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Updated: May 13, 2026

Problem-Solving Before Instruction (PS-I): A Protocol for Assessment and Intervention in Students with Different Abilities
Published on: September 11, 2021
Is chaos good for learning?
1Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1390, USA. sprott@prhysics.wisc.edu
Abstract:
This paper demonstrates that an artificial neural network training on time-series data from the logistic map at the onset of chaos trains more effectively when it is weakly chaotic. This suggests that a modest amount of chaos in the brain in addition to the ever present random noise might be beneficial for learning. In such a case, human subjects might exhibit an increased Lyapunov exponent in their EEG recordings during the performance of creative tasks, suggesting a possible line of future research.
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