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Adaptivity is an important feature of data analysis---the choice of questions to ask about a dataset often depends on previous interactions with the same dataset. However, statistical validity is typically studied in a nonadaptive model,…
The present paper gives a statistical adventure towards exploring the average case complexity behavior of computer algorithms. Rather than following the traditional count based analytical (pen and paper) approach, we instead talk in terms…
An approach to testing theories describing a multiverse, that has gained interest of late, involves comparing theory-generated probability distributions over observables with their experimentally measured values. It is likely that such…
The arithmetic mean plays a central role in science and technology, being directly related to the concepts of statistical expectance and centrality. Yet, it is highly susceptible to the presence of outliers or biased interference in the…
We propose a new family of fairness definitions for classification problems that combine some of the best properties of both statistical and individual notions of fairness. We posit not only a distribution over individuals, but also a…
Every experiment or observational study is made in a context. This context is being explicitly considered in this book. To do so, a conceptual variable is defined as any variable which can be defined by (a group of) researchers in a given…
In this paper, we propose standard statistical tools as a solution to commonly highlighted problems in the explainability literature. Indeed, leveraging statistical estimators allows for a proper definition of explanations, enabling…
Information theory is a mathematical theory of learning with deep connections with topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, statistical physics, and biological evolution. Many primers on information theory paint a broad picture with…
Statistical science (as opposed to mathematical statistics) involves far more than probability theory, for it requires realistic causal models of data generators - even for purely descriptive goals. Statistical decision theory requires more…
A fundamental problem in the practice and teaching of data science is how to evaluate the quality of a given data analysis, which is different than the evaluation of the science or question underlying the data analysis. Previously, we…
We introduce a framework uniting algorithmic randomness with exchangeable credences to address foundational questions in philosophy of probability and philosophy of science. To demonstrate its power, we show how one might use the framework…
Experimental studies are a cornerstone of Machine Learning (ML) research. A common and often implicit assumption is that the study's results will generalize beyond the study itself, e.g., to new data. That is, repeating the same study under…
Randomness in scientific estimation is generally assumed to arise from unmeasured or uncontrolled factors. However, when combining subjective probability estimates, heterogeneity stemming from people's cognitive or information diversity is…
We study the stability of posterior predictive inferences to the specification of the likelihood model and perturbations of the data generating process. In modern big data analyses, useful broad structural judgements may be elicited from…
Regularization is a popular technique to solve the overfitting problem of machine learning algorithms. Most regularization technique relies on parameter selection of the regularization coefficient. Plug-in method and cross-validation…
Statistical hypothesis testing, as formalized by 20th Century statisticians and taught in college statistics courses, has been a cornerstone of 100 years of scientific progress. Nevertheless, the methodology is increasingly questioned in…
Over the past decades, researchers and ML practitioners have come up with better and better ways to build, understand and improve the quality of ML models, but mostly under the key assumption that the training data is distributed…
Judging the significance and reproducibility of quantitative research requires a good understanding of relevant uncertainties, but it is often unclear how well these have been evaluated and what they imply. Reported scientific uncertainties…
Algorithms often have tunable parameters that impact performance metrics such as runtime and solution quality. For many algorithms used in practice, no parameter settings admit meaningful worst-case bounds, so the parameters are made…
The goal of regression and classification methods in supervised learning is to minimize the empirical risk, that is, the expectation of some loss function quantifying the prediction error under the empirical distribution. When facing scarce…