SELF-SELECTION OF INPUT STIMULI FOR IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

A system which behaves in  an environment can increase its performance level 
in two different ways. It  can  improve  its ability to react efficiently to 
any stimulus that may come from the environment or it can acquire an ability 
to expose itself only to a sub-class  of  stimuli  to which  it knows how to 
respond efficiently. The possibility  that  a  system can solve  a  task  by 
selecting favourable stimuli  is  rarely considered in designing intelligent 
systems. In this paper we  show  that  this  type of ability can play a very 
powerful role in explaining a system's performance.