5 research outputs found
Stochastic trapping in a solvable model of on-line independent component analysis
Previous analytical studies of on-line Independent Component Analysis (ICA)
learning rules have focussed on asymptotic stability and efficiency. In
practice the transient stages of learning will often be more significant in
determining the success of an algorithm. This is demonstrated here with an
analysis of a Hebbian ICA algorithm which can find a small number of
non-Gaussian components given data composed of a linear mixture of independent
source signals. An idealised data model is considered in which the sources
comprise a number of non-Gaussian and Gaussian sources and a solution to the
dynamics is obtained in the limit where the number of Gaussian sources is
infinite. Previous stability results are confirmed by expanding around optimal
fixed points, where a closed form solution to the learning dynamics is
obtained. However, stochastic effects are shown to stabilise otherwise unstable
sub-optimal fixed points. Conditions required to destabilise one such fixed
point are obtained for the case of a single non-Gaussian component, indicating
that the initial learning rate \eta required to successfully escape is very low
(\eta = O(N^{-2}) where N is the data dimension) resulting in very slow
learning typically requiring O(N^3) iterations. Simulations confirm that this
picture holds for a finite system.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Neural Computatio
Shedding light on social learning
Culture involves the origination and transmission of ideas, but the
conditions in which culture can emerge and evolve are unclear. We constructed
and studied a highly simplified neural-network model of these processes. In
this model ideas originate by individual learning from the environment and are
transmitted by communication between individuals. Individuals (or "agents")
comprise a single neuron which receives structured data from the environment
via plastic synaptic connections. The data are generated in the simplest
possible way: linear mixing of independently fluctuating sources and the goal
of learning is to unmix the data. To make this problem tractable we assume that
at least one of the sources fluctuates in a nonGaussian manner. Linear mixing
creates structure in the data, and agents attempt to learn (from the data and
possibly from other individuals) synaptic weights that will unmix, i.e., to
"understand" the agent's world. For a variety of reasons even this goal can be
difficult for a single agent to achieve; we studied one particular type of
difficulty (created by imperfection in synaptic plasticity), though our
conclusions should carry over to many other types of difficulty. We previously
studied whether a small population of communicating agents, learning from each
other, could more easily learn unmixing coefficients than isolated individuals,
learning only from their environment. We found, unsurprisingly, that if agents
learn indiscriminately from any other agent (whether or not they have learned
good solutions), communication does not enhance understanding. Here we extend
the model slightly, by allowing successful learners to be more effective
teachers, and find that now a population of agents can learn more effectively
than isolated individuals. We suggest that a key factor in the onset of culture
might be the development of selective learning.Comment: 11 pages 8 figure