Underfitting/Overfitting Problem in M/C learning

Underfitting : If our algorithm works badly with points in our data set, then the algorithm underfitting the data set. It can be check easily throug the cost function measures. Cost function in linear regression is half the mean squared error ex. if mean squared error is c the cost fucntion is 0.5C ². If in an experiment cost ends up high even after many iterations, then chances are we have an underfitting problem. We can say that learning algorithm is not good for the problem. Underfitting is also known as high bias( strong bias towards its hypothesis). In an another words we can say that hypothesis space the learning algorithm explores is too small to properly represent the data.

How to avoid underfitting :
More data will not generally help. It will, in fact, likely increase the training error. Therefore we should increase more features. Because that expands the hypothesis space. This includes making new features from existing features. Same way more parameteres may also expand the hypothesis space.

Overfitting : If our algorithm works well with points in our data set, but not on new points, then the algorithm overfitting the data set. Overfitting check easily through by spliting the data set so that 90% of data in our training set and 10% in a cross-validation set. Train on the training set, then measure the cost on the cross-validation set. If the cross-validation cost is much higher than the training cost, then chances are we have an overfitting problem. In another words we can say that hypothesis space is too large, and perhaps some features are faking the learning algorithm out.

How to avoid overfitting :
To avoid overfitting add the regularization if there are many features. Regularization forces the magnitudes of the parameters to be smaller(shrinking the hypothesis space). For this add a new term to the cost function

which penalizes the magnitudes of the parameters like as