Statistical learning on biological data can be challenging due to confounding variables in sample collection and processing. Confounders can cause models to generalize poorly and result in inaccurate prediction performance metrics if models are not validated thoroughly. In this paper, we propose methods to control for …
Proposes tests to control confounding bias in predictive models.
problem Lack of non-parametric tests for confounding bias in predictive modeling.
method Partial and full confounder tests for probing null hypotheses of unconfounded and fully confounded models.
result Reveals previously unreported or hard-to-correct confounders in machine learning models.
Paper proposes RCD method to discover causal structure with latent confounders.
problem Causal discovery from data with latent confounders.
method Repetitive causal discovery (RCD) method to infer causal directions between observed variables.
result RCD effectively identifies latent confounders and causal directions between observed variables.
The paper proposes a method to precisely decompose confounders and estimate treatment effects.
problem Estimating treatment effects from observational data with confounder identification and balancing.
method Learning decomposed representations to identify and balance confounders and non-confounders.
result The method achieves more precise treatment effect estimation than existing methods.
Proposes BDCM to handle unmeasured confounders in causal inference.
problem Handling unmeasured confounders in causal inference.
method Backdoor criterion to find variables for diffusion model.
result Captures counterfactual distribution more precisely.
New approach for causal inference with interdependent, time-varying latent confounders.
problem Estimating causal effects with interdependent, time-varying latent confounders.
method Variational estimation with a representer theorem and random input space.
result Demonstrates effectiveness on various temporal datasets.
Spectral deconfounding improves machine learning models by reducing hidden confounding effects.
problem Machine learning models can be misled by hidden confounders, leading to unreliable predictions.
method Develops a nonlinear spectral deconfounding framework for gradient boosting that modifies boosting dynamics to slow down in confounding-aligned directions.
result Spectrally deconfounded boosting improves estimation of the target function under hidden confounding and is more scalable.
New method estimates policy performance under unobserved confounding.
problem Estimating policy performance when decisions depend on unobserved variables.
method Developed worst-case bounds for robust OPE under unobserved confounding.
result Efficient procedure for computing worst-case bounds, proving statistical consistency.
We propose a method for inferring the existence of a latent common cause ('confounder') of two observed random variables. The method assumes that the two effects of the confounder are (possibly nonlinear) functions of the confounder plus independent, additive noise. We discuss under which conditions the model is identi…
Valid causal inference with unobserved confounding in high-dimensional settings.
problem Estimating causal effects with unobserved confounders in high-dimensional data.
method Proposes methods to estimate causal effects with valid confidence intervals in the presence of unobserved confounders and high-dimensional nuisance models.
result Valid semiparametric inference can be obtained with unobserved confounding, and uncertainty intervals are proposed.
Paper compares two methods for inferring network structures in presence of latent confounders.
problem Inferring network structures in presence of latent confounders.
method Gaussian graphical models with latent variables (LVGGM) and PCA-based removal of confounding (PCA+GGM).
result Proposes a new method combining strengths of LVGGM and PCA+GGM, proving consistency and convergence rate.
KRCD detects unobserved confounders in nonlinear observational data.
problem Detecting unobserved confounders in nonlinear observational studies.
method Kernel Regression Confounder Detection (KRCD) using reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces.
result KRCD outperforms existing methods and achieves superior computational efficiency.
Machine learning confound removal biases results, leading to misleading predictions.
problem Common confound removal methods in machine learning lead to misleading predictions.
method Featurewise removal of confound variance by linear regression before applying ML.
result This common deconfounding approach can leak information, amplifying null or moderate effects.
New bounds assess policy evaluation under unobserved confounders, showing model-based methods are more effective.
problem Policy evaluation under unobserved confounders in uncertain causal environments.
method Developed worst-case bounds for sensitivity to unobserved confounders, demonstrating model-based methods are more effective.
result Model-based approaches with robust MDPs provide sharper lower bounds for policy evaluation.
Paper uses Gaussian processes to handle shared latent confounders in causal inference.
problem Bias in causal effect estimates due to shared latent confounders.
method Hierarchical Bayesian model, Gaussian processes with structured latent confounders (GP-SLC), Monte Carlo inference algorithm.
result GP-SLC provides accurate estimates of individual treatment effects with minimal assumptions.
CARE improves LLM aggregation by accounting for shared confounders.
problem LLM judges' correlated errors due to shared latent confounders.
method CARE explicitly models judges' scores as true quality and confounders.
result CARE reduces aggregation error by up to 26.8% across various benchmarks.
