Skip to main content

Proof Length as an Uncertainty Factor in ILP

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Soft-Ware 2002: Computing in an Imperfect World (Soft-Ware 2002)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2311))

  • 309 Accesses

Abstract

A popular idea is that the longer the proof the riskier the truth prediction. In other words, the uncertainty degree over a conclusion is an increasing function of the length of its proof. In this paper, we analyze this idea in the context of Inductive Logic Programming. Some simple probabilistic arguments lead to the conclusion that we need to reduce the length of the clause bodies to reduce uncertainty degree (or to increase accuracy). Inspired by the boosting technique, we propose a way to implement the proof reduction by introducing weights in a well-known ILP system. Our preliminary experiments confirm our predictions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. F. Bacchus, A.J. Grove, J.Y. Halpern, and D. Koller. From statistical knowledge bases to degree of belief. In Artificial Intelligence, (87), pp 75–143, 1997

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. C.I. Blake, C.J. Merz. UCI repository of machine learning databases, 1998. http://www.ics.uci.edu/ mlearn/MLRepository.html .

  3. Y. Freund, R.E. Shapire. Experiments with a new boosting algorithm. In Machine Learning: proceeding of the 13th Int. Conf., pp148–156, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  4. Y. Freund, R.E. Shapire. A decision-theoretic generalization of on-line learning and an application to boosting. In Journal of Computer and System Sciences, vol.55(1) pp119–139, 1997

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. J.Y. Halpern. An analysis of first-order logics of probability. In Artificial Intelligence, (46), pp 311–350, 1990

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. S. Hoche, S. Wrobel. Using constrained confidence-rated boosting. In 11th Int. Conf., ILP, Strasbourg, France, pp51–64, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  7. J.W. Lloyd. Foundations of Logic Programming. Symboloc Computation series. Springer Verlag, 1997 (revised version).

    Google Scholar 

  8. S. Muggleton. Inverse entailment and Progol. New Gen. Comput., 12 pp 245–286, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  9. J.R. Quinlan. Boosting First-Order Learning. In Proc. 7th Int. Workshop on Algorithmic Learning Theory ALT’96. Springer Verlag, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  10. R.E. Shapire, Y. Singer. Improving boosting algorithms using confidence-rated predictions. In Proc. 11th Ann. Conf. Computation Learning Theory, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Richard, G., Kettaf, F.Z. (2002). Proof Length as an Uncertainty Factor in ILP. In: Bustard, D., Liu, W., Sterritt, R. (eds) Soft-Ware 2002: Computing in an Imperfect World. Soft-Ware 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2311. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46019-5_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-46019-5_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43481-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46019-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics