This article presents a general class of associative reinforcement learning algorithms for connectionist networks containing stochastic units. These algorithms, called REINFORCE algorithms, are shown to make weight adjustments in a direction that lies along the gradient of expected reinforcement in both immediate-reinforcement tasks and certain limited forms of delayed-reinforcement tasks, and they do this without explicitly computing gradient estimates or even storing information from which such estimates could be computed. Specific examples of such algorithms are presented, some of which bear a close relationship to certain existing algorithms while others are novel but potentially interesting in their own right. Also given are results that show how such algorithms can be naturally integrated with backpropagation. We close with a brief discussion of a number of additional issues surrounding the use of such algorithms, including what is known about their limiting behaviors as well as further considerations that might be used to help develop similar but potentially more powerful reinforcement learning algorithms.

This article introduces a class of incremental learning procedures specialized for prediction that is, for using past experience with an incompletely known system to predict its future behavior. Whereas conventional prediction-learning methods assign credit by means of the difference between predicted and actual outcomes, tile new methods assign credit by means of the difference between temporally successive predictions. Although such temporal-difference method~ have been used in Samuel's checker player, Holland's bucket brigade, and the author's Adaptive Heuristic Critic, they have remained poorly understood. Here we prove their convergence and optimality for special cases and relate them to supervised-learning methods. For most real-world prediction problems, telnporal-differenee methods require less memory and less peak computation than conventional methods and they produce more accurate predictions. We argue that most problems to which supervised learning is currently applied are really prediction problems of the sort to which temporaldifference methods can be applied to advantage.

This paper surveys the eld of reinforcement learning from a computer-science perspective. It is written to be accessible to researchers familiar with machine learning. Both the historical basis of the eld and a broad selection of current work are summarized. Reinforcement learning is the problem faced by an agent that learns behavior through trial-and-error interactions with a dynamic environment. The work described here has a resemblance to work in psychology, but di ers considerably in the details and in the use of the word \reinforcement." The paper discusses central issues of reinforcement learning, including trading o exploration and exploitation, establishing the foundations of the eld via Markov decision theory, learning from delayed reinforcement, constructing empirical models to accelerate learning, making use of generalization and hierarchy, and coping with hidden state. It concludes with a survey of some implemented systems and an assessment of the practical utility of current methods for reinforcement learning.

这项正在进行的工作旨在为统计学习提供统一的介绍，从诸如GMM和HMM等经典模型到现代神经网络（如VAE和扩散模型）缓慢地构建。如今，有许多互联网资源可以孤立地解释这一点或新的机器学习算法，但是它们并没有（也不能在如此简短的空间中）将这些算法彼此连接起来，或者与统计模型的经典文献相连现代算法出现了。同样明显缺乏的是一个单一的符号系统，尽管对那些已经熟悉材料的人（如这些帖子的作者）不满意，但对新手的入境造成了重大障碍。同样，我的目的是将各种模型（尽可能）吸收到一个用于推理和学习的框架上，表明（以及为什么）如何以最小的变化将一个模型更改为另一个模型（其中一些是新颖的，另一些是文献中的）。某些背景当然是必要的。我以为读者熟悉基本的多变量计算，概率和统计以及线性代数。这本书的目标当然不是​​完整性，而是从基本知识到过去十年中极强大的新模型的直线路径或多或少。然后，目标是补充而不是替换，诸如Bishop的\ emph {模式识别和机器学习}之类的综合文本，该文本现在已经15岁了。

可以通过将奖励信号均匀地广播到实现增强学习规则的单元来训练人工神经网络。虽然这提出了一种生物合理的替代培训网络，但与其培训深网络的高方差使其变得不切实际。高方差来自低效结构信用分配，因为单个奖励信号用于评估所有单位的集体动作。为了促进结构性信用分配，我们建议将奖励信号替换为隐藏的单位，随着单位传出权重的$ ^ 2 $常态的变化。因此，网络中的每个隐藏单元都在尝试最大化其传出权重的规范而不是全球奖励，因此我们调用此学习方法\ EMPH {重量最大化}。我们证明了重量最大化大致遵循期望奖励的梯度。与Backpropagation相比，重量最大化可用于培训连续值和离散值的单位。此外，重量最大化解决了与生物合理性有关的若干重大问题。我们的实验表明，用重量最大化训练的网络可以比加强和略微慢于背部慢化来学习比较快。重量最大化说明了在没有任何中央协调的竞争游戏中自动出现的合作行为的一个例子。

由于数据量增加，金融业的快速变化已经彻底改变了数据处理和数据分析的技术，并带来了新的理论和计算挑战。与古典随机控制理论和解决财务决策问题的其他分析方法相比，解决模型假设的财务决策问题，强化学习（RL）的新发展能够充分利用具有更少模型假设的大量财务数据并改善复杂的金融环境中的决策。该调查纸目的旨在审查最近的资金途径的发展和使用RL方法。我们介绍了马尔可夫决策过程，这是许多常用的RL方法的设置。然后引入各种算法，重点介绍不需要任何模型假设的基于价值和基于策略的方法。连接是用神经网络进行的，以扩展框架以包含深的RL算法。我们的调查通过讨论了这些RL算法在金融中各种决策问题中的应用，包括最佳执行，投资组合优化，期权定价和对冲，市场制作，智能订单路由和Robo-Awaring。

