Re: Finding useful functions- part 1

From: Stargazer (fuckoff_at_spammers.com)
Date: 10/30/04 

Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2004 11:37:33 -0300

Stephen Harris wrote:
>
> Supervised learning means there are external constraints applied
> to the processing of the network while it is processing which
> influences the eventual output.
>
> Unsupervised learning means that the network does not receive
> external inputs while it is processing. The processing works only
> with the internal structure of the network, then produces output.

Just a small observation here. In unsupervised learning, the network
in fact receives external input (otherwise it would not do much). It
does not receive a user-supplied output (training signals or training
sets) with which to compare its own output in order to derive error
correction. Supervised systems, on the other hand, receive this
user-supplied sets, which is employed (usually) as an error correction
to be back-fed (at least in traditional multilayer perceptrons).

> "Wolf Kirchmeir" <wwolfkir@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:_3tgd.22767$Qs6.1769700@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> > Firstly, that's not "ordinary technical usage", it's AI usage,
> > apparently. So why use the word "supervised"? I've been enlightened
> > about the meaning of "supervised" by Stephen Harris - I think it's
> > a stupid term. It assumes that there is some other non-supervised
> > form of learning, which in turn assumes that learning is something
> > other than a change in behaviour. .

Learning as a change in behavior is a definition under the behaviorist
rationale. This assumption leads to all the well known theoretical
edifice. However, learning is defined differently by the neuroscientist.
Thus, it may be "stupid" from a behaviorist point of view, but it
is not from neuroscience. It doesn't seem wise to criticize someone
else's definitions. You can accept it or reject it, or you can (at most)
point out that such definitions may lead to theoretical/conceptual
dead-ends or empirically flawed models, which is not the case
regarding supervised/unsupervised learning.

*SG*