Neural Networks Learn Distance Metrics

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Oursland, Alan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Oursland, Alan
author_facet Oursland, Alan
contents Neural networks may naturally favor distance-based representations, where smaller activations indicate closer proximity to learned prototypes. This contrasts with intensity-based approaches, which rely on activation magnitudes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted experiments with six MNIST architectural variants constrained to learn either distance or intensity representations. Our results reveal that the underlying representation affects model performance. We develop a novel geometric framework that explains these findings and introduce OffsetL2, a new architecture based on Mahalanobis distance equations, to further validate this framework. This work highlights the importance of considering distance-based learning in neural network design.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_02103
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Neural Networks Learn Distance Metrics
Oursland, Alan
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
68T07 (Primary) 62H12 (Secondary)
I.5.1; G.3
Neural networks may naturally favor distance-based representations, where smaller activations indicate closer proximity to learned prototypes. This contrasts with intensity-based approaches, which rely on activation magnitudes. To test this hypothesis, we conducted experiments with six MNIST architectural variants constrained to learn either distance or intensity representations. Our results reveal that the underlying representation affects model performance. We develop a novel geometric framework that explains these findings and introduce OffsetL2, a new architecture based on Mahalanobis distance equations, to further validate this framework. This work highlights the importance of considering distance-based learning in neural network design.
title Neural Networks Learn Distance Metrics
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
68T07 (Primary) 62H12 (Secondary)
I.5.1; G.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.02103