A tree perspective on stick-breaking models in covariate-dependent mixtures

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Horiguchi, Akira, Chan, Cliburn, Ma, Li
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2022
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author Horiguchi, Akira
Chan, Cliburn
Ma, Li
author_facet Horiguchi, Akira
Chan, Cliburn
Ma, Li
contents Stick-breaking (SB) processes are often adopted in Bayesian mixture models for generating mixing weights. When covariates influence the sizes of clusters, SB mixtures are particularly convenient as they can leverage their connection to binary regression to ease both the specification of covariate effects and posterior computation. Existing SB models are typically constructed based on continually breaking a single remaining piece of the unit stick. We view this from a dyadic tree perspective in terms of a lopsided bifurcating tree that extends only in one side. We show that two unsavory characteristics of SB models are in fact largely due to this lopsided tree structure. We consider a generalized class of SB models with alternative bifurcating tree structures and examine the influence of the underlying tree topology on the resulting Bayesian analysis in terms of prior assumptions, posterior uncertainty, and computational effectiveness. In particular, we provide evidence that a balanced tree topology, which corresponds to continually breaking all remaining pieces of the unit stick, can resolve or mitigate these undesirable properties of SB models that rely on a lopsided tree.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2208_02806
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A tree perspective on stick-breaking models in covariate-dependent mixtures
Horiguchi, Akira
Chan, Cliburn
Ma, Li
Methodology
Stick-breaking (SB) processes are often adopted in Bayesian mixture models for generating mixing weights. When covariates influence the sizes of clusters, SB mixtures are particularly convenient as they can leverage their connection to binary regression to ease both the specification of covariate effects and posterior computation. Existing SB models are typically constructed based on continually breaking a single remaining piece of the unit stick. We view this from a dyadic tree perspective in terms of a lopsided bifurcating tree that extends only in one side. We show that two unsavory characteristics of SB models are in fact largely due to this lopsided tree structure. We consider a generalized class of SB models with alternative bifurcating tree structures and examine the influence of the underlying tree topology on the resulting Bayesian analysis in terms of prior assumptions, posterior uncertainty, and computational effectiveness. In particular, we provide evidence that a balanced tree topology, which corresponds to continually breaking all remaining pieces of the unit stick, can resolve or mitigate these undesirable properties of SB models that rely on a lopsided tree.
title A tree perspective on stick-breaking models in covariate-dependent mixtures
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.02806