Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!mimsy!brillig.cs.umd.edu!grange From: grange@brillig.cs.umd.edu (Granger Sutton) Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets Subject: Re: Input scaling alters my results; why? Summary: Normalized input vector lengths Message-ID: <26019@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 14 Aug 90 19:29:54 GMT References: <473@array.UUCP> <3200@gmdzi.UUCP> Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu Reply-To: grange@brillig.cs.umd.edu (Granger Sutton) Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 10 I looked at this phenomenon briefly a while ago. In addition to what other people have already said the lengths of the input vectors (the activations of the input nodes when viewed as a vector) seemed to have an impact on learning. Specifically, if all the input vectors are the same length learning times seem to be faster and more uniform (smaller variance). For binary input vectors -1,1 coding gives you input vectors that are all the same length. Granger Sutton grange@brillig.cs.umd.edu