# Out-of-distribution Generalization via Partial Feature Decorrelation Source: [Out-of-distribution Generalization via Partial Feature Decorrelation]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-25T23:59:05.045Z Authors: Xin Guo, Zhengxu Yu, Chao Xiang, Zhongming Jin, Jianqiang Huang, Deng Cai, Xiaofei He, Xian-Sheng Hua Published: 2020-07-30T05:48:48.000Z ## Abstract Most deep-learning-based image classification methods assume that all samples are generated under an independent and identically distributed (IID) setting. However, out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization is more common in practice, which means an agnostic context distribution shift between training and testing environments. To address this problem, we present a novel Partial Feature Decorrelation Learning (PFDL) algorithm, which jointly optimizes a feature decomposition network and the target image classification model. The feature decomposition network decomposes feature embeddings into the independent and the correlated parts such that the correlations between features will be highlighted. Then, the correlated features help learn a stable feature representation by decorrelating the highlighted correlations while optimizing the image classification model. We verify the correlation modeling ability of the feature decomposition network on a synthetic dataset. The experiments on real-world datasets demonstrate that our method can improve the backbone model's accuracy on OOD image classification datasets. ## Recorded benchmark results A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage. ## Original sources and implementation [Original paper]() [PDF]()