A posteriori dietary patterns better explain variations of the gut microbiome than individual markers in the American Gut Project.

Background: Individual diet components and specific dietary regimens have been shown to impact the gut microbiome.

Objectives: Here, we explored the contribution of long-term diet by searching for dietary patterns that would best associate with the gut microbiome in a population-based cohort.

Methods: Using a priori and a posteriori approaches, we constructed dietary patterns from an FFQ completed by 1800 adults in the American Gut Project.

Goldilocks Forgetting in Cross-Situational Learning.

Given that there is referential uncertainty (noise) when learning words, to what extent can forgetting filter some of that noise out, and be an aid to learning? Using a Cross Situational Learning model we find a U-shaped function of errors indicative of a "Goldilocks" zone of forgetting: an optimum store-loss ratio that is neither too aggressive nor too weak, but just the right amount to produce better learning outcomes. Forgetting acts as a high-pass filter that actively deletes (part of) the referential ambiguity noise, retains intended referents, and effectively amplifies the signal. The model achieves this performance without incorporating any specific cognitive biases of the type proposed in the constraints and principles account, and without any prescribed developmental changes in the underlying learning mechanism.