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Questions tagged [importance]

The importance of an independent variable or predictor in explaining or predicting the outcome of interest.

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Measures of variable importance in random forests

I've been playing around with random forests for regression and am having difficulty working out exactly what the two measures of importance mean, and how they should be interpreted. The ...
dcl's user avatar
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36 votes
3 answers
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Feature importance with dummy variables

I am trying to understand how I can get the feature importance of a categorical variable that has been broken down into dummy variables. I am using scikit-learn which doesn't handle categorical ...
Dan's user avatar
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33 votes
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What are variable importance rankings useful for?

I have become somewhat of a nihilist when it comes to variable importance rankings (in the context of multivariate models of all kinds). Often in the course of my work, I am asked to either assist ...
Matthew Drury's user avatar
27 votes
4 answers
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Estimating the most important features in a k-means cluster partition

Is there a way to determine which features / variables of the dataset are the most important / dominant within a k-means cluster solution?
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25 votes
4 answers
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Maximum number of independent variables that can be entered into a multiple regression equation

What is the limit to the number of independent variables one may enter in a multiple regression equation? I have 10 predictors that I would like to examine in terms of their relative contribution to ...
Melissa Duncombe's user avatar
24 votes
3 answers
43k views

How to split r-squared between predictor variables in multiple regression?

I have just read a paper in which the authors carried out a multiple regression with two predictors. The overall r-squared value was 0.65. They provided a table which split the r-squared between the ...
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23 votes
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Variable importance from GLMNET

I am looking at using the lasso as a method for selecting features and fitting a predictive model with a binary target. Below is some code I was playing with to try out the method with regularized ...
B_Miner's user avatar
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19 votes
5 answers
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Understanding which features were most important for logistic regression

I've built a logistic regression classifier that is very accurate on my data. Now I want to understand better why it is working so well. Specifically, I'd like to rank which features are making the ...
D.W.'s user avatar
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In Random Forest, why is a random subset of features chosen at the node level rather than at the tree level? [duplicate]

My Question: Why does random forest consider random subsets of features for splitting at the node level within each tree rather than at the tree level? Background: This is something of a history ...
dlid's user avatar
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18 votes
3 answers
22k views

Feature Importance for Linear Regression

Is there a way to find feature importance of linear regression similar to tree algorithms, or even some parameter which is indicative? I am aware that the coefficients don't necessarily give us the ...
Kunal's user avatar
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14 votes
4 answers
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Comparing importance of different sets of predictors

I was advising a research student with a particular problem, and I was keen to get the input of others on this site. Context: The researcher had three types of predictor variables. Each type ...
Jeromy Anglim's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
12k views

Is feature importance in Random Forest useless?

For Random Forests or XGBoost I understand how feature importance is calculated for example using the information gain or decrease in impurity. In particular in sklearn (and also in other ...
gioxc88's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
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Variable importance in RNN or LSTM

Several method have been devised for accessing or quantifying variable importance (even if only relative to each other) in MLP neural network models: Connection weights Garson’s algorithm Partial ...
SwatchPuppy's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
19k views

Variable importance randomForest negative values

I am asking myself if it is a good idea to remove those variables with a negative variable importance value ("%IncMSE") in a regression context. And if it gives me a better prediction? What do you ...
Giuseppe's user avatar
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14 votes
4 answers
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Importance of variables in logistic regression

I am probably dealing with a problem that has probably been solved a hundred times before, but I'm not sure where to find the answer. When using logistic regression, given many features $x_1,...,x_n$ ...
Guy Adini's user avatar
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3 answers
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How can I get feature importance for Gaussian Naive Bayes classifier?

I have a dataset consisting of 4 classes and around 200 features. I have implemented a Gaussian Naive Bayes classifier. I want now calculate the importance of each feature for each pair of classes ...
machinery's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
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If feature importance is only computed based on training set, does it mean one should never compute shap values on test set?

