MATLAB: Getting best fitting model when using trainlm

Deep Learning Toolboxtrainlm

I am running a script which uses the 'trainlm' neural net training algorithm multiple times. It time that it runs it stops when it has not improved for 7 epochs. It then, it seems, provides the model for that last epoch (epoch 'n'), not the best fitting model from epoch n-7, which often is substantially better. Is this correct and is there any way to get the model from the best fitting epoch?

Best Answer

Early stopping ONLY depends on the 15% validation subset performance. NOT on the 70% training or 15% testing performance.
Increasing val set error is proof that the net is not generalizing well to nontraining data.
Since the decreasing improvement neither refers to the 70% training or 15% testing subset, there is no proof that there is a need to back up.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for formally accepting my answer
Greg