让智能体记忆保留不确定性,避免错误固化。
Belief Memory: Agent Memory Under Partial Observability

- 用概率化记忆存储多个可能结论,而非单一确定结论。
- 在LoCoMo和ALFWorld上表现优于主流基线,平均性能最佳。
- 适合长期决策、环境不完全可见的智能体系统使用。
依赖长上下文运行的LLM智能体需外部记忆来积累知识。现有方法通常将每次观察视为单一确定性结论(如从临时错误推断‘API X失败’),但此类观察本质上部分可观且存在歧义。一旦锁定结论并丢弃不确定性,就会引发自我强化错误:智能体持续依据该结论行动,不再回溯其他可能性,导致错误被不断固化。为此,我们提出BeliefMem,将记忆范式从单一结论转向保留多个候选结论及其概率。具体而言,BeliefMem将候选结论作为独立记忆条目存储,每个条目携带一个概率,并通过噪声或(Noisy-OR)规则随新观测动态更新。检索时,所有候选结论及其概率一并呈现,使替代方案对智能体始终可见。由于记忆中的每个结论都保留其概率,BeliefMem有效保留了原始不确定性,使智能体能在证据充分时高置信度行动,同时在新证据出现时仍可调整信心。在LoCoMo与ALFWorld基准上的实证评估显示,即使数据有限,BeliefMem仍取得最佳平均性能,显著超越知名基线。更广泛地,这种概率化记忆带来显著提升,为部分可观测环境下智能体记忆开辟了新方向。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
LLM agents that operate over long context depend on external memory to accumulate knowledge over time. However, existing methods typically store each observation as a single deterministic conclusion (e.g., inferring "API~X failed" from temporary errors), even though such observations are inherently partial and potentially ambiguous. By committing to one conclusion and discarding uncertainty, these methods introduce self-reinforcing error: the agent acts on the stored conclusion, never revisits alternatives, and reinforces the conclusion over time. To address this issue, we propose BeliefMem, which shifts the memory paradigm from committing to a single conclusion per observation to retaining multiple candidate conclusions with their probabilities. Concretely, BeliefMem stores the candidate conclusions as separate memory entries, each carrying a probability that is updated via Noisy-OR rules as new observations arrive. At retrieval, all candidates surface together with their probabilities, keeping alternatives visible to the agent. Since each conclusion in memory retains its probability, BeliefMem preserves the uncertainty that the deterministic paradigm discards, enabling the agent to act with high confidence on well-evidenced knowledge while retaining the capacity to update its confidence when new evidence arrives. Empirical evaluations on LoCoMo and ALFWorld benchmarks show that, even with limited data, BeliefMem achieves the best average performance, remarkably outperforming well-known baselines. More broadly, such probabilistic memory produces substantial gains and explores a new direction for agent memory in partially observable environments.
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