Title: Converting Cascade-Correlation Neural Nets into Probabilistic Generative Models,
Abstract: Humans are not only adept in recognizing what class an input instance belongs
to (i.e., classification task), but perhaps more remarkably, they can imagine
(i.e., generate) plausible instances of a desired class with ease, when
prompted. Inspired by this, we propose a framework which allows transforming
Cascade-Correlation Neural Networks (CCNNs) into probabilistic generative
models, thereby enabling CCNNs to generate samples from a category of interest.
CCNNs are a well-known class of deterministic, discriminative NNs, which
autonomously construct their topology, and have been successful in giving
accounts for a variety of psychological phenomena. Our proposed framework is
based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, called the
Metropolis-adjusted Langevin algorithm, which capitalizes on the gradient
information of the target distribution to direct its explorations towards
regions of high probability, thereby achieving good mixing properties. Through
extensive simulations, we demonstrate the efficacy of our proposed framework.