If feature importance is only calculated from the training set according to here, does it mean one should never compute shap values on test set? What would it mean if I compute shap values from test ...
user1769197's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
58k views

How to quantify the Relative Variable Importance in Logistic Regression in terms of p?

Suppose a logistic regression model is used to predict whether an online shopper will purchase a product (outcome: purchase), after he clicked a set of online adverts (predictors: Ad1, Ad2, and Ad3). ...
xyhzc's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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Relative variable importance/explained variation from a single model fit

I am seeking a measure of relative variable importance or relative explained variation that will apply to all types of linear and nonlinear regression models and that requires only fitting one model. ...
Frank Harrell's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
41k views

How to interpret standardized regression coefficients and p-values in multiple regression?

I've been using R to analyze my data (as shown in example below) and lm.beta from the QuantPsyc package to get the standardized ...
G-Ray's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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randomForest and variable importance bug?

I dont get the difference between the rfobject$importance and importance(rfobject) in the MeanDecreaseAccuracy column. Example: ...
Giuseppe's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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Optimal importance sampling with ratio estimator

We want to approximate the following expectation: $$\mathbb{E}[h(x)] = \int h(x)\pi(x) dx$$ Where $h(x)$ is an arbitrary function and $\pi(x)$ is a distribution, also for simplicity, let's assume ...
fairidox's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
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What is variable importance?

Searching this site, I see over 1,000 posts triggered by the search term "variable importance", mostly machine learning related. However, I've never encountered the definition before. Is it a term ...
AdamO's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
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Feature Interaction and its applications?

What is a Feature Interaction? Are Feature Interactions used for Feature Selection or Feature Generation?
Thalassophile's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why is the variable importance metric suggested by Breiman specific only to random forests?

In the Random Forest paper they describe a nice way of measuring a variable importance - take your validation data, measure error rate, permute the variable and re-measure error rate. Question - why ...
ihadanny's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
689 views

A statistical test to measure the importance of features?

I'm currently trying to assess importance of the features for my classifier. The situation is the following: first I train my classifier with all of the features I have and tested on a test set . Then ...
Jack Twain's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
1k views

Can the χ² test be used without a contingency table?

I thought that the chi squared (χ²) test is to be used when one has an r × c contingency matrix, i.e., when the dependent variables are nonnegative, span the same <...
Tfovid's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
6k views

Boruta 'all-relevant' feature selection vs Random Forest 'variables of importance'

Can someone explain the difference between variables of importance from random forest vs all-relevant features from Boruta feature selection? For example, if one were to build a model (could be any ...
derelict's user avatar
  • 312
8 votes
1 answer
19k views

mtry and unbalanced use of predictor variables in Random Forest

I am working on the Random Forest prediction, with the focus on the importance of predictor variables, and have a question regarding understanding of mtry and the actual usage of variables in the ...
zima's user avatar
  • 779
8 votes
1 answer
553 views

Why can a model's SHAP values change on a new dataset?

Background I'm validating a model and as part of the process I've been calculating SHAP values for different validation datasets. I've calculated SHAP values for every sample in each dataset taken ...
Connor's user avatar
  • 645
8 votes
1 answer
6k views

Explanatory power of a variable

I have simple linear regression model. What I want to calculate is how "important" each of my input variables are i.e. to make a statement something like this: "60% of predictive power in this model ...
user333's user avatar
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8 votes
4 answers
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How to tell which variable is more meaningful when modeling the relationship between several predictors and outcome variable?

I'm facing a problem in which I need to figure out two things: which predictor, out of several relevant ones, is the most meaningful one in its effect/predictive power over a predicted variable. the ...
Emman's user avatar
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8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Hard in calculating predictor‘s Relative Importance for GAM?

Although there is no agreement upon "relative importance for predictors" with (even) linear models (one possible definition: lmg method), I would still want to know whether there are some ...
T X's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
3k views

Do random forest variable importance measures take into account the interactions?

