Re: BN prior prob

Rich Neapolitan (neo@megsinet.net)
Mon, 07 Jun 1999 11:41:01 -0500

I made a slight error before (I had not looked at this stuff in a while).
The variances in the prior relative frequencies seem to be all the same if
we have one equivalent sample size. The variance in an inferred relative
frequency increases with the number of instantiated variables, regardless
of whether they come from above or below. Again, the intuition is that the
proportion of the sample entering into the computation decreases as the
number of instantiated variables increases.

Rich

At 07:42 AM 6/7/99 -0500, Rich Neapolitan wrote:
>My experience is that if you use an equivalent sample size, the variance in
>the relative frequency is unchanged when you propagate down the network
>(which makes sense intuitively). However, it increases when you propagate
>up and the increase is relative to the number of paths from which
>information is coming up. For example, if we are instantiating children,
>two such children results in a bigger increase than one, three bigger than
>two, and so on. This also makes sense when you think about the proportion
>of the equivalent sample that goes into the calculation.
>
>Rich
>
>
>At 01:02 PM 6/6/99 -0600, Bob Welch wrote:
>>Dongsong :
>>
>>If you start with an imprecise or "uninformative" prior, then updating with
>>new evidence will generate a more precise or informed posterior -- how much
>>more informed depends on the likelihood's ability to discriminate.
>>
>>But Bayesian updating does not necessarily result in more precision -- the
>>prior could have been very precise and the evidence a surprise given that
>>prior -- this results in a less precise posterior.
>>
>>Eventually (as more and more "surprising" evidence is observed), the
>>posterior becomes more precise as it concludes that the original priors were
>>incorrect.
>>
>>Bob
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Dongsong Zeng <zengdong@pilot.msu.edu>
>>To: uai@CS.ORST.EDU <uai@CS.ORST.EDU>
>>Date: Friday, June 04, 1999 12:28 PM
>>Subject: BN prior prob
>>
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>if my Belief Networks starts with unprecise prior probabilities, can I get
>>>precise results? How and Why? Any advices are highly appreciated.
>>>
>>>Thank you very much.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>Dongsong Zeng
>>>
>>>Email:zengdong@pilot.msu.edu
>>
>>
>
>