Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Variations On U-Shaped Learning, Lorenzo Carlucci, Sanjay Jain, Efim Kinber, Frank Stephen

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

The paper deals with the following problem: is returning to wrong conjectures necessary to achieve full power of algorithmic learning? Returning to wrong conjectures complements the paradigm of U-shaped learning when a learner returns to old correct conjectures. We explore our problem for classical models of learning in the limit from positive data: explanatory learning (when a learner stabilizes in the limit on a correct grammar) and behaviourally correct learning (when a learner stabilizes in the limit on a sequence of correct grammars representing the target concept). In both cases we show that returning to wrong conjectures is necessary to …