解决大模型智能体在主动推理中因信息自我锁定导致的无效交互问题
On Information Self-Locking in Reinforcement Learning for Active Reasoning of LLM agents
- 通过动作选择与信念追踪的耦合分析,揭示信息自我锁定机制
- 提出优势重分配方法,9个任务中性能提升最高达60分
- 适合研究大模型自主决策与强化学习融合的学者参考
强化学习已成为构建基于大模型的智能体以完成长期任务的核心范式。然而,在需要通过环境交互获取新信息的主动推理场景中,我们发现基于结果的强化学习会引发一种系统性失败模式,称为信息自我锁定(SeL):智能体既无法获取有信息量的反馈,也无法吸收已获得的证据。为理解该问题,我们将智能体行为分解为两个耦合能力:动作选择(AS),决定观察流;信念追踪(BT),更新内部任务认知。理论与实证分析表明,双向瓶颈导致了SeL:弱化的信念追踪模糊了有价值动作的信用,而弱化的动作选择又剥夺了信念追踪所需的有效证据。这种耦合削弱了两者的学习信号。为此,我们提出简单有效的优势重分配方法AREW,利用易得的方向性批评在轨迹内重新分配信用。跨9个不同复杂度的智能体任务的实验显示,AREW显著缓解了信息自我锁定,最终性能提升最高达60点。代码已公开于https://github.com/unimpor/T3。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reinforcement learning (RL) has become a de facto paradigm for building LLM-based agents that act, interact, and reason over extended task horizons. However, in active reasoning where agents must elicit new observations through interaction with the environment to solve the task, we find that outcome-based RL can induce a systematic failure mode which we call information self-locking (SeL): agents fail both to elicit informative feedback and to internalize obtained evidence. To understand the issue, we trace agentic behaviors into two coupled capabilities: Action Selection (AS), which determines observation streams, and Belief Tracking (BT), which updates the agent's internal task understanding. Theoretical and empirical analyses reveal a bidirectional bottleneck that leads to SeL: weak BT obscures the credit of informative actions, while weak AS deprives BT of useful evidence. This coupling weakens the learning signal for both capabilities and leads to SeL. To mitigate this issue, we propose AREW, a simple yet effective Advantage Reweighting method that uses easy-to-obtain directional critiques to reallocate credit within trajectories. Extensive experiments across 9 agentic tasks of varying complexity show that AREW significantly mitigates SeL, yielding up to 60-point gains in final performance. Code is available at https://github.com/unimpor/T3.
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