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Main Authors: Huang, Martin, Muller, Samuel, Tarr, Garth
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22012
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author Huang, Martin
Muller, Samuel
Tarr, Garth
author_facet Huang, Martin
Muller, Samuel
Tarr, Garth
contents Stability selection has gained popularity as a method for enhancing the performance of variable selection algorithms while controlling false discovery rates. However, achieving these desirable properties depends on correctly specifying the stable threshold parameter, which can be challenging. An arbitrary choice of this parameter can substantially alter the set of selected variables, as the variables' selection probabilities are inherently data-dependent. To address this issue, we propose Exclusion Automatic Threshold Selection (EATS), a data-adaptive algorithm that streamlines stability selection by automating the threshold specification process. EATS initially filters out potential noise variables using an exclusion probability threshold, derived from applying stability selection to a randomly shuffled version of the dataset. Following this, EATS selects the stable threshold parameter using the elbow method, balancing the marginal utility of including additional variables against the risk of selecting superfluous variables. We evaluate our approach through an extensive simulation study, benchmarking across commonly used variable selection algorithms and static stable threshold values.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_22012
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Data-Adaptive Automatic Threshold Calibration for Stability Selection
Huang, Martin
Muller, Samuel
Tarr, Garth
Methodology
Stability selection has gained popularity as a method for enhancing the performance of variable selection algorithms while controlling false discovery rates. However, achieving these desirable properties depends on correctly specifying the stable threshold parameter, which can be challenging. An arbitrary choice of this parameter can substantially alter the set of selected variables, as the variables' selection probabilities are inherently data-dependent. To address this issue, we propose Exclusion Automatic Threshold Selection (EATS), a data-adaptive algorithm that streamlines stability selection by automating the threshold specification process. EATS initially filters out potential noise variables using an exclusion probability threshold, derived from applying stability selection to a randomly shuffled version of the dataset. Following this, EATS selects the stable threshold parameter using the elbow method, balancing the marginal utility of including additional variables against the risk of selecting superfluous variables. We evaluate our approach through an extensive simulation study, benchmarking across commonly used variable selection algorithms and static stable threshold values.
title Data-Adaptive Automatic Threshold Calibration for Stability Selection
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.22012