Data organization limits the predictability of binary classification

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jing, Fei, Zhang, Zi-Ke, Zhang, Yi-Cheng, Zhang, Qingpeng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914866799837184
author Jing, Fei
Zhang, Zi-Ke
Zhang, Yi-Cheng
Zhang, Qingpeng
author_facet Jing, Fei
Zhang, Zi-Ke
Zhang, Yi-Cheng
Zhang, Qingpeng
contents The structure of data organization is widely recognized as having a substantial influence on the efficacy of machine learning algorithms, particularly in binary classification tasks. Our research provides a theoretical framework suggesting that the maximum potential of binary classifiers on a given dataset is primarily constrained by the inherent qualities of the data. Through both theoretical reasoning and empirical examination, we employed standard objective functions, evaluative metrics, and binary classifiers to arrive at two principal conclusions. Firstly, we show that the theoretical upper bound of binary classification performance on actual datasets can be theoretically attained. This upper boundary represents a calculable equilibrium between the learning loss and the metric of evaluation. Secondly, we have computed the precise upper bounds for three commonly used evaluation metrics, uncovering a fundamental uniformity with our overarching thesis: the upper bound is intricately linked to the dataset's characteristics, independent of the classifier in use. Additionally, our subsequent analysis uncovers a detailed relationship between the upper limit of performance and the level of class overlap within the binary classification data. This relationship is instrumental for pinpointing the most effective feature subsets for use in feature engineering.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_17036
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Data organization limits the predictability of binary classification
Jing, Fei
Zhang, Zi-Ke
Zhang, Yi-Cheng
Zhang, Qingpeng
Machine Learning
Data Structures and Algorithms
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
The structure of data organization is widely recognized as having a substantial influence on the efficacy of machine learning algorithms, particularly in binary classification tasks. Our research provides a theoretical framework suggesting that the maximum potential of binary classifiers on a given dataset is primarily constrained by the inherent qualities of the data. Through both theoretical reasoning and empirical examination, we employed standard objective functions, evaluative metrics, and binary classifiers to arrive at two principal conclusions. Firstly, we show that the theoretical upper bound of binary classification performance on actual datasets can be theoretically attained. This upper boundary represents a calculable equilibrium between the learning loss and the metric of evaluation. Secondly, we have computed the precise upper bounds for three commonly used evaluation metrics, uncovering a fundamental uniformity with our overarching thesis: the upper bound is intricately linked to the dataset's characteristics, independent of the classifier in use. Additionally, our subsequent analysis uncovers a detailed relationship between the upper limit of performance and the level of class overlap within the binary classification data. This relationship is instrumental for pinpointing the most effective feature subsets for use in feature engineering.
title Data organization limits the predictability of binary classification
topic Machine Learning
Data Structures and Algorithms
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.17036