Structure Learning Methods

Importance of Accurate Structure

assume the true distribution 𝐏 has the following structure

now let’s see what happens when we learn from an INACCURATE structure

inaccurate structure with missing edge

  • incorrect independencies
  • cannot learn true distribution 𝐏
  • but could generalize better

inaccurate structure with spurious edge

  • spurious dependencies
  • can learn true distribution 𝐏
  • increased number of parameters to learn
  • worse generalization