arXiv:2601.23131cs.LGcs.AI2026-01综述

系统梳理神经网络正则化方法,发现其效果因数据集而异。

Regularisation in neural networks: a survey and empirical analysis of approaches

  • 按数据、结构、训练、损失四类整理正则化方法
  • 实验表明正则化效果依赖数据类型:数值数据用正则项有效,图像数据用批量归一化更优
  • 揭示不同方法间的矛盾与关联,指导实际应用选择

尽管神经网络在众多任务中取得巨大成功,但其在未见数据上的泛化能力仍常受限。多年来提出多种正则化技术以提升泛化性能,普遍认为添加正则化必能提升效果。本文通过全面回顾包括双下降理论在内的正则化方法,提出四类分类体系:(1) 数据驱动策略,(2) 结构策略,(3) 训练策略,(4) 损失函数策略,并指出各类间存在矛盾与对应关系。进一步在十组数值与图像数据集上,对多层感知机与卷积神经网络进行实证比较。结果表明,正则化效果高度依赖数据集:正则项仅在数值数据上有效,批量归一化仅在图像数据上带来提升。泛化能力至关重要,理解正则化影响及其内在联系,对实践应用具有关键意义。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Despite huge successes on a wide range of tasks, neural networks are known to sometimes struggle to generalise to unseen data. Many approaches have been proposed over the years to promote the generalisation ability of neural networks, collectively known as regularisation techniques. These are used as common practice under the assumption that any regularisation added to the pipeline would result in a performance improvement. In this study, we investigate whether this assumption holds in practice. First, we provide a broad review of regularisation techniques, including modern theories such as double descent. We propose a taxonomy of methods under four broad categories, namely: (1) data-based strategies, (2) architecture strategies, (3) training strategies, and (4) loss function strategies. Notably, we highlight the contradictions and correspondences between the approaches in these broad classes. Further, we perform an empirical comparison of the various regularisation techniques on classification tasks for ten numerical and image datasets applied to the multi-layer perceptron and convolutional neural network architectures. Results show that the efficacy of regularisation is dataset-dependent. For example, the use of a regularisation term only improved performance on numeric datasets, whereas batch normalisation improved performance on image datasets only. Generalisation is crucial to machine learning; thus, understanding the effects of applying regularisation techniques, and considering the connections between them is essential to the appropriate use of these methods in practice.

正则化泛化能力实证分析

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