Study of distributed learning as a solution to category proliferation in Fuzzy ARTMAP based neural systems

An evaluation of distributed learning as a means to attenuate the category proliferation problem in Fuzzy ARTMAP based neural systems is carried out, from both qualitative and quantitative points of view. The study involves two original winner-take-all (WTA) architectures, Fuzzy ARTMAP and FasArt, and their distributed versions, dARTMAP and dFasArt. A qualitative analysis of the distributed learning properties of dARTMAP is made, focusing on the new elements introduced to endow Fuzzy ARTMAP with distributed learning. In addition, a quantitative study on a selected set of classification problems points out that problems have to present certain features in their output classes in order to noticeably reduce the number of recruited categories and achieve an acceptable classification accuracy. As part of this analysis, distributed learning was successfully adapted to a member of the Fuzzy ARTMAP family, FasArt, and similar procedures can be used to extend distributed learning capabilities to other Fuzzy ARTMAP based systems.