些特性进行预测?本文通过系统评估8种模型在捕捉8类与边结构相关的基础特征方面的能力,包括密度、近期性等结构特征及同质性等边生成机制。基于合成与真实数据集的分析表明,模型对部分特征学习良好,但对其他特征建模失败。总体而言,本研究揭示了现有模型的重要局限性,为时序图模型的实际应用提供了实用洞见,并推动图学习研究向更具可解释性的评估方向发展。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Learning on temporal graphs has become a central topic in graph representation learning, with numerous benchmarks indicating the strong performance of state-of-the-art models. However, recent work has raised concerns about the reliability of benchmark results, noting issues with commonly used evaluation protocols and the surprising competitiveness of simple heuristics. This contrast raises the question of which characteristics of the underlying graphs temporal graph learning models actually use to form their predictions. We address this by systematically evaluating eight models on their ability to capture eight fundamental characteristics related to the link structure of temporal graphs. These include structural characteristics such as density, temporal patterns such as recency, and edge formation mechanisms such as homophily. Using both synthetic and real-world datasets, we analyze how well models learn these characteristics. Our findings reveal a mixed picture: models capture some characteristics well but fail to reproduce others. With this, we expose important limitations. Overall, we believe that our results provide practical insights for the application of temporal graph learning models and motivate more interpretability-driven evaluations in graph learning research.

时序图可解释性模型评估

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