In this paper, we study the confounder detection problem in the linear model, where the target variable Y is predicted using its n potential causes Xn=(x1,...,xn)T. Based on an assumption of rotation invariant generating process of the model, recent study shows that the spectral measure induced by the regress…
DECAT framework evaluates multimodal models for shared biology, detecting confounders and false positives.
problem Determining if multimodal models learn shared biology or just confounders.
method DECAT framework classifies multimodal representations into four diagnostic scenarios using null-referenced metrics.
result DECAT detects confounders and false positives in multimodal models, improving with larger cohorts and stronger representations.
Paper tackles unobserved confounding in human-AI collaborations.
problem Unobserved confounding undermines human-AI collaboration effectiveness.
method Combines sensitivity analysis from causal inference with AI-driven statistical modeling.
result Enhances robustness and reliability of collaborative outcomes.
Estimating the individual treatment effect (ITE) from observational data is essential in medicine. A central challenge in estimating the ITE is handling confounders, which are factors that affect both an intervention and its outcome. Most previous work relies on the unconfoundedness assumption, which posits that all th…
Causality-aware methods outperform linear residualization in confounding adjustment for anticausal prediction.
problem Adjusting for confounding in anticausal prediction tasks.
method Causality-aware counterfactual confounding adjustment.
result Causality-aware methods asymptotically outperform linear residualization in predictive performance.
Simulation study evaluates causal ML models under confounding violations.
problem Assessing conditional exchangeability in causal machine learning models.
method Simulation study with varying confounding, sample size, and NCO structures.
result Causal ML models fail to recover true treatment effect heterogeneity under violations of conditional exchangeability.
This paper corrects climate model biases using a factor model approach.
problem Systematic biases in GCM outputs due to unobserved confounders.
method Factor model approach to learn latent confounders from historical data and apply them to enhance bias correction.
result Significant improvements in the accuracy of precipitation outputs.
Estimates CATE under hidden confounding, accounting for bias and ignorance.
problem Learning CATE from high-dimensional data with unobserved confounders introduces bias and ignorance.
method Parametric interval estimator that accounts for hidden confounding and underrepresented samples.
result Estimator converges to tight bounds on CATE when there may be unobserved confounding.
Proposes DSW for unbiased ITE estimation with dynamic confounders.
problem Estimating ITE from dynamic observational data with time-varying confounders.
method Deep Sequential Weighting (DSW) infers hidden confounders using current treatment assignments and historical information.
result DSW generates unbiased and accurate treatment effects.
Unified framework for large-scale hypothesis testing with confounders.
problem Bias in large-scale hypothesis testing due to unmeasured confounders.
method Unified statistical estimation and inference framework that disentangles confounding effects and jointly estimates latent and primary effects.
result Effective Type-I error control and power in hypothesis testing.
Develops a method to estimate policy values robustly in the presence of confounding variables.
problem Infinite-horizon reinforcement learning with unobserved confounding variables makes policy evaluation unidentifiable.
method Robust approach estimating sharp bounds on policy value using optimization over state-occupancy ratios and sensitivity model.
result Proves convergence to sharp bounds as more confounded data is collected.
We study a model where one target variable Y is correlated with a vector X:=(X_1,...,X_d) of predictor variables being potential causes of Y. We describe a method that infers to what extent the statistical dependences between X and Y are due to the influence of X on Y and to what extent due to a hidden common cause (co…
Proposes a method to estimate policy values in reinforcement learning with unmeasured confounders.
problem Estimating policy values in reinforcement learning with unmeasured confounders.
method Develops a two-way deconfounder algorithm using a neural tensor network to learn unmeasured confounders and system dynamics.
result Consistent policy value estimation through model-based estimator.
Causal approaches to fairness have seen substantial recent interest, both from the machine learning community and from wider parties interested in ethical prediction algorithms. In no small part, this has been due to the fact that causal models allow one to simultaneously leverage data and expert knowledge to remove di…
While deep representation learning has become increasingly capable of separating task-relevant representations from other confounding factors in the data, two significant challenges remain. First, there is often an unknown and potentially infinite number of confounding factors coinciding in the data. Second, not all of…
Intact-VAE estimates treatment effects with latent confounders.
problem Estimating treatment effects under unobserved confounding.
method Intact-VAE, a VAE variant, models latent confounders to identify treatment effects.
result Intact-VAE is a consistent estimator of treatment effects under certain settings.
