Analysis of Dropout in Online Learning

Deep learning is the state-of-the-art in fields such as visual object recognition and speech recognition. This learning uses a large number of layers and a huge number of units and connections. Therefore, overfitting is a serious problem with it, and the dropout which is a kind of regularization tool is used. However, in online learning, the effect of dropout is not well known. This paper presents our investigation on the effect of dropout in online learning. We analyzed the effect of dropout on convergence speed near the singular point. Our results indicated that dropout is effective in online learning. Dropout tends to avoid the singular point for convergence speed near that point.

Statistical Mechanics of Node-perturbation Learning with Noisy Baseline

Node-perturbation learning is a type of statistical gradient descent algorithm that can be applied to problems where the objective function is not explicitly formulated, including reinforcement learning. It estimates the gradient of an objective function by using the change in the object function in response to the perturbation. The value of the objective function for an unperturbed output is called a baseline. Cho et al. proposed node-perturbation learning with a noisy baseline. In this paper, we report on building the statistical mechanics of Cho's model and on deriving coupled differential equations of order parameters that depict learning dynamics. We also show how to derive the generalization error by solving the differential equations of order parameters. On the basis of the results, we show that Cho's results are also apply in general cases and show some general performances of Cho's model.

Analysis of dropout learning regarded as ensemble learning

Deep learning is the state-of-the-art in fields such as visual object recognition and speech recognition. This learning uses a large number of layers, huge number of units, and connections. Therefore, overfitting is a serious problem. To avoid this problem, dropout learning is proposed. Dropout learning neglects some inputs and hidden units in the learning process with a probability, p, and then, the neglected inputs and hidden units are combined with the learned network to express the final output. We find that the process of combining the neglected hidden units with the learned network can be regarded as ensemble learning, so we analyze dropout learning from this point of view.