Characterising the Inductive Biases of Neural Networks on Boolean Data

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Mingard, Chris, Seier, Lukas, Göring, Niclas, Badelita, Andrei-Vlad, London, Charles, Louis, Ard
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Mingard, Chris
Seier, Lukas
Göring, Niclas
Badelita, Andrei-Vlad
London, Charles
Louis, Ard
author_facet Mingard, Chris
Seier, Lukas
Göring, Niclas
Badelita, Andrei-Vlad
London, Charles
Louis, Ard
contents Deep neural networks are renowned for their ability to generalise well across diverse tasks, even when heavily overparameterized. Existing works offer only partial explanations (for example, the NTK-based task-model alignment explanation neglects feature learning). Here, we provide an end-to-end, analytically tractable case study that links a network's inductive prior, its training dynamics including feature learning, and its eventual generalisation. Specifically, we exploit the one-to-one correspondence between depth-2 discrete fully connected networks and disjunctive normal form (DNF) formulas by training on Boolean functions. Under a Monte Carlo learning algorithm, our model exhibits predictable training dynamics and the emergence of interpretable features. This framework allows us to trace, in detail, how inductive bias and feature formation drive generalisation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_24060
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Characterising the Inductive Biases of Neural Networks on Boolean Data
Mingard, Chris
Seier, Lukas
Göring, Niclas
Badelita, Andrei-Vlad
London, Charles
Louis, Ard
Machine Learning
Deep neural networks are renowned for their ability to generalise well across diverse tasks, even when heavily overparameterized. Existing works offer only partial explanations (for example, the NTK-based task-model alignment explanation neglects feature learning). Here, we provide an end-to-end, analytically tractable case study that links a network's inductive prior, its training dynamics including feature learning, and its eventual generalisation. Specifically, we exploit the one-to-one correspondence between depth-2 discrete fully connected networks and disjunctive normal form (DNF) formulas by training on Boolean functions. Under a Monte Carlo learning algorithm, our model exhibits predictable training dynamics and the emergence of interpretable features. This framework allows us to trace, in detail, how inductive bias and feature formation drive generalisation.
title Characterising the Inductive Biases of Neural Networks on Boolean Data
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24060