arXiv:2603.25325cs.LGcs.AI2026-03被引 2

剪枝会淘汰高频通用特征,保留稀有专用特征,揭示模型压缩中的隐式选择机制。

How Pruning Reshapes Features: Sparse Autoencoder Analysis of Weight-Pruned Language Models

  • 用稀疏自编码器分析剪枝对语言模型特征几何的影响
  • 稀有特征比高频特征更抗剪枝,相关性达rho=-1.0
  • Wanda剪枝比幅度剪枝更保特征结构,适合可解释性研究

权重剪枝是压缩大语言模型的常用方法,但其对内部表征的影响尚不明确。本文首次系统研究无结构剪枝如何重塑语言模型的特征几何,采用稀疏自编码器(SAE)作为可解释性探针。在三个模型家族(Gemma 3 1B、Gemma 2 2B、Llama 3.2 1B)、两种剪枝方法(幅度与Wanda)及六种稀疏度(0–60%)下,探讨了五个问题:种子稳定性、特征存活率、SAE可迁移性、特征脆弱性及因果相关性。最显著发现是:低激活率的稀有特征在剪枝后存活率远高于高频特征,在17种实验条件中有11种呈现rho = -1.0的负相关。这表明剪枝具有隐式特征选择作用,优先移除高频通用特征,保留专精稀有特征。此外,Wanda剪枝比幅度剪枝保留特征结构高达3.7倍,预训练SAE在50%稀疏度下仍有效,且特征存活率与因果重要性无关,这对压缩下的可解释性研究具有重要启示。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Weight pruning is a standard technique for compressing large language models, yet its effect on learned internal representations remains poorly understood. We present the first systematic study of how unstructured pruning reshapes the feature geometry of language models, using Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) as interpretability probes. Across three model families (Gemma 3 1B, Gemma 2 2B, Llama 3.2 1B), two pruning methods (magnitude and Wanda), and six sparsity levels (0--60%), we investigate five research questions spanning seed stability, feature survival, SAE transferability, feature fragility, and causal relevance. Our most striking finding is that rare SAE features--those with low firing rates--survive pruning far better than frequent ones, with within-condition Spearman correlations of rho = -1.0 in 11 of 17 experimental conditions. This counter-intuitive result suggests that pruning acts as implicit feature selection, preferentially destroying high-frequency generic features while preserving specialized rare ones. We further show that Wanda pruning preserves feature structure up to 3.7x better than magnitude pruning, that pre-trained SAEs remain viable on Wanda-pruned models up to 50% sparsity, and that geometric feature survival does not predict causal importance--a dissociation with implications for interpretability under compression.

模型剪枝特征分析可解释性稀疏自编码器

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