Generalization

[prechelt@ira.uka.de]

> ... I'd appreciate it if you
> could mail it to me; also, I'd appreciate anyone's opinion on 
> "what is generalization" in 250 words or less :-)


Let's do it much shorter (less than 50 words):

  Generalization is the application of knowledge
  about a set C of cases from a certain domain
  to a not-before-seen case X 
  from the same domain
  but not belonging to C
  allowing to handle that case correctly.


Notes:
------

1. This can be made a concrete definition if you say what the terms
     knowledge
     case
     domain
     handle
     correctly
   shall mean.

2. This definition is NOT Neural Network specific.
   It can become Neural Network specific, depending on how the
   above terms are being defined.

3. Strictly speaking this defines a process, not a property of a 
   mapping or something like that.

4. This defines something that Neuralnetters sometimes call
   'successful generalization' as opposed to what happens 
   in the system when it tries to generalize, but as a result
   the wrong result results.  :->

5. If you can decide what 'correct' is and what not, you can
   compute the can-generalize-to(X) predicate.
   This enables to quantify generalization capabilities.

Comments and flames welcome.

  Lutz

Lutz Prechelt   (email: prechelt at ira.uka.de)            | Whenever you 
Institut fuer Programmstrukturen und Datenorganisation  | complicate things,
Universitaet Karlsruhe;  D-7500 Karlsruhe 1;  Germany   | they get
(Voice: ++49/721/608-4317, FAX: ++49/721/697760)        | less simple.