Related papers: Updating Probabilities
We generalize the usual exponential Boltzmann factor to any reasonable and potentially observable distribution function, $B(E)$. By defining generalized logarithms $\Lambda$ as inverses of these distribution functions, we are led to a…
The purpose of this note is to show how the method of maximum entropy in the mean (MEM) may be used to improve parametric estimation when the measurements are corrupted by large level of noise. The method is developed in the context on a…
The principle of maximum entropy is a broadly applicable technique for computing a distribution with the least amount of information possible constrained to match empirical data, for instance, feature expectations. We seek to generalize…
Formalising the confrontation of opinions (models) to observations (data) is the task of Inferential Statistics. Information Theory provides us with a basic functional, the relative entropy (or Kullback-Leibler divergence), an asymmetrical…
Product probability property, known in the literature as statistical independence, is examined first. Then generalized entropies are introduced, all of which give generalizations to Shannon entropy. It is shown that the nature of the…
The objective of Bayesian inference is often to infer, from data, a probability measure for a random variable that can be used as input for Monte Carlo simulation. When datasets for Bayesian inference are small, a principle challenge is…
Despite the popular of multimodal statistical models, there lacks rigorous statistical inference tools for inferring the significance of a single modality within a multimodal model, especially in high-dimensional models. For…
In this article we provide initial findings regarding the problem of solving likelihood equations by means of a maximum entropy approach. Unlike standard procedures that require equating at zero the score function of the maximum-likelihood…
The clique tree algorithm is the standard method for doing inference in Bayesian networks. It works by manipulating clique potentials - distributions over the variables in a clique. While this approach works well for many networks, it is…
There is a large body of evidence that decision makers frequently depart from Bayesian updating. This paper introduces a model, robust maximum likelihood (RML) updating, where deviations from Bayesian updating are due to multiple…
A number of algorithms have been developed to solve probabilistic inference problems on belief networks. These algorithms can be divided into two main groups: exact techniques which exploit the conditional independence revealed when the…
Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) can be viewed as an analytic approximation of an intractable likelihood coupled with an elementary simulation step. Such a view, combined with a suitable instrumental prior distribution permits…
I propose a normative updating rule, extended Bayesianism, for the incorporation of probabilistic information arising from the process of becoming more aware. Extended Bayesianism generalizes standard Bayesian updating to allow the…
Entropy and relative or cross entropy measures are two very fundamental concepts in information theory and are also widely used for statistical inference across disciplines. The related optimization problems, in particular the maximization…
Maximum entropy method is a constructive criterion for setting up a probability distribution maximally non-committal to missing information on the basis of partial knowledge, usually stated as constrains on expectation values of some…
This article expands the framework of Bayesian inference and provides direct probabilistic methods for approaching inference tasks that are typically handled with information theory. We treat Bayesian probability updating as a random…
We give some results relating asymptotic characterisations of maximum entropy probability measures to characterisations of Bayes optimal classifiers. Our main theorems show that maximum entropy is a universally Bayes optimal decision rule…
Approximations of loopy belief propagation, including expectation propagation and approximate message passing, have attracted considerable attention for probabilistic inference problems. This paper proposes and analyzes a generalization of…
This paper compares the Maximum-likelihood method and Bayesian method for finite element model updating. The Maximum-likelihood method was implemented using genetic algorithm while the Bayesian method was implemented using the Markov Chain…
We propose a method for transforming probability distributions so that parameters of interest are forced into a specified distribution. We prove that this approach is the maximum entropy choice, and provide a motivating example applicable…