EqualizeIR: Mitigating Linguistic Biases in Retrieval Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cheng, Jiali, Amiri, Hadi
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Cheng, Jiali
Amiri, Hadi
author_facet Cheng, Jiali
Amiri, Hadi
contents This study finds that existing information retrieval (IR) models show significant biases based on the linguistic complexity of input queries, performing well on linguistically simpler (or more complex) queries while underperforming on linguistically more complex (or simpler) queries. To address this issue, we propose EqualizeIR, a framework to mitigate linguistic biases in IR models. EqualizeIR uses a linguistically biased weak learner to capture linguistic biases in IR datasets and then trains a robust model by regularizing and refining its predictions using the biased weak learner. This approach effectively prevents the robust model from overfitting to specific linguistic patterns in data. We propose four approaches for developing linguistically-biased models. Extensive experiments on several datasets show that our method reduces performance disparities across linguistically simple and complex queries, while improving overall retrieval performance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_07115
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle EqualizeIR: Mitigating Linguistic Biases in Retrieval Models
Cheng, Jiali
Amiri, Hadi
Computation and Language
Machine Learning
This study finds that existing information retrieval (IR) models show significant biases based on the linguistic complexity of input queries, performing well on linguistically simpler (or more complex) queries while underperforming on linguistically more complex (or simpler) queries. To address this issue, we propose EqualizeIR, a framework to mitigate linguistic biases in IR models. EqualizeIR uses a linguistically biased weak learner to capture linguistic biases in IR datasets and then trains a robust model by regularizing and refining its predictions using the biased weak learner. This approach effectively prevents the robust model from overfitting to specific linguistic patterns in data. We propose four approaches for developing linguistically-biased models. Extensive experiments on several datasets show that our method reduces performance disparities across linguistically simple and complex queries, while improving overall retrieval performance.
title EqualizeIR: Mitigating Linguistic Biases in Retrieval Models
topic Computation and Language
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.07115