arXiv Machine Learning

Unsupervised Continual Learning with Growing Self-Organizing Maps and Synthetic Replay

The paper introduces a generative continual learning framework that uses growing self‑organizing maps (GSOMs) enhanced with learned distributional statistics and encoder‑decoder models for class‑incremental learning. GSOM units store mean, variance, and covariance estimates to synthesize replay samples, enabling exemplar‑free training without raw data or explicit task boundaries. Experiments on multiple benchmarks show that the unsupervised method competes with supervised memory‑based approaches and outperforms memory‑free baselines, especially in single‑class incremental scenarios, and provides baseline results for TinyImageNet and MiniImageNet.

arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 31

Class Incremental Continual Learning with Self-Organizing Maps and Synthetic Replay

The paper presents a generative continual learning framework that extends self‑organizing maps (SOMs) with learned distributional statistics and encoder–decoder models for class‑incremental learning. By storing running means, variances, and covariances for each SOM unit, the method can generate synthetic samples for replay without storing raw data, enabling exemplar‑free learning. Experiments on CIFAR‑10, CIFAR‑100, and TinyImageNet show competitive or superior performance compared to state‑of‑the‑art memory‑based and memory‑free methods, and the approach also allows easy visualization and post‑training generative use.

By Pujan Thapa, Alexander Ororbia, Travis Desell
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 17

Leveraging Complementary Embeddings for Replay Selection in Continual Learning with Small Buffers

The paper introduces Multiple Embedding Replay Selection (MERS), a graph‑based method that combines supervised and self‑supervised embeddings to improve sample selection for replay buffers in continual learning. MERS replaces traditional buffer selection modules and demonstrates consistent performance gains over state‑of‑the‑art strategies, especially in low‑memory settings. Experiments on CIFAR‑100 and TinyImageNet show that MERS outperforms single‑embedding baselines without adding model parameters or increasing replay volume, making it a practical, drop‑in enhancement for replay‑based continual learning.

By Danit Yanowsky, Daphna Weinshall
arXiv Computer Vision
Aug 28

Beyond Discrete Samples: High Information Density Replay for Efficient Lifelong Person Re-Identification

The paper introduces HiDeR, a High Information Density Replay framework for Lifelong Person Re-Identification that replaces discrete sample selection with information compression. It uses a complexity‑aware memory allocation based on intra‑class variance and a metric‑guided condensation objective to preserve essential identity topologies, while a cross‑modality adaptation strategy bridges synthetic and real styles to improve training. Experiments show HiDeR outperforms state‑of‑the‑art methods in knowledge retention and generalization, and reduces cumulative replay cost.

By Mingyu Wang, Wei Jiang, Haojie Liu, Zhiyong Li, Weijie Mao
arXiv AI
Aug 20

Forgetting, plasticity, and co-observation: a third facet of continual learning

The paper argues that catastrophic forgetting and loss of plasticity alone cannot explain why naive sequential training underperforms offline joint training. It introduces data co-observation as a third factor, showing that observing training data together consistently improves performance across supervised and self-supervised settings. The study also reinterprets common continual learning methods, suggesting that memory replay’s success stems from restoring co-observation benefits rather than merely mitigating forgetting.

By Timm Hess, Abhishek Jha, Gido M. van de Ven, Tinne Tuytelaars
arXiv AI
Jun 16

When Generator Replay Degrades: Projected Rehearsal Orchestration for Heterogeneous Federated Class-Incremental Learning

arXiv:2606. 15695v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Federated class-incremental learning (FCIL) becomes substantially harder when clients observe different label subsets, progress through tasks at different stages, and provide uneven supervision for the same semantic concepts.

By Thinh T. H. Nguyen, Khoa D. Doan, Binh T. Nguyen, Danh Le-Phuoc, Kok-Seng Wong