Validation Set

Category: science

A subset of data used to "tune" the model and prevent overfitting.

The validation set is the "practice test." You don’t use it for training; you use it to check the model’s performance *while* you’re building it. If the model starts doing worse on the validation set, you know it’s starting to "overfit" (memorize) the training data.

Common Examples

• We use the validation set to adjust the neural network’s hyperparameters, ensuring we maintain optimal predictive performance.
• Regular monitoring of the validation set results is the only way to catch early signs of model decay or training bias.