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Synaptic plasticity allows cortical circuits to learn new tasks and to adapt to changing environments. How do cortical circuits use plasticity to acquire functions such as decision-making or working memory? Neurons are connected in complex ways, forming recurrent neural networks, and learning modifies the strength of their connections. Moreover, neurons communicate emitting brief discrete electric signals. Here we describe how to train recurrent neural networks in tasks like those used to train animals in neuroscience laboratories, and how computations emerge in the trained networks. Surprisingly, artificial networks and real brains can use similar computational strategies.

Adequately assigning credit to actions for future outcomes based on their contributions is a long-standing open challenge in Reinforcement Learning. The assumptions of the most commonly used credit assignment method are disadvantageous in tasks where the effects of decisions are not immediately evident. Furthermore, this method can only evaluate actions that have been selected by the agent, making it highly inefficient. Still, no alternative methods have been widely adopted in the field. Hindsight Credit Assignment is a promising, but still unexplored candidate, which aims to solve the problems of both long-term and counterfactual credit assignment. In this thesis, we empirically investigate Hindsight Credit Assignment to identify its main benefits, and key points to improve. Then, we apply it to factored state representations, and in particular to state representations based on the causal structure of the environment. In this setting, we propose a variant of Hindsight Credit Assignment that effectively exploits a given causal structure. We show that our modification greatly decreases the workload of Hindsight Credit Assignment, making it more efficient and enabling it to outperform the baseline credit assignment method on various tasks. This opens the way to other methods based on given or learned causal structures.

由于策略梯度定理导致的策略设置存在各种理论上 - 声音策略梯度算法，其为梯度提供了简化的形式。然而，由于存在多重目标和缺乏明确的脱助政策政策梯度定理，截止策略设置不太明确。在这项工作中，我们将这些目标统一到一个违规目标，并为此统一目标提供了政策梯度定理。推导涉及强调的权重和利息职能。我们显示多种策略来近似梯度，以识别权重（ACE）称为Actor评论家的算法。我们证明了以前（半梯度）脱离政策演员 - 评论家 - 特别是offpac和DPG - 收敛到错误的解决方案，而Ace找到最佳解决方案。我们还强调为什么这些半梯度方法仍然可以在实践中表现良好，表明ace中的方差策略。我们经验研究了两个经典控制环境的若干ACE变体和基于图像的环境，旨在说明每个梯度近似的权衡。我们发现，通过直接逼近强调权重，ACE在所有测试的所有设置中执行或优于offpac。

这是一门专门针对STEM学生开发的介绍性机器学习课程。我们的目标是为有兴趣的读者提供基础知识，以在自己的项目中使用机器学习，并将自己熟悉术语作为进一步阅读相关文献的基础。在这些讲义中，我们讨论受监督，无监督和强化学习。注释从没有神经网络的机器学习方法的说明开始，例如原理分析，T-SNE，聚类以及线性回归和线性分类器。我们继续介绍基本和先进的神经网络结构，例如密集的进料和常规神经网络，经常性的神经网络，受限的玻尔兹曼机器，（变性）自动编码器，生成的对抗性网络。讨论了潜在空间表示的解释性问题，并使用梦和对抗性攻击的例子。最后一部分致力于加强学习，我们在其中介绍了价值功能和政策学习的基本概念。

我们探索了一个新的强盗实验模型，其中潜在的非组织序列会影响武器的性能。上下文 - 统一算法可能会混淆，而那些执行正确的推理面部信息延迟的算法。我们的主要见解是，我们称之为Deconfounst Thompson采样的算法在适应性和健壮性之间取得了微妙的平衡。它的适应性在易于固定实例中带来了最佳效率，但是在硬性非平稳性方面显示出令人惊讶的弹性，这会导致其他自适应算法失败。

This work shows how to leverage causal inference to understand the behavior of complex learning systems interacting with their environment and predict the consequences of changes to the system. Such predictions allow both humans and algorithms to select the changes that would have improved the system performance. This work is illustrated by experiments on the ad placement system associated with the Bing search engine.

In this thesis, we consider two simple but typical control problems and apply deep reinforcement learning to them, i.e., to cool and control a particle which is subject to continuous position measurement in a one-dimensional quadratic potential or in a quartic potential. We compare the performance of reinforcement learning control and conventional control strategies on the two problems, and show that the reinforcement learning achieves a performance comparable to the optimal control for the quadratic case, and outperforms conventional control strategies for the quartic case for which the optimal control strategy is unknown. To our knowledge, this is the first time deep reinforcement learning is applied to quantum control problems in continuous real space. Our research demonstrates that deep reinforcement learning can be used to control a stochastic quantum system in real space effectively as a measurement-feedback closed-loop controller, and our research also shows the ability of AI to discover new control strategies and properties of the quantum systems that are not well understood, and we can gain insights into these problems by learning from the AI, which opens up a new regime for scientific research.

