A Unified Invariant Learning Framework for Graph Classification

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Sui, Yongduo, Sun, Jie, Wang, Shuyao, Liu, Zemin, Cui, Qing, Li, Longfei, Wang, Xiang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Sui, Yongduo
Sun, Jie
Wang, Shuyao
Liu, Zemin
Cui, Qing
Li, Longfei
Wang, Xiang
author_facet Sui, Yongduo
Sun, Jie
Wang, Shuyao
Liu, Zemin
Cui, Qing
Li, Longfei
Wang, Xiang
contents Invariant learning demonstrates substantial potential for enhancing the generalization of graph neural networks (GNNs) with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. It aims to recognize stable features in graph data for classification, based on the premise that these features causally determine the target label, and their influence is invariant to changes in distribution. Along this line, most studies have attempted to pinpoint these stable features by emphasizing explicit substructures in the graph, such as masked or attentive subgraphs, and primarily enforcing the invariance principle in the semantic space, i.e., graph representations. However, we argue that focusing only on the semantic space may not accurately identify these stable features. To address this, we introduce the Unified Invariant Learning (UIL) framework for graph classification. It provides a unified perspective on invariant graph learning, emphasizing both structural and semantic invariance principles to identify more robust stable features. In the graph space, UIL adheres to the structural invariance principle by reducing the distance between graphons over a set of stable features across different environments. Simultaneously, to confirm semantic invariance, UIL underscores that the acquired graph representations should demonstrate exemplary performance across diverse environments. We present both theoretical and empirical evidence to confirm our method's ability to recognize superior stable features. Moreover, through a series of comprehensive experiments complemented by in-depth analyses, we demonstrate that UIL considerably enhances OOD generalization, surpassing the performance of leading baseline methods. Our codes are available at https://github.com/yongduosui/UIL.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_12595
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Unified Invariant Learning Framework for Graph Classification
Sui, Yongduo
Sun, Jie
Wang, Shuyao
Liu, Zemin
Cui, Qing
Li, Longfei
Wang, Xiang
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Invariant learning demonstrates substantial potential for enhancing the generalization of graph neural networks (GNNs) with out-of-distribution (OOD) data. It aims to recognize stable features in graph data for classification, based on the premise that these features causally determine the target label, and their influence is invariant to changes in distribution. Along this line, most studies have attempted to pinpoint these stable features by emphasizing explicit substructures in the graph, such as masked or attentive subgraphs, and primarily enforcing the invariance principle in the semantic space, i.e., graph representations. However, we argue that focusing only on the semantic space may not accurately identify these stable features. To address this, we introduce the Unified Invariant Learning (UIL) framework for graph classification. It provides a unified perspective on invariant graph learning, emphasizing both structural and semantic invariance principles to identify more robust stable features. In the graph space, UIL adheres to the structural invariance principle by reducing the distance between graphons over a set of stable features across different environments. Simultaneously, to confirm semantic invariance, UIL underscores that the acquired graph representations should demonstrate exemplary performance across diverse environments. We present both theoretical and empirical evidence to confirm our method's ability to recognize superior stable features. Moreover, through a series of comprehensive experiments complemented by in-depth analyses, we demonstrate that UIL considerably enhances OOD generalization, surpassing the performance of leading baseline methods. Our codes are available at https://github.com/yongduosui/UIL.
title A Unified Invariant Learning Framework for Graph Classification
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.12595