The paper re‑evaluates memory‑based self‑improving agents by adding multiple runs to measure variance and by randomizing task order. It finds that agent performance is noisy in complex, multi‑step environments and that improvement depends heavily on the sequence of tasks, revealing a hidden curriculum effect. The authors suggest that underspecification of tasks and environments contributes to this fragility and demonstrate that adding detailed rubrics and feedback can partially mitigate performance drops, though gaps remain.
By Qinyuan Ye, Yu Li, Yada Pruksachatkun, Jiaxin Zhang, Chien-Sheng Wu
MemoryArena is a new evaluation gym that benchmarks agent memory in interdependent multi‑session tasks. Unlike prior benchmarks that test memorization or single‑session action in isolation, MemoryArena requires agents to acquire memory while interacting with the environment and then use that memory to guide future decisions across a range of tasks such as web navigation, planning, information search, and formal reasoning. The benchmark reveals that agents excelling on existing long‑context memory tests perform poorly here, highlighting a gap in current memory evaluation methods.
By Zexue He, Yu Wang, Churan Zhi, Yuanzhe Hu, Tzu-Ping Chen, Lang Yin, Ze Chen, Tong Arthur Wu, Siru Ouyang, Zihan Wang, Jiaxin Pei, Julian McAuley, Yejin Choi, Alex Pentland
arXiv:2606. 14571v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: A central role of personal-agent memory is to turn stored information and prior interactions into future-oriented assistance.
By Guanming Liu, Yuqi Ren, Hansu Gu, Peng Zhang, Weihang Wang, Jiahao Liu, Ning Gu, Tun Lu
arXiv:2606. 02461v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Language agents spend substantial inference time solving individual tasks, yet the experience acquired in one episode is often underutilized in future episodes.
By Yiheng Shu, Bernal Jim\'enez Guti\'errez, Saisri Padmaja Jonnalagedda, Yuguang Yao, Huan Sun, Yu Su
arXiv:2606. 02461v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Language agents spend substantial inference time solving individual tasks, yet the experience acquired in one episode is often underutilized in future episodes.
By Yiheng Shu, Bernal Jim\'enez Guti\'errez, Saisri Padmaja Jonnalagedda, Yuguang Yao, Huan Sun, Yu Su
S3Gym is an interactive benchmark designed to evaluate large language models (LLMs) on their ability to self-improve through self-testing, self-judging, and self-improvement. It separates permissive exploration from strict held-out evaluation across seven text-based games with executable environment verifiers. Experiments show that self-improvement varies by task, with different experience incorporation pathways (direct history, summary memory, or parameter training) yielding mixed results and highlighting the need for agents to transform feedback into executable, transferable policies.
By Jiajun Shi, Siyuan Tao, Yuhao Wu, Zexuan Wang, Jingyuan Zhang, Jiaheng Liu, Xinping Lei, Xinrong Zhang, Siyuan Fang, Zhewen Tan, Tianle Cai, Junhao Fang, Jiameng Huang, Yueyang Wang, Jinkai Liu, Yuxuan Zhang, Jian Yang, Zhoujun Li, Shen Yan, Wenhao Huang, Ge Zhang
The paper introduces MemProbe, a framework inspired by cognitive science to evaluate stability-plasticity tradeoffs in agent memory systems. It offers four experimental paradigms—interference, misinformation, consolidation strength, and reconsolidation window—to manipulate memory updates, preservation, and uncertainty. Using a 56-episode diagnostic suite, the authors evaluate six incremental memory systems, revealing that similar overall scores can mask distinct behavioral profiles in how memories are updated, preserved, attributed, and temporally organized.
By Jiaqi Ding, Guorong Wu
arXiv:2608. 14036v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Skills have emerged as a practical and effective approach for enhancing LLM agents at inference time through structured packages of knowledge.
By Zhiyuan Jiang, Fangrui Huang, Hanwen Xing, Xander Wu, Yipeng Gao, Rui Cao, Mengdi Wang, Shilong Liu, Yijiang Li
arXiv:2609.21533v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: LLM-based multi-agent systems generate collaboration traces that record how agents plan tasks, verify intermediate results, and repair failures. Reusin...
By Kairui Yang, Minghao An, Xunkai Li, Ziheng Yi, Zekai Chen, Guangyuan He, Rong-Hua Li
arXiv:2602. 03224v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Test-time evolution of agent memory represents a pivotal paradigm for advancing AGI, as it strengthens complex reasoning through experience accumulation without requiring parameter updates.
By Yu Cheng, Yongkang Hu, Jiuan Zhou, Yushuo Zhang, Yihang Chen, Huichi Zhou, Mingang Chen, Zhizhong Zhang, Kun Shao, Yuan Xie, Zhaoxia Yin
The paper explores Retrospection-Only Fine-Tuning (ROFT), a method where a language-model agent improves its behavior by generating and training on explanations of its own experiences, without external teachers or reward signals. In software‑engineering tasks with Qwen3.5‑4B, ROFT achieves comparable or better solve rates than GRPO while requiring fewer updates and training time, and can learn from failures alone. Behavioral analysis shows ROFT indirectly assigns credit to actions and can produce shorter, more direct solutions when prompted to focus on direct solutions.
arXiv:2507. 05257v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Recent benchmarks for Large Language Model (LLM) agents primarily focus on evaluating reasoning, planning, and execution capabilities, while another critical component-memory, encompassing how agents memorize, update, and retrieve long-term information-is under-evaluated due to the lack of benchmarks.
By Yuanzhe Hu, Yu Wang, Julian McAuley