Artificial Neural Networks/Boltzmann Learning

Boltzmann learning is statistical in nature, and is derived from the field of thermodynamics. It is similar to error-correction learning and is used during supervised training. In this algorithm, the state of each individual neuron, in addition to the system output, are taken into account. In this respect, the Boltzmann learning rule is significantly slower than the error-correction learning rule. Neural networks that use Boltzmann learning are called Boltzmann machines.

Boltzmann learning is similar to an error-correction learning rule, in that an error signal is used to train the system in each iteration. However, instead of a direct difference between the result value and the desired value, we take the difference between the probability distributions of the system.