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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Vannucci, Giulia, Siciliano, Roberta, Saltelli, Andrea
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14194
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author Vannucci, Giulia
Siciliano, Roberta
Saltelli, Andrea
author_facet Vannucci, Giulia
Siciliano, Roberta
Saltelli, Andrea
contents The present work provides an application of Global Sensitivity Analysis to supervised machine learning methods such as Random Forests. These methods act as black boxes, selecting features in high--dimensional data sets as to provide accurate classifiers in terms of prediction when new data are fed into the system. In supervised machine learning, predictors are generally ranked by importance based on their contribution to the final prediction. Global Sensitivity Analysis is primarily used in mathematical modelling to investigate the effect of the uncertainties of the input variables on the output. We apply it here as a novel way to rank the input features by their importance to the explainability of the data generating process, shedding light on how the response is determined by the dependence structure of its predictors. A simulation study shows that our proposal can be used to explore what advances can be achieved either in terms of efficiency, explanatory ability, or simply by way of confirming existing results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_14194
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enhancing Variable Importance in Random Forests: A Novel Application of Global Sensitivity Analysis
Vannucci, Giulia
Siciliano, Roberta
Saltelli, Andrea
Machine Learning
Applications
Computation
The present work provides an application of Global Sensitivity Analysis to supervised machine learning methods such as Random Forests. These methods act as black boxes, selecting features in high--dimensional data sets as to provide accurate classifiers in terms of prediction when new data are fed into the system. In supervised machine learning, predictors are generally ranked by importance based on their contribution to the final prediction. Global Sensitivity Analysis is primarily used in mathematical modelling to investigate the effect of the uncertainties of the input variables on the output. We apply it here as a novel way to rank the input features by their importance to the explainability of the data generating process, shedding light on how the response is determined by the dependence structure of its predictors. A simulation study shows that our proposal can be used to explore what advances can be achieved either in terms of efficiency, explanatory ability, or simply by way of confirming existing results.
title Enhancing Variable Importance in Random Forests: A Novel Application of Global Sensitivity Analysis
topic Machine Learning
Applications
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14194