Challenges to Evaluating the Generalization of Coreference Resolution Models: A Measurement Modeling Perspective
What it is about
The paper asks whether multi-dataset evaluations of coreference models really measure generalization. It borrows the measurement-modelling framework of the social sciences: a construct (what is measured, here coreference) is separated from its operationalization (how the annotation guidelines implement it). Seven English datasets are compared (OntoNotes, PreCo, Phrase Detectives, OntoGUM, LitBank, ARRAU, MMC). The three largest differ in definitions: whether generic mentions, verb-phrase heads, appositions and copular predicates count as coreference, and in nesting and compound modifiers. The authors define an aggregate generalization gap and, per coreference type (nested, OntoNotes-generic, compound, copular), a type generalization gap, computed with a B3-based score restricted to mentions of that type. Their claim, from the abstract, is that measured generalization is correlated with the differences in definition and operationalization, so a single generalization number conflates them. The abstract does not give a single headline score.
Ideas
- I1. Tag each mention in
coref/with the type labels the paper uses (nested, generic, compound, copular), using only UD relations (det,compound,cop,appos, nested spans) so the labels are rule-based and explainable. - I2. Report the type generalization gap, not only the aggregate, in
coref/src/eval.rs: a model that only loses on copular mentions should show that, and a change in the rules for copular mentions should show up in that row. - I3. Write the definition of coreference Mova uses in 35. Reference and coreference next to each measure, so every score says which definition it measures.
For Mova
Code: coref/src/eval.rs (per-type scores), coref/src/mention.rs (mention types from UD relations), coref/src/corefud.rs. Chapter: 35. Reference and coreference. Measure: per-type scores on two corpora with different definitions, run twice, and a negative control where the type labels are shuffled, which should give no gap pattern.
Cite
@inproceedings{porada2024challenges,
title = {{Challenges to Evaluating the Generalization of Coreference Resolution Models: A Measurement Modeling Perspective}},
author = {Porada, Ian and Olteanu, Alexandra and Suleman, Kaheer and Trischler, Adam and Cheung, Jackie},
booktitle = {Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: ACL 2024},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.18653/v1/2024.findings-acl.909},
eprint = {2303.09092},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2024.findings-acl.909}
}References
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