NeuroCOLT

Neural Networks and Computational Learning Theory

 

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NeuroCOLT Technical Report NC-TR-95-033

Constructing Computationally Efficient Bayesian Models via Unsupervised  Clustering

Petri Myllymäki and Henry Tirri
University of Helsinki
Finland

Abstract
Given a set of samples of an unknown probability distribution, we study the problem of constructing a good approximative Bayesian network model of the probability distribution in question. This task can be viewed as a search problem, where the goal is to find a maximal probability network model, given the data. In this work, we do not make an attempt to learn arbitrarily complex multi-connected Bayesian network structures, since such resulting models can be unsuitable for practical purposes due to the exponential amount of time required for the reasoning task. Instead, we restrict ourselves to a special class of simple tree-structured Bayesian networks called Bayesian prototype trees, for which a polynomial time algorithm for Bayesian reasoning exists. We show how the probability of a given Bayesian prototype tree model can be evaluated, given the data, and how this evaluation criterion can be used in a stochastic simulated annealing algorithm for searching the model space. The simulated annealing algorithm provably finds the maximal probability model, provided that a sufficient amount of time is used.

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