arXiv:2602.17898cs.LG2026-02中稿 · ICLR

解决注意力回归模型相关性提升停滞问题,提出新方法突破性能瓶颈

Breaking the Correlation Plateau: On the Optimization and Capacity Limits of Attention-Based Regressors

  • 发现降低均方误差会抑制相关性梯度,导致相关性提升停滞
  • 证明任何凸聚合器的相关性提升存在理论上限,受输入数据范围限制
  • 提出ECA方法,通过外推机制突破凸包限制,显著提升相关性

基于注意力的回归模型通常联合优化均方误差(MSE)和皮尔逊相关系数(PCC)损失,分别关注误差大小与目标顺序或形状。训练中常见但未被理解的现象是PCC在早期即进入平台期,即使MSE仍在下降。本文首次对这一现象进行严格理论分析,揭示优化动态与模型容量的根本局限。首先,我们发现降低MSE(幅度匹配)可能反向抑制PCC梯度(形状匹配),该问题在数据高度同质时由softmax注意力机制加剧。其次,我们证明任意凸聚合器(包括softmax注意力)的相关性提升存在理论上限:可达到的PCC增益严格受限于输入的凸包。我们进一步发现,数据同质性会强化这两类限制。基于此,我们提出外推相关性注意力(ECA),引入理论驱动的新机制,改善PCC优化并突破凸包限制。在多个基准测试中,包括具有挑战性的同质数据场景,ECA持续打破PCC平台期,在不损害MSE表现的前提下实现显著相关性提升。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Attention-based regression models are often trained by jointly optimizing Mean Squared Error (MSE) loss and Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) loss, emphasizing the magnitude of errors and the order or shape of targets, respectively. A common but poorly understood phenomenon during training is the PCC plateau: PCC stops improving early in training, even as MSE continues to decrease. We provide the first rigorous theoretical analysis of this behavior, revealing fundamental limitations in both optimization dynamics and model capacity. First, in regard to the flattened PCC curve, we uncover a critical conflict where lowering MSE (magnitude matching) can paradoxically suppress the PCC gradient (shape matching). This issue is exacerbated by the softmax attention mechanism, particularly when the data to be aggregated is highly homogeneous. Second, we identify a limitation in the model capacity: we derived a PCC improvement limit for any convex aggregator (including the softmax attention), showing that the convex hull of the inputs strictly bounds the achievable PCC gain. We demonstrate that data homogeneity intensifies both limitations. Motivated by these insights, we propose the Extrapolative Correlation Attention (ECA), which incorporates novel, theoretically-motivated mechanisms to improve the PCC optimization and extrapolate beyond the convex hull. Across diverse benchmarks, including challenging homogeneous data setting, ECA consistently breaks the PCC plateau, achieving significant improvements in correlation without compromising MSE performance.

注意力机制回归模型相关性优化理论分析

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