NeuroCOLT

Neural Networks and Computational Learning Theory

 

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NeuroCOLT Technical Report NC-TR-94-011

Valid Generalisation from Approximate Interpolation

Martin Anthony
Department of Mathematics
The London School of Economics

Peter Bartlett
Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering
Australian National University

Yuval Ishai
Department of Computer Science
Technion

John Shawe-Taylor
Department of Computer Science
Royal Holloway, University of London

Abstract
Let $\H$ and $\C$ be sets of functions from domain $X$ to the reals. We say that $\H$ validly generalises $\C$ from approximate interpolation if and only if for each $\eta>0$ and $\epsilon, \delta \in (0,1)$ there is a number $m_0(\eta,\epsilon, \delta)$ such that for any function $t \in \C$ and any probability distribution $P$ on $X$, if $m \ge m_0$ then with $P^m$-probability at least $1-\delta$, a sample $\vx =(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_m) \in X^m$ satisfies $$\forall h \in \H, \,|h(x_i) - t(x_i)|< \eta, \,(1 \le i \le m) \Longrightarrow P(\{x: |h(x) -t(x)| \ge \eta\}) < \epsilon.$$ We find conditions that are necessary and sufficient for $\H$ to validly generalise $\C$ from approximate interpolation, and we obtain bounds on the sample length $m_0(\eta, \epsilon, \delta)$ in terms of various parameters describing the expressive power of $\H$.

 

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