Competitive learning

Competitive learning is a form of unsupervised learning in artificial neural networks, in which nodes compete for the right to respond to a subset of the input data. A variant of Hebbian learning, competitive learning works by increasing the specialization of each node in the network. It is well suited to finding clusters within data. Models and algorithms based on the principle of competitive learning include vector quantization and self-organizing maps (Kohonen maps).

Competitive learning is a form of unsupervised learning in artificial neural networks, in which nodes compete for the right to respond to a subset of the input data. A variant of Hebbian learning, competitive learning works by increasing the specialization of each node in the network. It is well suited to finding clusters within data. Models and algorithms based on the principle of competitive learning include vector quantization and self-organizing maps (Kohonen maps). Competitive Learning is usually implemented with Neural Networks that contain a hidden layer which is commonly known as “competitive layer”. Every competitive neuron is described by a vector of weights {\mathbf{w}}_i = \left( {w_{i1} ,..,w_{id} } \right)^T ,i = 1,..,M and calculates the similarity measure between the input data {\mathbf{x}}^n = \left( {x_{n1} ,..,x_{nd} } \right)^T \in \mathbb{R}^d and the weight vector {\mathbf{w}}_i . For every input vector, the competitive neurons “compete” with each other to see which one of them is the most similar to that particular input vector. The winner neuron m sets its output o_m = 1 and all the other competitive neurons set their output o_i = 0 , i = 1,..,M, i \ne m . Usually, in order to measure similarity the inverse of the Euclidean distance is used: \left\| {{\mathbf{x}} - {\mathbf{w}}_i } \right\| between the input vector {\mathbf{x}}^n and the weight vector {\mathbf{w}}_i . ==See also== Ensemble learning Neural gas Pandemonium architecture ==References== ==Further information and software== Draft Report "Some Competitive Learning Methods" pdf(contains descriptions of several related algos) DemoGNG - Java simulator for competitive learning methods

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