Sequential Decisions from Sampling: Inductive Generation of Stopping Decisions Using Instance-Based Learning Theory

Sequential decisions from sampling are common in daily life: we often explore alternatives sequentially, decide when to stop such exploration process, and use the experience acquired during sampling to make a choice for what is expected to be the best option. In decisions from experience, theories of sampling and experiential choice are unable to explain the decision of when to stop the sequential exploration of alternatives. In this chapter, we propose a mechanism to inductively generate stopping decisions, and we demonstrate its plausibility in a large and diverse human data set of the binary choice sampling paradigm. Our proposed stopping mechanism relies on the choice process of a theory of experiential choice, Instance-Based Learning Theory (IBLT). The new stopping mechanism tracks the relative prediction errors of the two options during sampling, and stops when such difference is close to zero. Our results from simulation are able to accurately predict human stopping decisions distributions in the dataset. This model provides an integrated theoretical account of decisions from experience, where the stopping decisions are generated inductively from the sampling process.

Bearing Prognostics: An Instance-Based Learning Approach with Feature Engineering, Data Augmentation, and Similarity Evaluation

We propose an instance-based learning approach with data augmentation and similarity evaluation to estimate the remaining useful life (RUL) of a mechanical component for health management. The publicly available PRONOSTIA datasets, which provide accelerated degradation test data for bearings, are used in our study. The challenges with the datasets include a very limited number of run-to-failure examples, no failure mode information, and a wide range of bearing life spans. Without a large number of training samples, feature engineering is necessary. Principal component analysis is applied to the spectrogram of vibration signals to obtain prognostic feature sequences. A data augmentation strategy is developed to generate synthetic prognostic feature sequences using learning instances. Subsequently, similarities between the test and learning instances can be assessed using a root mean squared (RMS) difference measure. Finally, an ensemble method is developed to aggregate the RUL estimates based on multiple similar prognostic feature sequences. The proposed approach demonstrates comparable performance with published solutions in the literature. It serves as an alternative method for solving the RUL estimation problem.

A New Interpolation Approach and Corresponding Instance-Based Learning

Starting from finding approximate value of a function, introduces the measure of approximation-degree between two numerical values, proposes the concepts of “strict approximation” and “strict approximation region”, then, derives the corresponding one-dimensional interpolation methods and formulas, and then presents a calculation model called “sum-times-difference formula” for high-dimensional interpolation, thus develops a new interpolation approach, that is, ADB interpolation. ADB interpolation is applied to the interpolation of actual functions with satisfactory results. Viewed from principle and effect, the interpolation approach is of novel idea, and has the advantages of simple calculation, stable accuracy, facilitating parallel processing, very suiting for high-dimensional interpolation, and easy to be extended to the interpolation of vector valued functions. Applying the approach to instance-based learning, a new instance-based learning method, learning using ADB interpolation, is obtained. The learning method is of unique technique, which has also the advantages of definite mathematical basis, implicit distance weights, avoiding misclassification, high efficiency, and wide range of applications, as well as being interpretable, etc. In principle, this method is a kind of learning by analogy, which and the deep learning that belongs to inductive learning can complement each other, and for some problems, the two can even have an effect of “different approaches but equal results” in big data and cloud computing environment. Thus, the learning using ADB interpolation can also be regarded as a kind of “wide learning” that is dual to deep learning.

A New Interpolation Approach and Corresponding Instance-Based Learning

Starting from finding approximate value of a function, introduces the measure of approximation-degree between two numerical values, proposes the concepts of “strict approximation” and “strict approximation region”, then, derives the corresponding one-dimensional interpolation methods and formulas, and then presents a calculation model called “sum-times-difference formula” for high-dimensional interpolation, thus develops a new interpolation approach, that is, ADB interpolation. ADB interpolation is applied to the interpolation of actual functions with satisfactory results. Viewed from principle and effect, the interpolation approach is of novel idea, and has the advantages of simple calculation, stable accuracy, facilitating parallel processing, very suiting for high-dimensional interpolation, and easy to be extended to the interpolation of vector valued functions. Applying the approach to instance-based learning, a new instance-based learning method, learning using ADB interpolation, is obtained. The learning method is of unique technique, which has also the advantages of definite mathematical basis, implicit distance weights, avoiding misclassification, high efficiency, and wide range of applications, as well as being interpretable, etc. In principle, this method is a kind of learning by analogy, which and the deep learning that belongs to inductive learning can complement each other, and for some problems, the two can even have an effect of “different approaches but equal results” in big data and cloud computing environment. Thus, the learning using ADB interpolation can also be regarded as a kind of “wide learning” that is dual to deep learning.

Instance-Based Learning Following Physician Reasoning for Assistance during Medical Consultation

This article presents an automatic system for modeling clinical knowledge to follow a physician’s reasoning in medical consultation. Instance-based learning is applied to provide suggestions when recording electronic medical records. The system was validated on a real case study involving advanced medical students. The proposed system is accurate and efficient: 2.5× more efficient than a baseline empirical tool for suggestions and two orders of magnitude faster than a Bayesian learning method, when processing a testbed of 250 clinical case types. The research provides a framework to implement a real-time system to assist physicians during medical consultations.

Adaptive Cognitive Mechanisms to Maintain Calibrated Trust and Reliance in Automation

Trust calibration for a human–machine team is the process by which a human adjusts their expectations of the automation’s reliability and trustworthiness; adaptive support for trust calibration is needed to engender appropriate reliance on automation. Herein, we leverage an instance-based learning ACT-R cognitive model of decisions to obtain and rely on an automated assistant for visual search in a UAV interface. This cognitive model matches well with the human predictive power statistics measuring reliance decisions; we obtain from the model an internal estimate of automation reliability that mirrors human subjective ratings. The model is able to predict the effect of various potential disruptions, such as environmental changes or particular classes of adversarial intrusions on human trust in automation. Finally, we consider the use of model predictions to improve automation transparency that account for human cognitive biases in order to optimize the bidirectional interaction between human and machine through supporting trust calibration. The implications of our findings for the design of reliable and trustworthy automation are discussed.

Optimal 1-NN prototypes for pathological geometries

Using prototype methods to reduce the size of training datasets can drastically reduce the computational cost of classification with instance-based learning algorithms like the k-Nearest Neighbour classifier. The number and distribution of prototypes required for the classifier to match its original performance is intimately related to the geometry of the training data. As a result, it is often difficult to find the optimal prototypes for a given dataset, and heuristic algorithms are used instead. However, we consider a particularly challenging setting where commonly used heuristic algorithms fail to find suitable prototypes and show that the optimal number of prototypes can instead be found analytically. We also propose an algorithm for finding nearly-optimal prototypes in this setting, and use it to empirically validate the theoretical results. Finally, we show that a parametric prototype generation method that normally cannot solve this pathological setting can actually find optimal prototypes when combined with the results of our theoretical analysis.