"Randomize with factor" ?

[RBJ]

Hi all, I just wondered what the Praxis "Randomize With Factor" option does? It doesn't seem to be mentioned at http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/stati ... ulfit.html
Thanks
R

[ted]

Try it and see what happens. Hint: watch the values of the parameters that are being optimized. Also, consider using the Forum's "Advanced search" to look for posts that contain
radomize with factor
and see if any of them contains a useful hint.

[RBJ]

Thanks!
R.

[ted]

The basic reason for the "Randomize with factor" function is to make it easy for users to explore parameter space in the vicinity of a minimum of the error function, e.g. to make sure the optimization isn't stuck in a local minimum of the error surface, and also to see if optimizations that start from different points in parameter space converge toward the same minimum.