Fast initialization for cascade-correlation learning

Weight initialization in cascade-correlation learning is considered. Most of the previous studies use the so called candidate training to deal with the initialization problem in the cascade-correlation learning. There several candidate hidden units are first trained, and then the one yielding the best value for the covariance criterion is installed to the network. In case there are many candidate units to be trained, the total computational cost of the training can become very large. Here we consider a new approach for weight initialization in cascade-correlation learning. The proposed method is based on the concept of stepwise regression. Empirical simulations show that the new method can significantly speed-up cascade-correlation learning compared to the case where the candidate training is used. Moreover, the overall performance remained similar or was even better than with the candidate training.