Regression as Classification: Influence of Task Formulation on Neural Network Features - Inria - Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique Access content directly
Preprints, Working Papers, ... (Preprint) Year : 2022

Regression as Classification: Influence of Task Formulation on Neural Network Features

Lawrence Stewart
  • Function : Author
  • PersonId : 1184478
Francis Bach
Jean-Philippe Vert
  • Function : Author
  • PersonId : 1060917

Abstract

Neural networks can be trained to solve regression problems by using gradient-based methods to minimize the square loss. However, practitioners often prefer to reformulate regression as a classification problem, observing that training on the cross entropy loss results in better performance. By focusing on two-layer ReLU networks, which can be fully characterized by measures over their feature space, we explore how the implicit bias induced by gradient-based optimization could partly explain the above phenomenon. We provide theoretical evidence that the regression formulation yields a measure whose support can differ greatly from that for classification, in the case of one-dimensional data. Our proposed optimal supports correspond directly to the features learned by the input layer of the network. The different nature of these supports sheds light on possible optimization difficulties the square loss could encounter during training, and we present empirical results illustrating this phenomenon.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
main.pdf (1.27 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
refs.bib (11.93 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)

Dates and versions

hal-03846706 , version 1 (10-11-2022)
hal-03846706 , version 2 (23-02-2023)

Identifiers

Cite

Lawrence Stewart, Francis Bach, Quentin Berthet, Jean-Philippe Vert. Regression as Classification: Influence of Task Formulation on Neural Network Features. 2022. ⟨hal-03846706v1⟩
158 View
96 Download

Altmetric

Share

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More