arXiv:2604.13123cs.LGcs.AI2026-04被引 1

发现神经网络延迟泛化前的谱熵坍塌现象,可预测泛化时机。

Spectral Entropy Collapse as a Phase Transition in Delayed Generalisation: An Interventional and Predictive Framework for Grokkin

  • 通过表示谱熵变化追踪延迟泛化过程,发现其在训练中逐渐下降并跨越阈值。
  • 谱熵下降前1000步内预测泛化时间误差小于200步,跨种子表现稳定。
  • 适用于有结构任务(如循环群),为理解泛化机制提供几何视角。

延迟泛化(Grokking)——神经网络从记忆到泛化的延迟转变——仍缺乏深入理解。本文通过分析学习表示的几何结构,发现泛化前存在一致的实证信号:表示协方差矩阵的谱熵坍塌。在模运算任务和多个随机种子下,谱熵在训练中持续下降,并在测试准确率上升前跨过一个稳定的、任务相关的阈值。引入表示混合干预后,谱熵坍塌被推迟,泛化也相应延迟,即使在参数范数匹配控制下依然成立,表明该效应不能仅由参数范数解释。进一步发现,谱熵差距可有效预测距离泛化剩余时间,具有良好的跨样本预测能力。为探究该转变的内在结构,本文提出针对循环群任务的傅里叶对齐可观测量。结果表明,谱熵坍塌与傅里叶对齐表示的出现强相关,说明谱熵反映的是表示向任务结构方向集中,而非一般压缩。非阿贝尔群组合任务中亦观察到类似动态,而MLP对照组显示:仅谱熵坍塌不足以引发泛化,需合适的归纳偏置。综合结果支持将grokking视为具有可观测几何特征的表示相变。讨论了该解释的适用范围与局限,以及与近期特征学习和谱动力学研究的联系,并提出未来在更大规模系统中验证此类相变的可能性。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Grokking - the delayed transition from memorisation to generalisation in neural networks - remains poorly understood. We study this phenomenon through the geometry of learned representations and identify a consistent empirical signature preceding generalisation: collapse of the spectral entropy of the representation covariance matrix. Across modular arithmetic tasks and multiple random seeds, spectral entropy decreases gradually during training and crosses a stable task-specific threshold before test accuracy rises. A representation-mixing intervention that delays this collapse also delays grokking, including under norm-matched controls, indicating that the effect is not explained by parameter norm alone. We further show that the entropy gap predicts the remaining time until grokking with useful out-of-sample accuracy. To probe the structure underlying this transition, we introduce a Fourier-alignment observable for cyclic-group tasks. Entropy collapse is strongly coupled to the emergence of Fourier-aligned representations, suggesting that spectral entropy tracks concentration of the representation into task-structured directions rather than generic compression alone. The same qualitative dynamics appear in non-abelian group composition tasks, while MLP controls show that entropy collapse by itself is insufficient for grokking in the absence of appropriate inductive bias. Taken together, the results support a view of grokking as a representational phase transition with an observable geometric signature. We discuss the scope and limitations of this interpretation, connections to recent feature-learning and spectral-dynamics work, and directions for testing whether similar transitions appear in larger-scale learning systems.

延迟泛化表示相变谱熵可预测性

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。