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Empirical gain from incorporating priors into the Bayesian Bandit
from numpy import *
from scipy.stats import beta
import random
class BetaBandit(object):
def __init__(self, num_options=2, prior=None):
self.trials = zeros(shape=(num_options,), dtype=int)
self.successes = zeros(shape=(num_options,), dtype=int)
self.num_options = num_options
if prior is None:
prior = [ (1.0, 1.0) for i in range(num_options)]
self.prior = prior
def add_result(self, trial_id, success):
self.trials[trial_id] = self.trials[trial_id] + 1
if (success):
self.successes[trial_id] = self.successes[trial_id] + 1
def get_recommendation(self):
sampled_theta = []
for i in range(self.num_options):
#Construct beta distribution for posterior
dist = beta(self.prior[i][0]+self.successes[i],
self.prior[i][1]+self.trials[i]-self.successes[i])
#Draw sample from beta distribution
sampled_theta += [ dist.rvs() ]
# Return the index of the sample with the largest value
return sampled_theta.index( max(sampled_theta) )
prior_params = [(9.0,20.0), (4.0,20.0)]
priors = [beta(*x) for x in prior_params]
def gain(theta, choice):
if (random.random() < theta[choice]):
return 1
else:
return 0
def gain_bandit(theta, num_trials):
bb = BetaBandit(2)
g = 0
for i in range(int(num_trials)):
choice = bb.get_recommendation()
g += gain(theta, choice)
return g
def gain_prior(theta, num_trials):
bb = BetaBandit(2, prior_params)
g = 0
for i in range(int(num_trials)):
choice = bb.get_recommendation()
g += gain(theta, choice)
return g
num_trials = 50.0
N = 2000
tg = 0
tgb = 0
for i in range(N):
theta = [ p.rvs() for p in priors]
tg += gain_bandit(theta, num_trials) / num_trials
tgb += gain_prior(theta, num_trials) / num_trials
print "Base gain: " + str(float(tg)/N)
print "Prior gain: " + str(float(tgb)/N)
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