An estimation of generalized Bradley-Terry models based on the em algorithm

Yu Fujimoto*, Hideitsu Hino, Noboru Murata

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalLetterpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Bradley-Terry model is a statistical representation for one's preference or ranking data by using pairwise comparison results of items. For estimation of the model, several methods based on the sum of weighted Kullback-Leibler divergences have been proposed from various contexts. The purpose of this letter is to interpret an estimation mechanism of the Bradley-Terry model from the viewpoint of flatness, a fundamental notion used in information geometry. Based on this point of view, a new estimation method is proposed on a framework of the em algorithm. The proposed method is different in its objective function from that of conventional methods, especially in treating unobserved comparisons, and it is consistently interpreted in a probability simplex. An estimation method with weight adaptation is also proposed from a viewpoint of the sensitivity. Experimental results show that the proposed method works appropriately, and weight adaptation improves accuracy of the estimate.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1623-1659
Number of pages37
JournalNeural Computation
Volume23
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2011 Jun

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Cognitive Neuroscience

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