The exact form of a gradient-following learning algorithm for completely recurrent networks running in continually sampled time is derived and used as the basis for practical algorithms for temporal supervised learning tasks. These algorithms have: (1) the advantage that they do not require a precisely de ned training interval, operating while the network runs; and (2) the disadvantage that they require nonlocal communication in the network being trained and are computationally expensive. These algorithms are shown to allow networks having recurrent connections to learn complex tasks requiring the retention of information over time periods having either xed or inde nite length.

We propose an efficient method for approximating natural gradient descent in neural networks which we call Kronecker-factored Approximate Curvature (K-FAC). K-FAC is based on an efficiently invertible approximation of a neural network's Fisher information matrix which is neither diagonal nor low-rank, and in some cases is completely non-sparse. It is derived by approximating various large blocks of the Fisher (corresponding to entire layers) as being the Kronecker product of two much smaller matrices. While only several times more expensive to compute than the plain stochastic gradient, the updates produced by K-FAC make much more progress optimizing the objective, which results in an algorithm that can be much faster than stochastic gradient descent with momentum in practice. And unlike some previously proposed approximate natural-gradient/Newton methods which use high-quality non-diagonal curvature matrices (such as Hessian-free optimization), K-FAC works very well in highly stochastic optimization regimes. This is because the cost of storing and inverting K-FAC's approximation to the curvature matrix does not depend on the amount of data used to estimate it, which is a feature typically associated only with diagonal or low-rank approximations to the curvature matrix.

To date, reinforcement learning has mostly been studied solving simple learning tasks. Reinforcement learning methods that have been studied so far typically converge slowly. The purpose of this work is thus twofold: 1) to investigate the utility of reinforcement learning in solving much more complicated learning tasks than previously studied, and 2) to investigate methods that will speed up reinforcement learning. This paper compares eight reinforcement learning frameworks: adaptive heuristic critic (AHC) learning due to Sutton, Q-learning due to Watkins, and three extensions to both basic methods for speeding up learning. The three extensions are experience replay, learning action models for planning, and teaching. The frameworks were investigated using connectionism as an approach to generalization. To evaluate the performance of different frameworks, a dynamic environment was used as a testbed. The enviromaaent is moderately complex and nondeterministic. This paper describes these frameworks and algorithms in detail and presents empirical evaluation of the frameworks.

这本数字本书包含在物理模拟的背景下与深度学习相关的一切实际和全面的一切。尽可能多，所有主题都带有Jupyter笔记本的形式的动手代码示例，以便快速入门。除了标准的受监督学习的数据中，我们将看看物理丢失约束，更紧密耦合的学习算法，具有可微分的模拟，以及加强学习和不确定性建模。我们生活在令人兴奋的时期：这些方法具有从根本上改变计算机模拟可以实现的巨大潜力。

预测性编码提供了对皮质功能的潜在统一说明 - 假设大脑的核心功能是最小化有关世界生成模型的预测错误。该理论与贝叶斯大脑框架密切相关，在过去的二十年中，在理论和认知神经科学领域都产生了重大影响。基于经验测试的预测编码的改进和扩展的理论和数学模型，以及评估其在大脑中实施的潜在生物学合理性以及该理论所做的具体神经生理学和心理学预测。尽管存在这种持久的知名度，但仍未对预测编码理论，尤其是该领域的最新发展进行全面回顾。在这里，我们提供了核心数学结构和预测编码的逻辑的全面综述，从而补充了文献中最新的教程。我们还回顾了该框架中的各种经典和最新工作，从可以实施预测性编码的神经生物学现实的微电路到预测性编码和广泛使用的错误算法的重新传播之间的紧密关系，以及对近距离的调查。预测性编码和现代机器学习技术之间的关系。

预测组合在预测社区中蓬勃发展，近年来，已经成为预测研究和活动主流的一部分。现在，由单个（目标）系列产生的多个预测组合通过整合来自不同来源收集的信息，从而提高准确性，从而减轻了识别单个“最佳”预测的风险。组合方案已从没有估计的简单组合方法演变为涉及时间变化的权重，非线性组合，组件之间的相关性和交叉学习的复杂方法。它们包括结合点预测和结合概率预测。本文提供了有关预测组合的广泛文献的最新评论，并参考可用的开源软件实施。我们讨论了各种方法的潜在和局限性，并突出了这些思想如何随着时间的推移而发展。还调查了有关预测组合实用性的一些重要问题。最后，我们以当前的研究差距和未来研究的潜在见解得出结论。