arXiv:2602.22107cs.LGcs.AI2026-02

验证集选参别只看准确率,用损失函数更稳更准

Don't stop me now: Rethinking Validation Criteria for Model Parameter Selection

  • 用损失值而非准确率做早停选参,效果更优
  • 基于损失的选参方法测试表现更稳定且更高
  • 即使最优选参策略也常比最佳训练轮次差

尽管训练损失函数研究丰富,但验证集泛化评估仍被忽视。本文系统研究了神经分类器中模型选择所用验证标准对测试性能的影响,重点关注早停策略。在标准基准上使用全连接网络进行k折交叉验证,对比两种方式:(i) 带耐心机制的早停,(ii) 所有轮次后择优(无早停)。采用交叉熵、C-Loss或PolyLoss训练,验证集参数选择基于准确率或三种损失函数之一,独立评估。三大发现:(1) 基于验证准确率的早停表现最差,始终选出的检查点测试准确率低于损失基早停和后验择优;(2) 损失基验证标准表现相当且更稳定;(3) 在不同数据集与折数中,单一验证规则常无法选出测试最优检查点。总体而言,无论采用何种验证标准,选中的模型测试性能通常显著低于所有轮次中的最优表现。结果建议避免以准确率(尤其配合早停)作为参数选择依据,优先采用损失基验证标准。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Despite the extensive literature on training loss functions, the evaluation of generalization on the validation set remains underexplored. In this work, we conduct a systematic empirical and statistical study of how the validation criterion used for model selection affects test performance in neural classifiers, with attention to early stopping. Using fully connected networks on standard benchmarks under $k$-fold evaluation, we compare: (i) early stopping with patience and (ii) post-hoc selection over all epochs (i.e. no early stopping). Models are trained with cross-entropy, C-Loss, or PolyLoss; the model parameter selection on the validation set is made using accuracy or one of the three loss functions, each considered independently. Three main findings emerge. (1) Early stopping based on validation accuracy performs worst, consistently selecting checkpoints with lower test accuracy than both loss-based early stopping and post-hoc selection. (2) Loss-based validation criteria yield comparable and more stable test accuracy. (3) Across datasets and folds, any single validation rule often underperforms the test-optimal checkpoint. Overall, the selected model typically achieves test-set performance statistically lower than the best performance across all epochs, regardless of the validation criterion. Our results suggest avoiding validation accuracy (in particular with early stopping) for parameter selection, favoring loss-based validation criteria.

模型选择早停策略验证标准泛化性能

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