arXiv Machine Learning By Xiaojian Liu, Han Xu, Jianqiang Xia, Zhixuan Li, Ke Xu, Yiwei Dai, Xinran Chen, Changwo Wu, Yuchen Li

SCOPE-RL: Optimizing Reasoning Paths Before and After Success

Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →

arXiv:2607. 11506v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) optimizes LLMs using sparse verifiable final-answer rewards.

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arXiv AI
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Locked at the Entrance, Open Inside: Where RLVR Narrows the Solution Space

The paper investigates why reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards (RLVR) reduces the diversity of solutions in reasoning tasks. By analyzing the Countdown task, the authors show that RLVR contracts the solution space mainly at the entrance—before the first arithmetic operation—causing a 67% drop in solution coverage. They demonstrate that providing an unselected entrance prefix or applying entrance‑targeted interventions can restore or even improve coverage without harming accuracy.

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arXiv Machine Learning
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Cliff: Learning Process Rewards from the First Mistake

Cliff is a reward‑shaping method for reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards that identifies the first mistake in a language model’s reasoning process using an off‑the‑shelf teacher. By splitting each rollout into a correct prefix and an incorrect suffix, Cliff assigns token‑level advantages—positive for correct tokens and negative for the rest—providing fine‑grained supervision. Across 12 scenarios, Cliff outperforms on‑policy distillation by 15% and standard GRPO by 7%, even when the teacher is only modestly capable.

By Peixuan Han, Runhui Wang, Ketan Ramaneti, Jie Hao, Gerald Friedland, Chris Kong