arXiv:2510.06214cs.LGcs.AI2025-10被引 5

针对大模型搜索代理的路径异质性,提出分层优势归一化方法提升强化学习效果。

Stratified GRPO: Handling Structural Heterogeneity in Reinforcement Learning of LLM Search Agents

  • 按搜索路径结构分层,局部计算优势以消除跨层偏差
  • 在多跳问答任务中比标准GRPO提升最高11.3分,训练更稳定
  • 适合需要复杂搜索策略的大模型智能体训练场景

大型语言模型(LLM)代理越来越多地依赖搜索引擎等外部工具解决复杂多步问题,强化学习(RL)已成为其训练的关键范式。然而,搜索代理的轨迹存在结构性异质性,搜索调用的数量、位置和结果差异导致答案方向和奖励分布根本不同。标准策略梯度方法使用单一全局基线,会引发我们定义并形式化的跨层偏差——对异质轨迹进行‘苹果对橙子’式的比较。这种偏差扭曲了信用分配,阻碍了复杂多步搜索策略的探索。为此,我们提出分层GRPO,其核心是分层优势归一化(SAN),根据轨迹的结构特征将其划分为同质层,并在每层内局部计算优势,确保轨迹仅与真正同类比较。分析证明,SAN可消除跨层偏差,实现每层内无偏且方差为1的估计,同时保留全局无偏性和单位方差特性,带来更纯净、尺度稳定的训练信号。为提升有限样本下的实际稳定性,进一步线性融合SAN与全局估计器。在多种单跳和多跳问答基准上的实验表明,分层GRPO持续显著优于GRPO,最高提升11.3分,获得更高训练奖励、更强训练稳定性和更有效的搜索策略。这些结果确立分层法作为应对LLM搜索代理强化学习中结构异质性的原则性解决方案。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large language model (LLM) agents increasingly rely on external tools such as search engines to solve complex, multi-step problems, and reinforcement learning (RL) has become a key paradigm for training them. However, the trajectories of search agents are structurally heterogeneous, where variations in the number, placement, and outcomes of search calls lead to fundamentally different answer directions and reward distributions. Standard policy gradient methods, which use a single global baseline, suffer from what we identify and formalize as cross-stratum bias-an "apples-to-oranges" comparison of heterogeneous trajectories. This cross-stratum bias distorts credit assignment and hinders exploration of complex, multi-step search strategies. To address this, we propose Stratified GRPO, whose central component, Stratified Advantage Normalization (SAN), partitions trajectories into homogeneous strata based on their structural properties and computes advantages locally within each stratum. This ensures that trajectories are evaluated only against their true peers. Our analysis proves that SAN eliminates cross-stratum bias, yields conditionally unbiased unit-variance estimates inside each stratum, and retains the global unbiasedness and unit-variance properties enjoyed by standard normalization, resulting in a more pure and scale-stable learning signal. To improve practical stability under finite-sample regimes, we further linearly blend SAN with the global estimator. Extensive experiments on diverse single-hop and multi-hop question-answering benchmarks demonstrate that Stratified GRPO consistently and substantially outperforms GRPO by up to 11.3 points, achieving higher training rewards, greater training stability, and more effective search policies. These results establish stratification as a principled remedy for structural heterogeneity in RL for LLM search agents.

强化学习大模型搜索策略优化轨迹分层

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