研究预训练后阶段如何放大数据泄露问题,发现大模型会逐渐遗忘泄露信息,但强化学习能导致更泛化的虚假性能。
The Impact of Post-training on Data Contamination
- 在预训练中注入测试题,观察污染信息随训练阶段的消退规律
- 强化学习使泄露信息产生跨任务泛化,而监督微调仅提升特定任务得分
- 模型越大越容易记忆或泛化泄露内容,需在后训练阶段做污染审计
我们开展了一项受控实验,研究数据污染与大语言模型标准后训练阶段的相互作用。基于干净的Qwen2.5(0.5B/1.5B)和Gemma3(1B/4B)检查点,将GSM8K和MBPP测试题的五个副本注入原本25B token扩展预训练数据集的前2B token中。随后对比污染与未污染模型在预训练后及两种主流后训练方法(监督微调SFT、基于组相对策略优化的强化学习GRPO)后的表现。后训练步骤本身无污染。在数学与编程基准上,我们发现三个一致模式:(i) 污染引发性能飙升,但随继续预训练逐渐减弱,即使在25B token后,虚假性能仍可能接近零;(ii) SFT与GRPO均会重新激活泄露信息,但外部有效性不同:SFT仅在污染任务上虚增分数,而GRPO还使未污染任务(GSMPlus、HumanEval)得分虚增;(iii) 模型规模放大这些趋势:更大规模的SFT模型记忆更多泄露内容,而更大规模的GRPO模型则将泄漏转化为更强的通用能力。结果强调应在后训练阶段进行污染审计,并表明尽管强化学习非免疫,但有助于缓解污染带来的高估问题。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We present a controlled study of how dataset contamination interacts with the post-training stages now standard in large language model training pipelines. Starting from clean checkpoints of Qwen2.5 (0.5B/1.5B) and Gemma3 (1B/4B), we inject five copies of GSM8K and MBPP test items into the first 2B tokens of an otherwise 25B token extended pre-training dataset. We then compare the contaminated and clean models both immediately after pre-training and again after two popular post-training methods: supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning (RL) with group relative policy optimization (GRPO). The applied post-training steps do not have any contamination. Across math and coding benchmarks, we find three consistent patterns: (i) Contamination causes performance spikes that are gradually diminished with continued pre-training. After even 25B tokens the apparent performance inflation of contamination can become close to zero. (ii) Both SFT and GRPO resurface the leaked information, but with different external validity: SFT inflates scores only on the contaminated tasks, whereas GRPO also inflates performance on uncontaminated counterparts (GSMPlus, HumanEval). (iii) Model scale amplifies these tendencies, larger Supervised Fine Tuned models memorize more, while larger GRPO models translate leakage into more generalizable capabilities. Our results underscore the need for contamination audits \emph{after} post-training and suggest that RL-based post-training, although not immune, can help alleviate contamination-related over-estimation problems.
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