When you run the function nnet of the nnet package a sequence of values is shown on the console like this (made up numbers):
initial value 100
iter 10 value 88
iter 20 value 80
final value 60
And it shows "Converged" at the end if the net did converge.
According to the documentation, this value is the "value of fitting criterion plus weight decay term". I know what the decay term is but not the fitting criterion. I tried looking for the exact meaning on the web but I didn't find anything useful.
Could you explain to me the meaning of these values? Do they say something about the convergence of the net? Should I look at them?
Best Answer
The fitting criterion is another synonym for loss function. Training a neural network proceeds by adjusting the weights and biases of a neural network to minimize the loss function (fitting criterion) with respect to the training data.
See also: Objective function, cost function, loss function: are they the same thing?