Study tackles OPE in confounded settings, estimating policy value from proxies.
problem Difficulty in OPE due to unobserved confounders in infinite-horizon RL.
method Two-stage approach: estimating stationary distribution ratios and combining optimal balancing.
result Policy value can be identified from off-policy data with proxies and latent variable model.
SpaCE tackles spatial confounding in scientific studies.
problem Spatial confounding influences treatment and outcome, leading to spurious associations.
method Introduces SpaCE toolkit for benchmark datasets and tools to evaluate causal inference methods.
result Facilitates automated evaluation of machine learning and causal inference models.
Paper tackles backwards-compatible data adaptation for confounded covariate and label shifts.
problem Adapt covariates to predict labels confounded with covariate shifts.
method Proposes confounded shift framework based on minimizing divergence between source and target conditional distributions, conditioning on confounders.
result Demonstrates approach on synthetic and real datasets, achieving backwards-compatible data adaptation.
With recent advances in deep learning, neuroimaging studies increasingly rely on convolutional networks (ConvNets) to predict diagnosis based on MR images. To gain a better understanding of how a disease impacts the brain, the studies visualize the salience maps of the ConvNet highlighting voxels within the brain major…
Research shows continual learning challenges in confounded datasets.
problem Challenges in mitigating confounders in continual learning settings.
method Formal description of continual confounders, construction of ConCon dataset.
result Standard continual learning methods fail to ignore confounders.
New method estimates treatment effects over time with unobserved confounders.
problem Estimating treatment effects from observational data with unobserved confounders.
method Sequential Deconfounder using Gaussian process latent variable model.
result Unbiased estimates of individualized treatment responses over time.
Debias recommender systems by accounting for hidden confounders using network information.
problem Debiased recommender systems to reduce bias caused by hidden confounders.
method Leverage network information to disentangle user conformity and item popularity, modeling exposure and ratings while controlling hidden confounders.
result The proposed method effectively debiases recommender systems, improving recommendation accuracy.
A hybrid method for causal discovery in latent confounders.
problem Estimating linear non-Gaussian models with latent confounders.
method Hybrid approach combining FCI and ICA.
result Hybrid method uniquely identifies causal relations under mild assumptions.
Proposes a new method for algorithmic recourse in confounded settings.
problem Provides actionable recommendations for individuals affected by automated decisions.
method Relaxes assumptions of no hidden confounding and additive noise, requiring only causal graph and confounding structure.
result Bounds the expected counterfactual effect of recourse actions, ensuring favourable outcomes in expectation.
Despite impressive performance on many text classification tasks, deep neural networks tend to learn frequent superficial patterns that are specific to the training data and do not always generalize well. In this work, we observe this limitation with respect to the task of native language identification. We find that s…
Method estimates CATE using RCT data to handle hidden confounders.
problem Estimating CATE in the presence of hidden confounders.
method Pseudo-confounder generator and CATE model alignment.
result Method reduces bias in CATE estimation.
New methods for evaluating and optimizing policies in offline RL with unobserved confounders.
problem Evaluating and optimizing policies in the presence of unobserved confounders.
method Characterized settings and algorithms for consistent value estimates and lower bounds, with sample complexity guarantees.
result Proved local convergence guarantees for offline policy improvement.
Two case studies reveal hidden biases and confounders in machine learning models of biomedical data.
problem Hidden biases and confounders in machine learning models of biomedical data.
method Two case studies examining biases and confounders in machine learning models of biomedical data.
result Prediction models performed well but hidden biases and confounders were revealed.
Novel graphical models for time series with latent confounders improve causal inference.
problem Causal relationships and independencies in multivariate time series with unobserved confounders.
method Introduced a novel class of graphical models and characterized their properties.
result Novel graphs provide stronger causal inferences without additional assumptions.
Meta-learning shows negative transfer between tasks, which MetaCRL addresses.
problem Negative transfer between tasks in meta-learning.
method Structural Causal Models (SCMs) and MetaCRL to eliminate task confounders.
result MetaCRL achieves state-of-the-art performance in various benchmark datasets.
Paper tackles distribution shifts in prediction models with unobserved confounding.
problem Distribution shifts in prediction models with unobserved confounding.
method Linear structural causal model, invariant covariate representations, data-driven representation learning method.
result Optimizes for a lower-dimensional linear subspace and a prediction model confined to that subspace, achieving nearly ideal gap between target and source risk.