arXiv:2602.06818cs.AI2026-02被引 1

对比两种学习策略,发现确认偏误反而更高效。

Wild Guesses and Mild Guesses in Active Concept Learning

  • 用大模型生成程序,贝叶斯更新优化假设
  • 复杂规则下信息增益有效,简单规则下反而失败
  • 选安全样本可避免无效假设,适合人类认知特点

人类概念学习通常是主动的:通过选择查询实例来减少对底层规则的不确定性。主动学习需权衡查询的信息量与学习者生成和评分假设的稳定性。本文研究一种神经符号贝叶斯学习者,其假设由大语言模型(LLM)提出,再通过贝叶斯更新重加权。比较了理性主动学习者(最大化近似期望信息增益,EIG)与类人正向测试策略(PTS,即选择当前最优假设预测为正的实例进行查询)。在经典的数字游戏任务中,当需要证伪时(如复合或含例外规则),EIG表现良好;但在简单规则上表现较差。我们发现,这是由于EIG策略与LLM提案分布之间的支持不匹配:高度诊断性的边界查询使后验推向生成无效或过于具体的程序区域,导致粒子近似中的支持错配陷阱。而PTS虽信息效率较低,但倾向于选择‘安全’查询,维持提案有效性,从而在简单规则上更快收敛。结果表明,‘确认偏误’可能并非认知错误,而是对人类思维中稀疏、开放假设空间下可计算推理的合理适应。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Human concept learning is typically active: learners choose which instances to query or test in order to reduce uncertainty about an underlying rule or category. Active concept learning must balance informativeness of queries against the stability of the learner that generates and scores hypotheses. We study this trade-off in a neuro-symbolic Bayesian learner whose hypotheses are executable programs proposed by a large language model (LLM) and reweighted by Bayesian updating. We compare a Rational Active Learner that selects queries to maximize approximate expected information gain (EIG) and the human-like Positive Test Strategy (PTS) that queries instances predicted to be positive under the current best hypothesis. Across concept-learning tasks in the classic Number Game, EIG is effective when falsification is necessary (e.g., compound or exception-laden rules), but underperforms on simple concepts. We trace this failure to a support mismatch between the EIG policy and the LLM proposal distribution: highly diagnostic boundary queries drive the posterior toward regions where the generator produces invalid or overly specific programs, yielding a support-mismatch trap in the particle approximation. PTS is information-suboptimal but tends to maintain proposal validity by selecting "safe" queries, leading to faster convergence on simple rules. Our results suggest that "confirmation bias" may not be a cognitive error, but rather a rational adaptation for maintaining tractable inference in the sparse, open-ended hypothesis spaces characteristic of human thought.

主动学习大模型贝叶斯推理认知科学

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