Boosting is a powerful ensemble learning technique that aims to improve the predictive performance of machine learning models by combining several weak learners into a stronger one. A weak learner is a model that performs slightly better than random guessing, typically a simple model like a decision tree with limited depth. The boosting process works by sequentially training these weak learners, where each new learner focuses on the instances that were misclassified by the previous ones.
The most common form of boosting is AdaBoost, which adjusts the weights of the training instances based on their classification errors. Specifically, if an instance is misclassified, its weight is increased, making it more significant for the next learner. Mathematically, the final prediction in boosting can be expressed as:
where is the final model, represents the weak learners, and denotes the weight assigned to each learner based on its accuracy. This method not only enhances accuracy but also helps in reducing overfitting, making boosting a widely used technique in various applications, including classification and regression tasks.
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