A fast learning method for multilayer perceptrons in automatic speech recognition systems

We propose a fast learning method for multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) on large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR) tasks. A preadjusting strategy based on separation of training data and dynamic learning-rate with a cosine function is used to increase the accuracy of a stochastic initial MLP. Weight matrices of the preadjusted MLP are restructured by a method based on singular value decomposition (SVD), reducing the dimensionality of the MLP. A back propagation (BP) algorithm that fits the unfolded weight matrices is used to train the restructured MLP, reducing the time complexity of the learning process. Experimental results indicate that on LVCSR tasks, in comparison with the conventional learning method, this fast learning method can achieve a speedup of around 2.0 times with improvement on both the cross entropy loss and the frame accuracy. Moreover, it can achieve a speedup of approximately 3.5 times with only a little loss of the cross entropy loss and the frame accuracy. Since this method consumes less time and space than the conventional method, it is more suitable for robots which have limitations on hardware.