Is the derivation of REINFORCE wrong?
$begingroup$
In Reinforcement Learning (2nd edition) by Sutton and Barto, the REINFORCE update is derived as follows:
However, I am wondering why you can perform the transition from the second to third line, as both the first factor $G_t$ and the second factor are functions of the same random variables, $A_t$ and $S_t$ (sampled values), which are not necessarily independent. The expectation of two functions of random variables should only be reducible to the product of their expectations if the random variables are independent.
machine-learning reinforcement-learning policy-gradients
New contributor
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In Reinforcement Learning (2nd edition) by Sutton and Barto, the REINFORCE update is derived as follows:
However, I am wondering why you can perform the transition from the second to third line, as both the first factor $G_t$ and the second factor are functions of the same random variables, $A_t$ and $S_t$ (sampled values), which are not necessarily independent. The expectation of two functions of random variables should only be reducible to the product of their expectations if the random variables are independent.
machine-learning reinforcement-learning policy-gradients
New contributor
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
In Reinforcement Learning (2nd edition) by Sutton and Barto, the REINFORCE update is derived as follows:
However, I am wondering why you can perform the transition from the second to third line, as both the first factor $G_t$ and the second factor are functions of the same random variables, $A_t$ and $S_t$ (sampled values), which are not necessarily independent. The expectation of two functions of random variables should only be reducible to the product of their expectations if the random variables are independent.
machine-learning reinforcement-learning policy-gradients
New contributor
$endgroup$
In Reinforcement Learning (2nd edition) by Sutton and Barto, the REINFORCE update is derived as follows:
However, I am wondering why you can perform the transition from the second to third line, as both the first factor $G_t$ and the second factor are functions of the same random variables, $A_t$ and $S_t$ (sampled values), which are not necessarily independent. The expectation of two functions of random variables should only be reducible to the product of their expectations if the random variables are independent.
machine-learning reinforcement-learning policy-gradients
machine-learning reinforcement-learning policy-gradients
New contributor
New contributor
New contributor
asked 11 mins ago
minchminch
1
1
New contributor
New contributor
add a comment |
add a comment |
0
active
oldest
votes
Your Answer
StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "557"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
minch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdatascience.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f46502%2fis-the-derivation-of-reinforce-wrong%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
0
active
oldest
votes
0
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
minch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
minch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
minch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
minch is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Thanks for contributing an answer to Data Science Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fdatascience.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f46502%2fis-the-derivation-of-reinforce-wrong%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown