arXiv:2603.22379cs.LGcs.AI2026-03

指令微调的LoRA适配器未必真能提升指令遵循能力,存在能力漂移现象。

Instruction-Tuned, but Not More Verifiable Instruction-Following: A Cross-Task Diagnosis for LoRA Adapters

  • 通过跨任务测试同一LoRA适配器,验证其真实能力表现
  • 指令微调后在数值任务上性能从0.133提升至0.632,但指令遵循未提升
  • 提醒用户勿轻信标签,部署前需实测跨任务效果

适配器常依据名义标签(如指令微调)选择和部署,隐含暗示适应后能力提升。我们通过跨任务评估同一LoRA适配器,检验名义训练目标是否真实带来能力增益。最强证据来自IFEval的严格自动可验证指令遵循:在多个随机种子、基模型和LoRA配置下,名义标签反复但非普遍预测出该目标性能提升,存在明显配置敏感性,甚至出现近零或负向表现。以受控指令与数值任务对比为例,指令微调适配器使基于数值的基准性能从0.133提升至0.632,但对IFEval的指令遵循能力无提升(ILA:0.313→0.271;PLA:0.250→0.143,保留三位小数)。我们将此名义与实际能力之间的不一致称为‘能力漂移’。该现象在原始跨任务性能矩阵中可见,漂移分数仅作为与原始指标同单位的简洁摘要,非新提出的形式化度量。更广泛的指令遵循基准结果依赖于具体评测方式,呈现混合结果,因此不将跨基准一致性视为前提。总体实践启示是:部署前应进行常规跨任务评估,避免将名义标签当作可靠能力代理。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Adapters are often selected and deployed based on nominal labels (e.g., instruction-tuned), which implicitly suggest what capability improves after adaptation. We test whether nominal training objectives reliably align with realized cross-task capability gains by evaluating the same LoRA adapter across tasks. Our strongest evidence is tied to strict, automatically verifiable instruction following as measured by IFEval: across multiple seeds, base models, and LoRA settings, nominal labels recurrently but not universally fail to predict improvements on this verifiable target, with clear configuration sensitivity including a near-zero or negative case. As an illustrative strongest-case example in a controlled instruction-versus-numeric setting, an instruction-tuned adapter substantially improves off-target NM-based numeric benchmark performance from 0.133 to 0.632 while not improving verifiable instruction following on IFEval (ILA: 0.313 to 0.271; PLA: 0.250 to 0.143; values rounded to three decimals). We refer to this nominal-versus-realized mismatch pattern as capability drift as a descriptive label. The mismatch is visible in the raw cross-task performance matrix; we use a drift score only as a compact summary in the same units as the underlying metrics, not as a new formal metric contribution. Evidence from broader instruction-following benchmarks is benchmark-dependent and mixed, reflecting heterogeneity in how instruction following is operationalized; we therefore do not treat cross-benchmark agreement as a premise. Overall, the practical takeaway is to perform routine cross-task evaluation before deployment and to avoid treating nominal labels as reliable capability proxies.

LoRA指令遵循能力漂移微调评估

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