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Regularization in Machine Learning

Regularization is a technique in machine learning that helps prevent overfitting by adding a penalty for model complexity, thus improving model accuracy on new data. Common regularization techniques include Lasso (L1), Ridge (L2), and Elastic Net (combination of L1 and L2). The benefits of regularization include preventing overfitting, improving interpretability, enhancing performance, and stabilizing models.

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Sunil Mehta
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2 views5 pages

Regularization in Machine Learning

Regularization is a technique in machine learning that helps prevent overfitting by adding a penalty for model complexity, thus improving model accuracy on new data. Common regularization techniques include Lasso (L1), Ridge (L2), and Elastic Net (combination of L1 and L2). The benefits of regularization include preventing overfitting, improving interpretability, enhancing performance, and stabilizing models.

Uploaded by

Sunil Mehta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Regularization in Machine Learning

Regularization, helps prevent overfitting and makes our models work


better with new data. While developing machine learning models we
may encounter a situation where model is overfitted. To avoid such
issues we use regularization techniques to improve model accuracy
and in this article we will learn more about them.
What is Regularization?
Regularization is a technique used in machine learning to
prevent overfitting. Overfitting happens when a model learns the
training data too well, including the noise and outliers, which causes
it to perform poorly on new data. In simple terms, regularization
adds a penalty to the model for being too complex, encouraging it to
stay simpler and more general. This way, it’s less likely to make
extreme predictions based on the noise in the data.
The commonly used regularization techniques are :
1. Lasso Regularization – (L1 Regularization)
2. Ridge Regularization – (L2 Regularization)
3. Elastic Net Regularization – (L1 and L2 Regularization
combined)
Types of Regularization
1. Lasso Regression
A regression model which uses the L1
Regularization technique is called LASSO (Least
Absolute Shrinkage and Selection
Operator) regression. Lasso Regression adds
the “absolute value of magnitude” of the coefficient as a
penalty term to the loss function(L). Lasso regression also
helps us achieve feature selection by penalizing the weights
to approximately equal to zero if that feature does not
serve any purpose in the model.
2. Ridge Regression
A regression model that uses the L2 regularization technique is
called Ridge regression. Ridge regression adds the “squared
magnitude” of the coefficient as a penalty term to the loss
function(L).

3. Elastic Net Regression


Elastic Net Regression is a combination of both L1 as well as L2
regularization. That implies that we add the absolute norm of the
weights as well as the squared measure of the weights. With the help
of an extra hyperparameter that controls the ratio of the L1 and L2
regularization.

What are Overfitting and Underfitting?


Overfitting and underfitting are terms used to describe the
performance of machine learning models in relation to their ability to
generalize from the training data to unseen data.

Overfitting is a phenomenon that occurs when a machine learning


model is constrained to training set and not able to perform well on
unseen data. That is when our model learns the noise in the training
data as well. Here, our model memorizes the training data instead of
learning the patterns in it.
Imagine you study only last week’s weather to predict tomorrow’s.
Your model might predict tomorrow’s weather based on irrelevant
details, like a one-time rainstorm, which won’t help for future
predictions.
Underfitting on the other hand is the case when our model is not
able to learn even the basic patterns available in the dataset. In the
case of underfitting model is unable to perform well even on the
training data hence we cannot expect it to perform well on the
validation data. This is the case when we are supposed to increase
the complexity of the model or add more features to the feature set.
Now, if you only use the average temperature of the year to predict
tomorrow’s weather, your model is too simple and misses important
patterns, like seasonal changes, leading to poor predictions.
What are Bias and Variance?
 Bias refers to the errors which occur when we try to fit a
statistical model on real-world data which does not fit perfectly
well on some mathematical model. If we use a way too
simplistic a model to fit the data then we are more probably
face the situation of High Bias (underfitting) refers to the case
when the model is unable to learn the patterns in the data at
hand and perform poorly.
 Variance implies the error value that occurs when we try to
make predictions by using data that is not previously seen by
the model. There is a situation known as high
variance (overfitting) that occurs when the model learns noise
that is present in the data.
Finding a proper balance between the two is also known as the Bias-
Variance Tradeoff which helps us to design an accurate model.
Benefits of Regularization
Till now, we have understood about the Overfitting and Underfitting
technique but lets have an understanding of the benefits of
regularization.
 Prevents Overfitting: Regularization helps models focus on
underlying patterns instead of memorizing noise in the training
data.
 Improves Interpretability: L1 (Lasso) regularization simplifies
models by reducing less important feature coefficients to zero.
 Enhances Performance: Prevents excessive weighting of
outliers or irrelevant features, improving overall model
accuracy.
 Stabilizes Models: Reduces sensitivity to minor data changes,
ensuring consistency across different data subsets.
 Prevents Complexity: Keeps models from becoming too
complex, which is crucial for limited or noisy data.
 Handles Multicollinearity: Reduces the magnitudes of
correlated coefficients, improving model stability.
 Allows Fine-Tuning: Hyperparameters like alpha and lambda
control regularization strength, balancing bias and variance.
 Promotes Consistency: Ensures reliable performance
across different datasets, reducing the risk of large
performance shifts.

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