Approximately Optimal Domain Adaptation with Fisher’s Linear Discriminant

Abstract

We propose and study a data-driven method that can interpolate between a classical and a modern approach to classification for a class of linear models. The class is the convex combinations of an average of the source task classifiers and a classifier trained on the limited data available for the target task. We derive the expected loss of an element in the class with respect to the target distribution for a specific generative model, propose a computable approximation of the loss, and demonstrate that the element of the proposed class that minimizes the approximated risk is able to exploit a natural bias–variance trade-off in task space in both simulated and real-data settings. We conclude by discussing further applications, limitations, and potential future research directions.

Keywords

• statistical learning
• domain adaptation
• transfer learning
• physiological prediction
• linear classifiers