arXiv Computation and Language

Self-Assessment Reinforcement Learning for Search-State Awareness in Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models

The paper introduces Self-Assessment Reinforcement Learning (SARL), a framework that trains large language models to recognize their own search state during retrieval-augmented tasks. SARL uses a dual reward system to balance corrective assessment and efficiency, achieving significant performance gains over strong baselines on multi‑hop reasoning and deep research benchmarks. It also demonstrates improved training stability for longer search horizons, outperforming methods that rely on auxiliary supervision or multi‑agent coordination.

arXiv AI
Jul 14

To Answer or to Abstain: Mitigating Search-Agent Hallucinations via Abstention-Aware Reinforcement Learning

arXiv:2607. 10738v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent advances in equipping Large Language Models (LLMs) with search tools and outcome-reward reinforcement learning (RL) have achieved new state-of-the-art results on open-domain QA tasks.

By Fengji Zhang, Tianyu Fan, Yuxiang Zheng, Xinyao Niu, Chengen Huang, Jacky Keung, Bei Chen
arXiv AI
Jun 2

Harness-1: Reinforcement Learning for Search Agents with State-Externalizing Harnesses

arXiv:2606. 02373v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Search agents are often trained as policies over growing transcripts: the model must decide how to search while also remembering what it has seen, which evidence is useful, which constraints remain open, and which claims have actually been checked.

By Pengcheng Jiang, Zhiyi Shi, Kelly Hong, Xueqiang Xu, Jiashuo Sun, Jimeng Sun, Hammad Bashir, Jiawei Han
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 12

To Answer or to Abstain: Mitigating Search-Agent Hallucinations via Abstention-Aware Reinforcement Learning

Recent advances in equipping Large Language Models (LLMs) with search tools and outcome-reward reinforcement learning (RL) have achieved new state-of-the-art results on open-domain QA tasks. However, we argue that current training paradigms harbor a critical vulnerability: they predominantly reward correct answers but fail to penalize fabricated ones when retrieval fails, thereby implicitly exacerbating hallucinations.

arXiv AI
Sep 1

AgenticRag-R1: Agentic Reinforcement Learning with Stack Memory for Multi-Step Reasoning, Retrieval and Memorizing

AgenticRag‑R1 is a reinforcement‑learning framework that integrates reasoning, retrieval, and memory through a stack and fine‑grained action space. It uses hierarchical action‑aware rewards and an information‑aware trajectory rejection strategy to support long‑horizon learning. Experiments on multi‑hop, open‑domain, and agentic reasoning benchmarks show that AgenticRag‑R1 outperforms strong baselines and produces robust, interpretable, memory‑aware reasoning behaviors.

By Xinke Jiang, Yue Fang, Zhibang Yang, Jiaran Gao, Zhixin Zhang, Tao Feng, Rihong Qiu, Wentao Zhang, Hongxin Ding, Ruizhe Zhang, Yongxin Xu, Yuheng Huang, Xu Chu, Junfeng Zhao, Yasha Wang
arXiv AI
Jul 16

Representation-Based Exploration for Language Models: From Test-Time to Post-Training

arXiv:2510. 11686v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Reinforcement learning (RL) promises to expand the capabilities of language models, but it is unclear if current RL techniques promote the discovery of novel behaviors, or simply sharpen those already present in the base model.

By Jens Tuyls, Dylan J. Foster, Akshay Krishnamurthy, Jordan T. Ash
arXiv AI
Sep 25

Search-Aware Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Component Query Understanding in Roblox Game Search

The paper introduces a search‑aware reinforcement learning framework for multi‑component query understanding in Roblox game search. It first uses teacher‑student supervised fine‑tuning to create a schema‑compliant policy, then applies reinforcement learning that optimizes each query‑understanding component with component‑specific rewards derived from live search engine interactions. Experiments show that this approach improves per‑component utility and overall search quality, raising NDCG@20 by 8.9 points over the supervised baseline and 3.5 points over a single end‑to‑end reward strategy.

By Nayoung Choi, Shengjian Chen, Xiaokai Wei, Wenzheng Zhang, Daiyao Yi, Rachit Pareek, Vincent Su, Michelle Gong, Jinho D. Choi
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Aug 3

CRISP: Critical Step Perception for Training Efficient Deep Search Agents

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly extended into deep search agents that solve complex questions through multi-step interaction with external search and browsing tools. However, existing agents often incur substantial computational and interaction costs, generating lengthy trajectories that contain redundant queries, inefficient exploration, and irrelevant observations.