Abstract

Conditional independence (CI) tests play a central role in statistical inference, machine learning, and causal discovery. Most existing CI tests assume that the samples are independently and identically distributed (i.i.d.). However, this assumption often does not hold in the case of relational data. We define Relational Conditional Independence (RCI), a generalization of CI to the relational setting. We show how, under a set of structural assumptions, we can test for RCI by reducing the task of testing for RCI on non-i.i.d. data to the problem of testing for CI on several data sets each of which consists of i.i.d. samples. We develop Kernel Relational CI test (KRCIT), a nonparametric test as a practical approach to testing for RCI by relaxing the structural assumptions used in our analysis of RCI. We describe results of experiments with synthetic relational data that show the benefits of KRCIT relative to traditional CI tests that don't account for the non-i.i.d. nature of relational data.

Original languageEnglish (US)
StatePublished - 2017
Event33rd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, UAI 2017 - Sydney, Australia
Duration: Aug 11 2017Aug 15 2017

Other

Other33rd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, UAI 2017
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CitySydney
Period8/11/178/15/17

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Artificial Intelligence

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A kernel conditional independence test for relational data'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this