A General Framework for Cutting Feedback within Modularised Bayesian Inference

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Liu, Yang, Goudie, Robert J. B.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2022
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author Liu, Yang
Goudie, Robert J. B.
author_facet Liu, Yang
Goudie, Robert J. B.
contents Standard Bayesian inference can build models that combine information from various sources, but this inference may not be reliable if components of a model are misspecified. Cut inference, as a particular type of modularized Bayesian inference, is an alternative which splits a model into modules and cuts the feedback from the suspect module. Previous studies have focused on a two-module case, but a more general definition of a "module" remains unclear. We present a formal definition of a "module" and discuss its properties. We formulate methods for identifying modules; determining the order of modules; and building the cut distribution that should be used for cut inference within an arbitrary directed acyclic graph structure. We justify the cut distribution by showing that it not only cuts the feedback but also is the best approximation satisfying this condition to the joint distribution in the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We also extend cut inference for the two-module case to a general multiple-module case via a sequential splitting technique and demonstrate this via illustrative applications.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2211_03274
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A General Framework for Cutting Feedback within Modularised Bayesian Inference
Liu, Yang
Goudie, Robert J. B.
Methodology
Statistics Theory
Standard Bayesian inference can build models that combine information from various sources, but this inference may not be reliable if components of a model are misspecified. Cut inference, as a particular type of modularized Bayesian inference, is an alternative which splits a model into modules and cuts the feedback from the suspect module. Previous studies have focused on a two-module case, but a more general definition of a "module" remains unclear. We present a formal definition of a "module" and discuss its properties. We formulate methods for identifying modules; determining the order of modules; and building the cut distribution that should be used for cut inference within an arbitrary directed acyclic graph structure. We justify the cut distribution by showing that it not only cuts the feedback but also is the best approximation satisfying this condition to the joint distribution in the Kullback-Leibler divergence. We also extend cut inference for the two-module case to a general multiple-module case via a sequential splitting technique and demonstrate this via illustrative applications.
title A General Framework for Cutting Feedback within Modularised Bayesian Inference
topic Methodology
Statistics Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.03274