Abstract
In designing learning algorithms it seems quite reasonable to construct them in such a way that all data the algorithm already has obtained are correctly and completely reflected in the hypothesis the algorithm outputs on these data. However, this approach may totally fail. It may lead to the unsolvability of the learning problem, or it may exclude any efficient solution of it.
Therefore we study several types of consistent learning in recursion-theoretic inductive inference. We show that these types are not of universal power. We give “lower bounds” on this power. We characterize these types by some versions of decidability of consistency with respect to suitable “non-standard” spaces of hypotheses.
Then we investigate the problem of learning consistently in polynomial time. In particular, we present a natural learning problem and prove that it can be solved in polynomial time if and only if the algorithm is allowed to work inconsistently.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angluin, D. (1980), Finding patterns common to a set of strings, Journal of Computer and System Sciences21, 46–62.
Angluin, D., and Smith, C.H. (1983), Inductive inference: theory and methods, Computing Surveys15, 237–269.
Angluin, D., and Smith, C.H. (1987), Formal inductive inference, in “Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence” (St.C. Shapiro, Ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 409–418, Wiley-Interscience Publication, New York.
Barzdin, J. (1974a), Inductive inference of automata, functions and programs, in “Proceedings International Congress of Math.,” Vancouver, pp. 455–460.
Barzdin, J. (1974b), Две теоремы о предельном синтезе функций, in “Теория Алгоритмов и Программ,” (J. Barzdin, Ed.), Vol.1, pp.82–88, Latvian State University.
Blum, L., and Blum, M. (1975), Toward a mathematical theory of inductive inference, Information and Control28, 122–155.
Blum, M. (1967), Machine independent theory of complexity of recursive functions, Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery14, 322–336.
Fulk, M. (1988), Saving the phenomena: requirements that inductive inference machines not contradict known data, Information and Computation79, 193–209.
Garey, M.R., and Johnson, D.S. (1979), “Computers and Intractability. A Guide to the Theory of \(\mathcal{N}\mathcal{P}\)-completeness,” San Francisco, Freeman and Company.
Gold, M.E. (1965), Limiting recursion, Journal of Symbolic Logic30, 28–48.
Gold, M.E. (1967), Language identification in the limit, Information and Control10, 447–474.
Jantke, K.P. (1991a), Monotonic and non-monotonic inductive inference, New Generation Computing8, 349–360.
Jantke, K.P., and Beick, H.R. (1981), Combining postulates of naturalness in inductive inference, Journal of Information Processing and Cybernetics (EIK)8/9, 465–484.
Kearns, M., and Pitt, L. (1989), A polynomial-time algorithm for learning k- variable pattern languages from examples, in “Proceedings 1st Annual Workshop on Computational Learning Theory,” (D. Haussler and L. Pitt, Eds.), pp. 196–205, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Mateo.
Ko, Ker-I, Marron, A., and Tzeng, W.G. (1990), Learning string patterns and tree patterns from examples, in “Proceedings 7th Conference on Machine Learning,” (B.W. Porter, and R.J. Mooney, Eds.), pp. 384–391, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Mateo.
Kummer, M. (1992), personal communication to T. Zeugmann.
Lange, S., and Wiehagen, R. (1991), Polynomial-time inference of arbitrary pattern languages, New Generation Computing8, 361–370.
Lange, S., and Zeugmann, T. (1992), Types of monotonic language learning and their characterization, in “Proceedings 5th Annual ACM Workshop on Computational Learning Theory,” (D. Haussier, Ed.), pp. 377–390, ACM Press, New York.
Lange, S., and Zeugmann, T. (1993), Monotonic versus non-monotonic language learning, in “Proceedings 2nd International Workshop on Nonmonotonic and Inductive Logic,” (G. Brewka, K.P. Jantke and P.H. Schmitt, Eds.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence Vol. 659, pp. 254–269, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Michalski, R.S., Carbonell, J.G., and Mitchell, T.M. (1984), “Machine Learning, An Artificial Intelligence Approach,” Vol. 1, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Michalski, R.S., Carbonell, J.G., and Mitchell, T.M. (1986), “Machine Learning, An Artificial Intelligence Approach,” Vol. 2, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Mateo.
Minicozzi, E. (1976), Some natural properties of strong-identification in inductive inference, Theoretical Computer Science2, 345–360.
Nix, R.P. (1983), Editing by examples, Yale University, Dept. Computer Science, Technical Report 280.
Osherson, D., Stob, M., and Weinstein, S. (1986), “Systems that Learn, An Introduction to Learning Theory for Cognitive and Computer Scientists,” MIT-Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Porat, S., and Feldman, J.A. (1988), Learning automata from ordered examples, in “Proceedings 1st Workshop on Computational Learning Theory,” (D. Haussler and L. Pitt, Eds.), pp. 386–396, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Mateo.
Rogers, H.Jr. (1967), “Theory of Recursive Functions and Effective Computability,” McGraw-Hill, New York.
Schapire, R.E. (1990), Pattern languages are not learnable, in “Proceedings 3rd Annual Workshop on Computational Learning Theory,” (M.A. Fulk and J. Case, Eds.), pp. 122–129, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Mateo.
Shinohara, T. (1982), Polynomial time inference of extended regular pattern languages, in “Proceedings RIMS Symposia on Software Science and Engineering,” Lecture Notes in Computer Science 147, pp. 115–127, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Smullyan, R.M. (1961), Theory of formal systems, Annals of Math. Studies47.
Solomonoff, R. (1964), A formal theory of inductive inference, Information and Control7, 1–22, 234–254.
Trakhtenbrot, B.A., and Barzdin, J. (1970) “Конечные Автоматы (Поведение и Синтез),” Наука, Москва, English translation: “Finite Automata-Behavior and Synthesis, Fundamental Studies in Computer Science 1,” North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1973.
Wiehagen, R. (1976), Limes-Erkennung rekursiver Funktionen durch spezielle Strategien, Journal of Information Processing and Cybernetics (EIK)12, 93–99.
Wiehagen, R. (1978), Characterization problems in the theory of inductive inference, in “Proceedings 5th Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming,” (G. Ausiello and C. Böhm, Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 62, pp. 494–508, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Wiehagen, R. (1992), From inductive inference to algorithmic learning theory, in “Proceedings 3rd Workshop on Algorithmic Learning Theory,” (S. Doshita, K. Furukawa, K.P. Jantke and T. Nishida, Eds.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 743, pp. 3–24, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Wiehagen, R., and Liepe, W. (1976), Charakteristische Eigenschaften von erkennbaren Klassen rekursiver Funktionen, Journal of Information Processing and Cybernetics (EIK)12, 421–438.
Wiehagen, R., and Zeugmann, T. (1992), Too much information can be too much for learning efficiently, in “Proceedings 3rd International Workshop on Analogical and Inductive Inference,” (K.P. Jantke, Ed.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 642, pp. 72–86, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Wiehagen, R., and Zeugmann, T. (1994), Ignoring data may be the only way to learn efficiently, Journal of Theoretical and Experimental Artificial Intelligence6, 131–144.
Zeugmann, T. (1983), A-posteriori characterizations in inductive inference of recursive functions, Journal of Information Processing and Cybernetics (EIK)19, 559–594.
Zeugmann, T., Lange, S., and Kapur, S. (199x), Characterizations of monotonic and dual monotonic language learning, Information and Computation, to appear.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wiehagen, R., Zeugmann, T. (1995). Learning and consistency. In: Jantke, K.P., Lange, S. (eds) Algorithmic Learning for Knowledge-Based Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 961. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60217-8_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-60217-8_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60217-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44737-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive