regularized_bradley_terry_ranker — Logtalk 3.100.1

# `regularized_bradley_terry_ranker`

Regularized Bradley-Terry MAP pairwise preference ranker. It uses a deterministic MM-style posterior-mode update for a Bradley-Terry likelihood regularized by an explicit independent Gamma prior over item strengths.

The library implements the `ranker_protocol` defined in the `ranking_protocols` library. It provides predicates for learning a ranker from pairwise preferences, using it to order candidate items, and exporting it as a list of predicate clauses or to a file.

Datasets are represented as objects implementing the `pairwise_ranking_dataset_protocol` protocol from the `ranking_protocols` library. See the `test_datasets` directory for examples. The training dataset must declare each ranked item once, enumerate positive-weight pairwise preferences between distinct declared items, and induce a connected undirected comparison graph. Unlike the unregularized Bradley-Terry model, the directed win graph is not required to be strongly connected.

## API documentation

Open the ../../apis/library_index.html#regularized_bradley_terry_ranker link in a web browser.

## Loading

To load this library, load the `loader.lgt` file:

    | ?- logtalk_load(regularized_bradley_terry_ranker(loader)).

## Testing

To test this library predicates, load the `tester.lgt` file:

    | ?- logtalk_load(regularized_bradley_terry_ranker(tester)).

## Features

- Pairwise Preference Learning: Learns positive item strengths from weighted head-to-head outcomes.

- Explicit Gamma Prior: Uses a separate MAP model with an explicit independent Gamma prior over item strengths.

- Finite Regularized Fit: Admits connected pairwise datasets whose directed win graph is not strongly connected, instead of rejecting them as non-identifiable maximum-likelihood problems.

- Deterministic Ranking: Orders candidate items by learned strength with deterministic tie-breaking.

- Strict Dataset Validation: Rejects duplicate items, undeclared items, self-preferences, non-positive weights, and disconnected undirected comparison graphs.

- Training Diagnostics: Learned rankers include the effective Gamma prior, convergence, iteration, and dataset summary metadata that can be accessed using the `diagnostics/2` predicate.

- Ranker Export: Learned rankers can be exported as self-contained terms.

- Shared Pairwise Infrastructure: Reuses the shared pairwise preprocessing and MM-iteration scaffolding from the `ranking_protocols` library.

## Dataset requirements

This implementation still requires the undirected comparison graph induced by the preferences to be connected, but unlike the unregularized Bradley-Terry model it does not require the directed win graph to be strongly connected. The explicit Gamma prior regularizes dominance partitions and one-way chains, yielding a finite posterior mode for connected datasets that would otherwise fail the maximum-likelihood existence check.

For the original unregularized maximum-likelihood Bradley-Terry model, which keeps the same pairwise-preference interface but requires the directed win graph to be strongly connected, see the `bradley_terry_ranker` library.

## Usage

### Learning a ranker

    % Learn from a pairwise ranking dataset object
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker).
    ...

    % Learn with custom iteration and Gamma-prior options
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker, [maximum_iterations(500), tolerance(1.0e-7), gamma_prior(gamma(3.0, 4.0))]).
    ...

### Inspecting diagnostics

    % Inspect convergence, prior, and dataset summary metadata
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker),
         regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::diagnostics(Ranker, Diagnostics).
    Diagnostics = [...]
    ...

## Diagnostics syntax

The `diagnostics/2` predicate returns a list of metadata terms with the form:

    [
        model(regularized_bradley_terry_ranker),
        options(Options),
        prior(gamma(Shape, Rate)),
        convergence(Status),
        iterations(Iterations),
        final_delta(FinalDelta),
        dataset_summary(DatasetSummary)
    ]

Where:

- `model(regularized_bradley_terry_ranker)` identifies the learning algorithm that produced the ranker.

- `options(Options)` stores the effective learning options after merging the user options with the library defaults.

- `prior(gamma(Shape, Rate))` stores the effective Gamma prior hyperparameters.

- `convergence(Status)` records the training stop condition. The current values are `converged` and `maximum_iterations_exhausted`.

- `iterations(Iterations)` stores the number of update iterations that were executed.

- `final_delta(FinalDelta)` stores the maximum absolute strength update in the last iteration.

- `dataset_summary(DatasetSummary)` stores a summary list describing the validated training dataset.

Use the `ranking_protocols` `diagnostic/2` and `ranker_options/2` helper predicates when you only need a single metadata term or the effective options.

### Ranking candidate items

    % Rank a candidate set from most preferred to least preferred
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker),
         regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::rank(Ranker, [item_a, item_b, item_c], Ranking).
    Ranking = [...]
    ...

Candidate lists must be proper lists of unique, ground items declared by the training dataset. Invalid ranker terms, duplicate candidates, and candidates containing variables are rejected with errors instead of being silently accepted.

### Exporting the ranker

Learned rankers can be exported as a list of clauses or to a file for later use.

    % Export as predicate clauses
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker),
         regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::export_to_clauses(my_dataset, Ranker, my_ranker, Clauses).
    Clauses = [my_ranker(regularized_bt_ranker(...))]
    ...

    % Export to a file
    | ?- regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::learn(my_dataset, Ranker),
         regularized_bradley_terry_ranker::export_to_file(my_dataset, Ranker, my_ranker, 'ranker.pl').
    ...

## Options

The following options can be passed to the `learn/3` predicate:

- `maximum_iterations(MaximumIterations)`: Positive integer iteration bound.

- `tolerance(Tolerance)`: Positive convergence tolerance.

- `gamma_prior(gamma(Shape, Rate))`: Gamma-prior hyperparameters. The current implementation requires `Shape > 1` and `Rate > 0`.

## Ranker representation

The learned ranker is represented by a compound term of the form:

    regularized_bt_ranker(Items, Strengths, Diagnostics)

Where:

- `Items`: List of ranked items.

- `Scores`: List of `Item-Strength` pairs.

- `Diagnostics`: List of metadata terms, including the effective options, Gamma prior, convergence status, iteration count, final update delta, and dataset summary.

When exported using `export_to_clauses/4` or `export_to_file/4`, this ranker term is serialized directly as the single argument of the generated predicate clause so that the exported model can be loaded and reused as-is.

## References

1. Bradley, R. A. and Terry, M. E. (1952). Rank analysis of incomplete block designs: I. The method of paired comparisons. Biometrika, 39(3/4), 324-345.

2. Hunter, D. R. (2004). MM algorithms for generalized Bradley-Terry models. The Annals of Statistics, 32(1), 384-406.

3. Caron, F. and Doucet, A. (2012). Efficient Bayesian inference for generalized Bradley-Terry models. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 21(1), 174-196.