arXiv AI

Permanent and Transient Representations for Continual Reinforcement Learning

arXiv AI
Oct 5

How to Find and Reuse Policies for Continuous Adaptation in Lifelong Reinforcement Learning

The paper introduces Adaptive Mask Selection and Composition (AMSC), a method that estimates task similarity using non‑parametric Wasserstein embeddings from state‑action‑reward samples. AMSC selects and weights previously learned policies based on z‑score‑normalized sparsemax similarity scores, forming a prior for new tasks. Experiments on CT‑graph, MiniGrid, and Continual World show that AMSC improves mean performance and forward transfer while avoiding forgetting, highlighting the importance of selecting relevant prior knowledge and its layer‑specific composition.

By Saptarshi Nath, Inish M. D'Souza, Antonio Carta, Soheil Kolouri, Andrea Soltoggio
arXiv AI
Oct 31

Episodic looking - using reinforcement learning to bias perception enhances few-shot and continual learning with protection from forgetting

The paper addresses the conflict between generalization and continuous adaptation in few‑shot and continual learning. It proposes a Complementary Learning System (CLS) that separates a fast Short‑Term Memory (STM) for memorizing recent inputs from a slow Long‑Term Memory (LTM) that provides robust, generalized perceptions. Experiments on image classification show the CLS model resists forgetting in domain‑incremental continual learning and outperforms other continual learners in few‑shot settings, though overall accuracy is slightly lower than some existing methods.

By David Rawlinson, Gideon Kowadlo
arXiv Machine Learning
4d ago

Before We Adapt: The Zero-Shot Generalization Bottleneck in Continual World Models

The paper investigates how model-based reinforcement learning can support continual learning by reusing prior knowledge. It introduces a contextual Markov decision process that separates behavioral and physical context, and studies zero‑shot reuse in FourRooms tasks using Dyna‑Q and TD‑MPC. The experiments show that zero‑shot reuse degrades under physical context changes and that this degradation is strongly tied to the observation representation, highlighting representation generalization as a key bottleneck.

By Amir Mesbah, Di Wu
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 2

Simple Recipe Works: Vision-Language-Action Models are Natural Continual Learners with Reinforcement Learning

arXiv:2603. 11653v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Continual Reinforcement Learning (CRL) for Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models is a promising direction toward self-improving embodied agents that can adapt in openended, evolving environments.

By Jiaheng Hu, Jay Shim, Chen Tang, Yoonchang Sung, Bo Liu, Peter Stone, Roberto Martin-Martin
arXiv AI
Oct 27

Harness-Model Collaboration for Long-Horizon Continual Learning

The paper introduces HaMo, a Harness-Model collaborative framework designed for long-horizon continual learning. HaMo combines fast non‑parametric experience accumulation—distilling trajectories into strategy‑level experience cards for immediate retrieval—with slow parametric adaptation, training the model to interpret, ground, and execute these strategies across changing contexts. A retrieval‑coverage‑based selection mechanism identifies compact, complementary trajectories for parameter updates, and experiments demonstrate that HaMo outperforms both harness‑only and model‑only approaches in within‑domain and cross‑domain settings, improving retention and adaptation.

By Zhen Bi, Zhizhi Peng, Yan Wang, Xueshu Chen, Haofei Zhang, Yaobo Zhang, Zeyu Yang, Qing Shen, Jungang Lou
arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 22

Memory-Centric Continual Learning for AI Agents

Memory-Centric Continual Learning for AI Agents proposes a framework that redefines agent memory as a driver of future actions rather than a passive retrieval cache. It introduces a three-axis taxonomy—substrates, assets, and policies—to structure memory, a two-loop lifecycle for updating memory state and refining management policies, and an evaluation protocol that isolates genuine behavioral gains from simple context expansion. The paper also presents a memory scaling framework to model how performance scales with experience, storage, and compute across non-parametric and parametric memory.

By Dongfang Li, Zhuoen Chen, Bonian Jia, Zixuan Liu, Zhengxuan Lu, Can Deng, Yukun Shi, Yuhang Meng, Xin Zhang, Jiahe Huang, Fuhao Li, Junmai Wang, Shunyao Wen, Jingjun Sun, Jiaxu Tian, Jiangling Zhang, Zihan Wang, Liangyou Li, Yitong Yao, Shuangyong Song, Beilun Wang, Pengxu Wei, Hanlin Xu, Chang Liu, Yongxiang Li, Baotian Hu, Xiangyang Ji, Min Zhang