只恢复部分层就能让大模型生成更丰富,不增加计算开销
Not All Layers Need Tuning: Selective Layer Restoration Recovers Diversity
- 选择性恢复预训练权重的特定层,实现无需训练的多样性提升
- 在三种模型和三类任务上,多样性显著提升且质量损失极小
- 适合追求生成多样性的应用,如创意写作与开放问答
后训练可提升大语言模型的指令遵循能力与帮助性,但常导致生成多样性下降,引发开放生成场景下的重复输出,即模式坍缩。基于各层功能不同的证据,我们假设模式坍缩可定位至特定层,通过将部分层恢复为预训练权重,可在保持高质量的同时恢复多样性。为此设计了带显式有效性集和自然多样性目标的代理任务——受限随机字符(CRC)。CRC结果揭示了恢复范围与多样性-有效性间的明确权衡,并识别出能显著提升多样性且质量损失最小的配置。据此提出无训练方法选择性层恢复(SLR),仅恢复选定层的预训练权重,形成同架构同参数量的混合模型,推理成本不变。在三种任务(创意写作、开放问答、多步推理)和三种模型家族(Llama、Qwen、Gemma)上,SLR均能稳定显著提升生成多样性,同时维持高输出质量。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Post-training improves instruction-following and helpfulness of large language models (LLMs) but often reduces generation diversity, which leads to repetitive outputs in open-ended settings, a phenomenon known as mode collapse. Motivated by evidence that LLM layers play distinct functional roles, we hypothesize that mode collapse can be localized to specific layers and that restoring a carefully chosen range of layers to their pre-trained weights can recover diversity while maintaining high output quality. To validate this hypothesis and decide which layers to restore, we design a proxy task -- Constrained Random Character(CRC) -- with an explicit validity set and a natural diversity objective. Results on CRC reveal a clear diversity-validity trade-off across restoration ranges and identify configurations that increase diversity with minimal quality loss. Based on these findings, we propose Selective Layer Restoration (SLR), a training-free method that restores selected layers in a post-trained model to their pre-trained weights, yielding a hybrid model with the same architecture and parameter count, incurring no additional inference cost. Across three different tasks (creative writing, open-ended question answering, and multi-step reasoning) and three different model families (Llama, Qwen, and Gemma), we find SLR can consistently and substantially improve output diversity while maintaining high output quality.
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