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A computationally fast variable importance test for random forests for high-dimensional data

Author

Listed:
  • Silke Janitza

    (University of Munich)

  • Ender Celik

    (University of Munich)

  • Anne-Laure Boulesteix

    (University of Munich)

Abstract

Random forests are a commonly used tool for classification and for ranking candidate predictors based on the so-called variable importance measures. These measures attribute scores to the variables reflecting their importance. A drawback of variable importance measures is that there is no natural cutoff that can be used to discriminate between important and non-important variables. Several approaches, for example approaches based on hypothesis testing, were developed for addressing this problem. The existing testing approaches require the repeated computation of random forests. While for low-dimensional settings those approaches might be computationally tractable, for high-dimensional settings typically including thousands of candidate predictors, computing time is enormous. In this article a computationally fast heuristic variable importance test is proposed that is appropriate for high-dimensional data where many variables do not carry any information. The testing approach is based on a modified version of the permutation variable importance, which is inspired by cross-validation procedures. The new approach is tested and compared to the approach of Altmann and colleagues using simulation studies, which are based on real data from high-dimensional binary classification settings. The new approach controls the type I error and has at least comparable power at a substantially smaller computation time in the studies. Thus, it might be used as a computationally fast alternative to existing procedures for high-dimensional data settings where many variables do not carry any information. The new approach is implemented in the R package vita.

Suggested Citation

  • Silke Janitza & Ender Celik & Anne-Laure Boulesteix, 2018. "A computationally fast variable importance test for random forests for high-dimensional data," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 12(4), pages 885-915, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:advdac:v:12:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s11634-016-0276-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s11634-016-0276-4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Oyebayo Ridwan Olaniran & Ali Rashash R. Alzahrani, 2023. "On the Oracle Properties of Bayesian Random Forest for Sparse High-Dimensional Gaussian Regression," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-29, December.
    4. Gordeev, Stepan & Steinbach, Sandro, 2024. "Determinants of PTA design: Insights from machine learning," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    5. KONDO Satoshi & MIYAKAWA Daisuke & SHIRAKI Kengo & SUGA Miki & USUKI Teppei, 2019. "Using Machine Learning to Detect and Forecast Accounting Fraud," Discussion papers 19103, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. Costa, Alexandre Bonnet R. & Ferreira, Pedro Cavalcanti G. & Gaglianone, Wagner P. & Guillén, Osmani Teixeira C. & Issler, João Victor & Lin, Yihao, 2021. "Machine learning and oil price point and density forecasting," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    7. Hornung, Roman & Boulesteix, Anne-Laure, 2022. "Interaction forests: Identifying and exploiting interpretable quantitative and qualitative interaction effects," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Araujo, Gustavo Silva & Gaglianone, Wagner Piazza, 2023. "Machine learning methods for inflation forecasting in Brazil: New contenders versus classical models," Latin American Journal of Central Banking (previously Monetaria), Elsevier, vol. 4(2).
    9. Massimiliano Fessina & Giambattista Albora & Andrea Tacchella & Andrea Zaccaria, 2022. "Which products activate a product? An explainable machine learning approach," Papers 2212.03094, arXiv.org.
    10. Hediger, Simon & Michel, Loris & Näf, Jeffrey, 2022. "On the use of random forest for two-sample testing," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    11. Jin Yutong & Benkeser David, 2022. "Identifying HIV sequences that escape antibody neutralization using random forests and collaborative targeted learning," Journal of Causal Inference, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 280-295, January.

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