ConformaDecompose: Explaining Uncertainty via Calibration Localization

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Yapicioglu, Fatima Rabia, Aksoy, Meltem, Rigenti, Alberto, Löfström-Cavallin, Tuwe, Löfström-Cavallin, Helena, Yoncaci, Seyda, Longo, Luca
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866913073415061504
author Yapicioglu, Fatima Rabia
Aksoy, Meltem
Rigenti, Alberto
Löfström-Cavallin, Tuwe
Löfström-Cavallin, Helena
Yoncaci, Seyda
Longo, Luca
author_facet Yapicioglu, Fatima Rabia
Aksoy, Meltem
Rigenti, Alberto
Löfström-Cavallin, Tuwe
Löfström-Cavallin, Helena
Yoncaci, Seyda
Longo, Luca
contents Conformal Prediction provides distribution-free prediction intervals with guaranteed coverage, but its reliance on a single global calibration threshold obscures the sources of uncertainty at the instance level. In particular, it conflates irreducible noise with uncertainty induced by heterogeneous training data (aleatoric), model limitations, or calibration mismatch (epistemic), offering little insight into why an interval is wide or whether it could be reduced. We introduce an uncertainty-aware explainability framework that analyses the reducibility of calibration-induced epistemic conformal uncertainty via progressive calibration localisation for regression tasks. The approach is diagnostic rather than causal: it does not estimate true aleatoric or epistemic uncertainty, but explains how conformal intervals contract and stabilise as calibration support is localised around a test instance. Across benchmarks and real-world data, absolute reducible uncertainty aligns with epistemic proxies, while its relative contribution varies by task, revealing regimes hidden by interval width. This instance-level view complements conformal uncertainty, enhancing interpretability without altering the predictor or coverage.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_27149
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ConformaDecompose: Explaining Uncertainty via Calibration Localization
Yapicioglu, Fatima Rabia
Aksoy, Meltem
Rigenti, Alberto
Löfström-Cavallin, Tuwe
Löfström-Cavallin, Helena
Yoncaci, Seyda
Longo, Luca
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
Conformal Prediction provides distribution-free prediction intervals with guaranteed coverage, but its reliance on a single global calibration threshold obscures the sources of uncertainty at the instance level. In particular, it conflates irreducible noise with uncertainty induced by heterogeneous training data (aleatoric), model limitations, or calibration mismatch (epistemic), offering little insight into why an interval is wide or whether it could be reduced. We introduce an uncertainty-aware explainability framework that analyses the reducibility of calibration-induced epistemic conformal uncertainty via progressive calibration localisation for regression tasks. The approach is diagnostic rather than causal: it does not estimate true aleatoric or epistemic uncertainty, but explains how conformal intervals contract and stabilise as calibration support is localised around a test instance. Across benchmarks and real-world data, absolute reducible uncertainty aligns with epistemic proxies, while its relative contribution varies by task, revealing regimes hidden by interval width. This instance-level view complements conformal uncertainty, enhancing interpretability without altering the predictor or coverage.
title ConformaDecompose: Explaining Uncertainty via Calibration Localization
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.27149