Over-parameterized regression methods and their application to semi-supervised learning

Abstract

The minimum norm least squares is an estimation strategy under an over-parameterized case and, in machine learning, is known as a helpful tool for understanding a nature of deep learning. In this paper, to apply it in a context of non-parametric regression problems, we established several methods which are based on thresholding of SVD (singular value decomposition) components, wihch are referred to as SVD regression methods. We considered several methods that are singular value based thresholding, hard-thresholding with cross validation, universal thresholding and bridge thresholding. Information on output samples is not utilized in the first method while it is utilized in the other methods. We then applied them to semi-supervised learning, in which unlabeled input samples are incorporated into kernel functions in a regressor. The experimental results for real data showed that, depending on the datasets, the SVD regression methods is superior to a naive ridge regression method. Unfortunately, there were no clear advantage of the methods utilizing information on output samples. Furthermore, for depending on datasets, incorporation of unlabeled input samples into kernels is found to have certain advantages.