Towards Bridging Generalization and Expressivity of Graph Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Li, Shouheng, Geerts, Floris, Kim, Dongwoo, Wang, Qing
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Li, Shouheng
Geerts, Floris
Kim, Dongwoo
Wang, Qing
author_facet Li, Shouheng
Geerts, Floris
Kim, Dongwoo
Wang, Qing
contents Expressivity and generalization are two critical aspects of graph neural networks (GNNs). While significant progress has been made in studying the expressivity of GNNs, much less is known about their generalization capabilities, particularly when dealing with the inherent complexity of graph-structured data. In this work, we address the intricate relationship between expressivity and generalization in GNNs. Theoretical studies conjecture a trade-off between the two: highly expressive models risk overfitting, while those focused on generalization may sacrifice expressivity. However, empirical evidence often contradicts this assumption, with expressive GNNs frequently demonstrating strong generalization. We explore this contradiction by introducing a novel framework that connects GNN generalization to the variance in graph structures they can capture. This leads us to propose a $k$-variance margin-based generalization bound that characterizes the structural properties of graph embeddings in terms of their upper-bounded expressive power. Our analysis does not rely on specific GNN architectures, making it broadly applicable across GNN models. We further uncover a trade-off between intra-class concentration and inter-class separation, both of which are crucial for effective generalization. Through case studies and experiments on real-world datasets, we demonstrate that our theoretical findings align with empirical results, offering a deeper understanding of how expressivity can enhance GNN generalization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10051
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Bridging Generalization and Expressivity of Graph Neural Networks
Li, Shouheng
Geerts, Floris
Kim, Dongwoo
Wang, Qing
Machine Learning
Expressivity and generalization are two critical aspects of graph neural networks (GNNs). While significant progress has been made in studying the expressivity of GNNs, much less is known about their generalization capabilities, particularly when dealing with the inherent complexity of graph-structured data. In this work, we address the intricate relationship between expressivity and generalization in GNNs. Theoretical studies conjecture a trade-off between the two: highly expressive models risk overfitting, while those focused on generalization may sacrifice expressivity. However, empirical evidence often contradicts this assumption, with expressive GNNs frequently demonstrating strong generalization. We explore this contradiction by introducing a novel framework that connects GNN generalization to the variance in graph structures they can capture. This leads us to propose a $k$-variance margin-based generalization bound that characterizes the structural properties of graph embeddings in terms of their upper-bounded expressive power. Our analysis does not rely on specific GNN architectures, making it broadly applicable across GNN models. We further uncover a trade-off between intra-class concentration and inter-class separation, both of which are crucial for effective generalization. Through case studies and experiments on real-world datasets, we demonstrate that our theoretical findings align with empirical results, offering a deeper understanding of how expressivity can enhance GNN generalization.
title Towards Bridging Generalization and Expressivity of Graph Neural Networks
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10051