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Bias is just like an intercept added in a linear equation. It is an additional parameter in the Neural
Network which is used to adjust the output along with the weighted sum of the inputs to the neuron.
Moreover, bias value allows you to shift the activation function to either right or left.
output = sum (weights * inputs) + bias
The output is calculated by multiplying the inputs with their weights and then passing it through an
activation function like the Sigmoid function, etc. Here, bias acts like a constant which helps the model
to fit the given data. The steepness of the Sigmoid depends on the weight of the inputs.
The bias neuron is a special neuron added to each layer in the neural network, which simply stores the
value of 1. This makes it possible to move or “translate” the activation function left or right on the
graph.
Without a bias neuron, each neuron takes the input and multiplies it by a weight, with nothing else
added to the equation.
Training Set
A training set is a group of sample inputs you can feed into the neural network in order to train the
model. The neural network learns your inputs and finds weights for the neurons that can result in an
accurate prediction.
Training Error
The error is the difference between the known correct output for the inputs and the actual output of the
neural network. During the course of training, the training error is reduced until the model produces an
accurate prediction for the training set.
Validation Set
A validation set is another group of sample inputs which were not included in training and preferably
are different from the samples in the training set. This is a “real life exercise” for the model: Can it
generate correct predictions for an unknown set of inputs?
Validation Error
The nice thing is that for the validation set, the correct outputs are already known. So it’s easy to
compare the known correct prediction for the validation set with the actual model prediction—the
difference between them is the validation error.
Definition of Bias vs. Variance
Bias—high bias means the model is not “fitting” well on the training set. This means the training error
will be large. Low bias means the model is fitting well, and training error will be low.
Variance—high variance means that the model is not able to make accurate predictions on the
validation set. The validation error will be large. Low variance means the model is successful in
breaking out of its training data.
• Low bias
accurate predictions for the training set
• High variance
poor ability to generate predictions for the validation set
• High bias
poor predictions for the training set
• High variance
poor predictions for the validation set
When the inputs are fed into the neuron, they are multiplied by weights. For example, the weight for
neuron i1 feeding into h1 is 0.15. So the input of 0.05 will be multiplied by 0.15 giving 0.333, and then
fed into the activation function of neuron h1. The weights are learned in an iterative process called
backpropagation.
Where are the bias neurons? As explained above, biases in neural networks are extra neurons added
to each layer, which store the value of 1. In our example, the bias neurons are b1 and b2 at the bottom.
They also have weights attached to them (which are learned during backpropagation).
Running experiments across multiple machines—getting a model right requires a lot of trial
and error. You will need to run models many times, and if training sets are large this requires
major computing resources. Distributing an experiment across multiple machines, copying the
relevant training and validation sets into each machine, and repeating, is a complex exercise.
Manage training data—storing groups of training samples, which can weigh in the Petabytes
for some projects, dividing them into training and validation sets (which becomes more
complex when you use cross-validation), and avoiding duplication and human error, is a
challenge of its own.
MissingLink is a deep learning platform that does all of this for you and lets you concentrate on
building the most accurate model.
Early Stopping
Divide training data into a training set and a validation set and start training the model. Monitor
the error on the validation set after each training iteration. Normally, the validation error and
training set errors decrease during training, but when the network begins to overfit the data, the
error on the validation set begins to rise. Early stopping occurs in one of two cases:
• If the training is unsuccessful, for example in a case where the error rate increases
gradually over several iterations.
• If the training’s improvement is insignificant, for example, the improvement rate is
lower than a set threshold.
Regularization
Regularization is a slightly more complex technique which involves modifying the error
function (usually calculated as the sum of squares on the errors for the individual training or
validation samples).
Without getting into the math, the trick is to add a term to the error function, which is intended
to decrease the weights and biases, smoothing outputs and making the network less likely to
overfit.
Tuning Performance Ratio
The regularization term includes a performance ratio γ—this is a parameter that defines by how
much the network will be smoothed out.
• You can manually set a performance ratio—if you set it to zero, the network won’t be
regularized at all, and if you set it to 1 it will not fit the training data at all.
• It is also possible to automatically learn the optimal value of the performance ratio and
then apply it to the network to achieve a balance.
Dropout
Another way to improve model fit is to randomly “kill” a certain percentage of the neurons in
every training iteration. This can help improve generalization by ensuring that some of the
information learned from the training set is randomly removed.
Applications of MLP
➢ Speech recognition
➢ Image recognition
➢ Support-vector machine- supervised learning models with associated learning algorithms that
analyze data used for classification and regression analysis.