arXiv AI

What Pretraining and Midtraining Make Learnable from Rewards?

The paper investigates how pretraining and midtraining enable reward-based learning by providing necessary information and computation. It analyzes sequential state computation and contextual memory, showing that task‑independent source observations resolve ambiguities in reward adaptation. Experiments on pretrained Qwen2.5 checkpoints across eight worlds demonstrate that correct source and first‑operation supervision significantly improve success rates, and that memory replay and independent confirmation further enhance performance.

arXiv Machine Learning
Jul 30

SkillRise: Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Cross-Task Skill Evolution

arXiv:2607. 26784v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Large language model agents often encounter related yet distinct tasks that share reusable solution patterns.

By Zhiyuan Yao, Yuxin Chen, Zhengxi Lu, Zishan Xu, Yueqing Sun, Yifu Guo, Yuquan Lu, Zhengzhou Cai, Kangning Zhang, Zhuowen Han, Zi-Han Wang, Ziang Ye, Qi Gu, Xunliang Cai, Weiwen Liu, Yongliang Shen
arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 15

Learning to Coach for Experiential Learning

arXiv:2609.15851v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Language models can learn from experience, but raw solution trajectories are often too long and noisy to provide effective guidance. In this work, we p...

By Guanheng Chen, Tianzhu Ye, Li Dong, Xun Wu, Shaohan Huang, Furu Wei
arXiv AI
6d ago

Stepwise Intrinsic Rewards for Reasoning in Large Language Models

The paper introduces Stepwise Marginal Information Gain (MIG), an intrinsic process reward that evaluates how each reasoning step of a large language model (LLM) or vision-language model (VLM) improves the likelihood of the reference answer. MIG rewards only new likelihood maxima, preventing duplicate credit, and is combined with outcome, format, and self‑distillation objectives to guide training. Experiments on eight benchmarks show that this method outperforms outcome‑only reinforcement learning and improves accuracy by up to 4.8 points over binary‑reward training, including a 12.6‑point gain on MathVerse and a 12.9‑point advantage on vision‑language transfer at 7B parameters.

By Xiangwei Wang, Wei Wang, Ken Chen, Nanduni Nimalsiri, Sachith Seneviratne, Saman Halgamuge
arXiv Computation and Language
4d ago

Better Behavioral Prediction, More Faithful Model Ablations? Evidence from Sequential Choice

The paper investigates whether input ablations on predictive models can reliably reveal the importance of information for explaining human sequential choice behavior. Using two synthetic bandit tasks with known generating policies, the authors compare GRUs, Transformers, a fine‑tuned LLaMA, and cognitive models under varied reward contributions. They find that while neural models can predict choices well, their responses to ablations often diverge from the true generating process, indicating that predictive accuracy alone does not guarantee faithful model ablations.

By Hanbo Xie
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 1

The Intervention Gap in Latent World Models

The paper introduces the concept of intervention fidelity in latent world models, measuring whether a model’s open‑loop transitions align with actual environment interventions. Experiments on TD‑MPC2, Cheetah, and DreamerV3 show that high reward fit does not guarantee fidelity, and that self‑supervised models can outperform task‑anchored ones in preserving intervention effects. The authors propose a capture‑gated audit to localize failures and argue that fidelity must be directly audited on the model’s native interface.

By Donna Vakalis