arXiv:2511.16795cs.LG2025-11

用符号向量方法严格满足多实例学习的逻辑约束

A Vector Symbolic Approach to Multiple Instance Learning

  • 将实例与概念表示为正交高维向量,通过代数运算强制满足 iff 条件
  • 在标准数据集和医学图像上达到当前最优性能,且符合严格 MIL 定义
  • 模型可解释性强,适合需要逻辑严谨性的医疗等关键场景

多实例学习(MIL)要求一个包被标记为正类当且仅当其中至少有一个实例为正类。尽管这一 iff 约束符合许多实际应用,但现有深度学习方法常违反此条件,导致性能虚高且泛化能力差。本文提出基于向量符号架构(VSAs)的新框架,利用高维空间中的可微符号操作实现逻辑约束。通过将实例和概念表示为近似正交的高维向量,并采用代数运算在分类中强制 iff 约束,直接嵌入模型结构。为连接原始数据与 VSA 表示,设计了学习编码器,将输入实例映射为兼容 VSA 的向量并保留关键分布特性。所提出的 VSA 驱动的 MaxNetwork 分类器,在标准 MIL 基准和医学影像数据集上实现了当前最先进性能,同时严格遵守 MIL 公式。该方法提供了原理清晰、可解释且高效的替代方案,摆脱对学习启发式方法的依赖。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) tasks impose a strict logical constraint: a bag is labeled positive if and only if at least one instance within it is positive. While this iff constraint aligns with many real-world applications, recent work has shown that most deep learning-based MIL approaches violate it, leading to inflated performance metrics and poor generalization. We propose a novel MIL framework based on Vector Symbolic Architectures (VSAs), which provide a differentiable mechanism for performing symbolic operations in high-dimensional space. Our method encodes the MIL assumption directly into the model's structure by representing instances and concepts as nearly orthogonal high-dimensional vectors and using algebraic operations to enforce the iff constraint during classification. To bridge the gap between raw data and VSA representations, we design a learned encoder that transforms input instances into VSA-compatible vectors while preserving key distributional properties. Our approach, which includes a VSA-driven MaxNetwork classifier, achieves state-of-the-art results for a valid MIL model on standard MIL benchmarks and medical imaging datasets, outperforming existing methods while maintaining strict adherence to the MIL formulation. This work offers a principled, interpretable, and effective alternative to existing MIL approaches that rely on learned heuristics.

多实例学习向量符号可解释性医学图像

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