调整正则化参数可避免贝叶斯预测过拟合,提升泛化能力。
Overfitting and Generalizing with (PAC) Bayesian Prediction in Noisy Binary Classification
- 用可调参数λ平衡预测误差与先验距离,实现连续先验下的随机预测
- 当λ远大于1时,即使在任意情形下也能保证泛化误差趋于零
- 揭示了参数λ不足或过度对模型性能的影响机制,适合关注泛化的研究者
我们研究一种基于PAC-Bayes的二分类学习规则,通过平衡随机后验预测器的训练误差与其相对于预设先验的KL散度来优化。该方法可视为将改进的两部分编码最小描述长度(MDL)规则推广至连续先验和随机预测。当平衡参数λ=1时,该规则恢复经验贝叶斯后验及变体轮廓后验,与标准贝叶斯预测一致(仅噪声水平参数处理略有不同)。但从风险最小化角度,此贝叶斯预测存在过拟合问题,在任意情形下可能导致非零超额损失。而选择λ≫1时,即使用样本依赖先验,可确保在任意情形下超额损失均匀趋零。本文精确刻画了λ不足(欠正则化)与过度(过正则化)的影响,明确其对模型性能的调节作用。本工作扩展了Zhu与Srebro [2025]仅考虑离散先验的研究,为PAC-Bayes学习规则提供了严格的贝叶斯解释,并推广至更广泛的贝叶斯预测框架。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We consider a PAC-Bayes type learning rule for binary classification, balancing the training error of a randomized ''posterior'' predictor with its KL divergence to a pre-specified ''prior''. This can be seen as an extension of a modified two-part-code Minimum Description Length (MDL) learning rule, to continuous priors and randomized predictions. With a balancing parameter of $λ=1$ this learning rule recovers an (empirical) Bayes posterior and a modified variant recovers the profile posterior, linking with standard Bayesian prediction (up to the treatment of the single-parameter noise level). However, from a risk-minimization prediction perspective, this Bayesian predictor overfits and can lead to non-vanishing excess loss in the agnostic case. Instead a choice of $λ\gg 1$, which can be seen as using a sample-size-dependent-prior, ensures uniformly vanishing excess loss even in the agnostic case. We precisely characterize the effect of under-regularizing (and over-regularizing) as a function of the balance parameter $λ$, understanding the regimes in which this under-regularization is tempered or catastrophic. This work extends previous work by Zhu and Srebro [2025] that considered only discrete priors to PAC Bayes type learning rules and, through their rigorous Bayesian interpretation, to Bayesian prediction more generally.
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