Correlation between entropy and generalizability in a neural network

Although neural networks can solve very complex machine-learning problems, the theoretical reason for their generalizability is still not fully understood. Here we use Wang-Landau Mote Carlo algorithm to calculate the entropy (logarithm of the volume of a part of the parameter space) at a given test accuracy, and a given training loss function value or training accuracy. Our results show that entropical forces help generalizability. Although our study is on a very simple application of neural networks (a spiral dataset and a small, fully-connected neural network), our approach should be useful in explaining the generalizability of more complicated neural networks in future works.

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References (4)

03Efficient2001 · multiple-range random walk algorithm to calculate the density of states, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 2050
04Entropy as a function of test accuracy under the constraint that the training accuracy is 100%. (top) Results for W = 6 and various H. (bottom) Results for H = 3 and various W

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