Apple Tasting: Combinatorial Dimensions and Minimax Rates

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Raman, Vinod, Subedi, Unique, Raman, Ananth, Tewari, Ambuj
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Raman, Vinod
Subedi, Unique
Raman, Ananth
Tewari, Ambuj
author_facet Raman, Vinod
Subedi, Unique
Raman, Ananth
Tewari, Ambuj
contents In online binary classification under \emph{apple tasting} feedback, the learner only observes the true label if it predicts ``1". First studied by \cite{helmbold2000apple}, we revisit this classical partial-feedback setting and study online learnability from a combinatorial perspective. We show that the Littlestone dimension continues to provide a tight quantitative characterization of apple tasting in the agnostic setting, closing an open question posed by \cite{helmbold2000apple}. In addition, we give a new combinatorial parameter, called the Effective width, that tightly quantifies the minimax expected mistakes in the realizable setting. As a corollary, we use the Effective width to establish a \emph{trichotomy} of the minimax expected number of mistakes in the realizable setting. In particular, we show that in the realizable setting, the expected number of mistakes of any learner, under apple tasting feedback, can be $Θ(1), Θ(\sqrt{T})$, or $Θ(T)$. This is in contrast to the full-information realizable setting where only $Θ(1)$ and $Θ(T)$ are possible.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2310_19064
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Apple Tasting: Combinatorial Dimensions and Minimax Rates
Raman, Vinod
Subedi, Unique
Raman, Ananth
Tewari, Ambuj
Machine Learning
In online binary classification under \emph{apple tasting} feedback, the learner only observes the true label if it predicts ``1". First studied by \cite{helmbold2000apple}, we revisit this classical partial-feedback setting and study online learnability from a combinatorial perspective. We show that the Littlestone dimension continues to provide a tight quantitative characterization of apple tasting in the agnostic setting, closing an open question posed by \cite{helmbold2000apple}. In addition, we give a new combinatorial parameter, called the Effective width, that tightly quantifies the minimax expected mistakes in the realizable setting. As a corollary, we use the Effective width to establish a \emph{trichotomy} of the minimax expected number of mistakes in the realizable setting. In particular, we show that in the realizable setting, the expected number of mistakes of any learner, under apple tasting feedback, can be $Θ(1), Θ(\sqrt{T})$, or $Θ(T)$. This is in contrast to the full-information realizable setting where only $Θ(1)$ and $Θ(T)$ are possible.
title Apple Tasting: Combinatorial Dimensions and Minimax Rates
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.19064