mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Mathematical Theory of Bayesian Statistics for Unknown Information Source

arXiv 2206.05630 ↗First posted 11 Jun 2022cs.LG math.ST stat.THcited by 5

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Abstract (arXiv)

In statistical inference, uncertainty is unknown and all models are wrong. That is to say, a person who makes a statistical model and a prior distribution is simultaneously aware that both are fictional candidates. To study such cases, statistical measures have been constructed, such as cross validation, information criteria, and marginal likelihood, however, their mathematical properties have not yet been completely clarified when statistical models are under- and over- parametrized. We introduce a place of mathematical theory of Bayesian statistics for unknown uncertainty, which clarifies general properties of cross validation, information criteria, and marginal likelihood, even if an unknown data-generating process is unrealizable by a model or even if the posterior distribution cannot be approximated by any normal distribution. Hence it gives a helpful standpoint for a person who cannot believe in any specific model and prior. This paper consists of three parts. The first is a new result, whereas the second and third are well-known previous results with new experiments. We show there exists a more precise estimator of the generalization loss than leave-one-out cross validation, there exists a more accurate approximation of marginal likelihood than BIC, and the optimal hyperparameters for generalization loss and marginal likelihood are different.

Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 7 of its 47 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 11 Jun 2022.

Builds on

7 of 47 references.

References · 7

  1. 2015Practical Bayesian model evaluation using leave-one-out cross-validation and WAICcited by 110
  2. 2013Understanding predictive information criteria for Bayesian modelscited by 52
  3. 2015Pareto Smoothed Importance Samplingcited by 42
  4. 2013A Bayesian information criterion for singular modelscited by 22
  5. 2020The Exact Asymptotic Form of Bayesian Generalization Error in Latent Dirichlet Allocationcited by 14
  6. 2019Approximate leave-future-out cross-validation for Bayesian time series modelscited by 10
  7. 2022Asymptotic Behavior of Bayesian Generalization Error in Multinomial Mixturescited by 9

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Cited by year

Citing papers per year: 2022: 1; 2023: 1; 2024: 3.

5 papers.