arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 22

Gate Initialisation versus Recurrent Dropout and Zoneout in Learning Long Dependencies: A Controlled Study of LSTM and GRU Networks on Synthetic Tasks

The study investigates how gate initialisation and recurrent regularisers (dropout and zoneout) affect learning long dependencies in one‑layer LSTM and GRU networks on synthetic tasks. By running 720 factorial experiments that cross conventional and chrono gate initialisation with up to six regulariser placements, the authors find that chrono initialisation consistently enables networks to reach validation criteria within 5000 updates, whereas conventional initialisation often fails or learns slowly. Dropout generally delays learning, zoneout only helps in limited conditions, and early input sensitivity provides limited predictive power for successful training.

By Oleksandr Kholodniak, Oleksandr Prokhorov
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 5

The Conflict Between Logic and Memory: Training Conditions for Optimizer-Dependent Rule Acquisition

The paper investigates how different optimizers acquire distinct generalizing relations in single‑hidden‑layer ReLU networks. By manipulating nuisance‑connected weights and performing a strict‑parity sweep, the authors show that training conditions reshape both shared failures and relative optimizer advantages, with specific interventions improving accuracy on hard stages. The study also compares optimizer behavior across tasks and an external architecture (CIFAR‑10).

By Gongyue Zhang, Honghai Liu
arXiv AI
Oct 16

Learning to Read Out: Unembedding Dynamics in Language Model Pretraining

The paper investigates when a language model actually learns task information versus when its readout (unembedding matrix) learns to express that information. Using a new parameter‑trajectory cross‑coding method, the authors find that hidden states can encode task data early in training, but the readout reorganizes only in a narrow window (0.4–1.1% of Pythia’s pretraining). By varying the readout learning rate, they show that faster readout learning reduces the gap between hidden‑state encoding and output expression without affecting final performance.

By Matteo He, William F. Shen, Alex Iacob, Andrej Jovanovic, Xinchi Qiu, Nicholas D. Lane