Do random forest measures of variable importance (mean change of accuracy, mean change of Gini index) take the interactions into account? I think I know how we come up with the variable importance ...
peace7's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is it a creditable approach to use Random Forrest Variable importance for causal inference?

I recently ran into a discussion with a college who used Random Forrest Variable importance to discover causal links between some actions of web users and their characteristics. As I come from ...
dkoehn's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
1k views

how to deal with correlated/colinear features when using Permutation feature importance?

Permutation feature importance (PFI) is a nice way of getting feature importance in black-box models or models where it is difficult to characterise the relationship between the features and the ...
Tom's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
5k views

In the R randomForest package for random forest feature selection, how is the dataset split for training and testing?

I'm using the randomForest R package to perform a random forest feature selection. I undestand that, after the execution of the randomForest function, I have to check the importance field, and study ...
DavideChicco.it's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
3k views

How do I test whether one predictor is significantly better than another? Is Hotelling's T the best option?

Overview: I want to test if "emotional numbing" is a significantly better predictor of "lower intimate relationship functioning" than "reexperiencing" or "hyperarousal" It was suggested to me to use ...
Anny's user avatar
  • 61
6 votes
2 answers
7k views

Per cent increase in MSE (%IncMSE) random forests importance measure: why is mean prediction error divided by standard deviation?

Random forests have their variable importance calculated using one of two methods, of which permutation-based importance is considered better. In R's randomForest ...
mkt's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
44 views

How to find significant predictors that can differentiate case and control without ML approach?

I have a dataset with more than 70 columns and I have an binary output column. What I did currently was to explore the dataset by plotting the bar and line graphs for the input variables vs output ...
The Great's user avatar
  • 3,322
6 votes
1 answer
273 views

Using ordinal regression to evaluate predictor "importance"?

We've got a construct-likert-scale with an internal (8 items) and an external dimension (6 item) and there is also a 5-point item y assessing the "subjective" perception (How skilled do you think you ...
Jack Shade's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can someone explain the concept of Shapley value masking when working with tabular data and classification problems?

My understanding of a mask in arrays is to have boolean values matching the shape of a query array (n, m) where you would mask the query and perform an operation. For example, this operation to sum ...
O.rka's user avatar
  • 1,482
6 votes
1 answer
237 views

Once you have used LASSO to generate regression coefficients, is there another step that gives you information about the model?

I've run a LASSO to build a model out of ~60 potential predictors. I'm wondering what the next step is? If there were OLS regression I would find model fit statistics like R2 or AIC. I would also find ...
Dave's user avatar
  • 2,651
6 votes
1 answer
94 views

Importance of regressors in time series data

Could anyone recommend bibliography or name some useful methods to analyze which (exogenous) variables are most important in determining the value of a time series? For context, I have a random time ...
Bananin's user avatar
  • 728
6 votes
0 answers
2k views

How to measure variable importance in a GAM model?

For concreteness: ...
Tamas Ferenci's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
7k views

How to interpret caret's variable importance and feature selection plots? [duplicate]

I am having some problems understanding the variable importance and feature selection graphs from ...
Mamba's user avatar
  • 295
5 votes
3 answers
8k views

Normalizing logistic regression coefficients?

With my limited understanding of the logistic regression, I understand that the coefficients in logistic regression are the odds ratios. Does it make send to normalize them (divide each one over the ...
Abdu's user avatar
  • 153
5 votes
1 answer
9k views

Relative importance of predictors in logistic regression

I would like to calculate an estimate (even a very rough one if it is the best I could get) of the relative importance of predictors in a logistic regression, something which can let me tell a common ...
statisticianwannabe's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
86 views

Сan a subset of features perform better than the base set

I have a theoretical question.. I have a model, let it be random forest I take 100 candidate features and train the model I select all the features that are important from the point of view of the ...
mr.T's user avatar
  • 269
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

Using Random Forest variable importance for feature selection

I'm currently trying to convince my colleague that his method of doing feature selection is causing data leakage and I need help doing so. The method they are using is as follows: They first run a ...
astel's user avatar
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