Beyond vintage rotation: bias-free sparse representation learning with oracle inference

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ID: 334057
2026
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Ranked #148 of 153 articles by views in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Statistical Methodology)

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Abstract
Abstract Learning low-dimensional latent representations is a central topic in statistics and machine learning, and rotation methods have long been used to obtain sparse and interpretable representations. Despite nearly a century of widespread use across many fields, rigorous guarantees for valid inference for the learned representation remain lacking. In this paper, we identify a surprisingly prevalent phenomenon that suggests a reason for this gap: for a broad class of vintage rotations, the resulting estimators exhibit a non-estimable bias. Because this bias is independent of the data, it fundamentally precludes the development of valid inferential procedures, including the construction of confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. To address this challenge, we propose a novel bias-free rotation method within a general representation learning framework based on latent variables. We establish an oracle inference property for the learned sparse representations: the estimators achieve the same asymptotic variance as in the ideal setting where the latent variables are observed. To bridge the gap between theory and computation, we develop an efficient computational framework and prove that its output estimators retain the same oracle property. Our results provide a rigorous inference procedure for the rotated estimators, yielding statistically valid and interpretable representation learning.
Reference Key
openalex_W7131809920 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Chengyu Cui, Yunxiao Chen, Jing Ouyang, Gongjun Xu
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Journal Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B (Statistical Methodology)
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/jrsssb/qkag133
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/jrsssb/qkag133
Keywords Keywords not found

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