让模型通过分步反馈学习改进推理,效果优于传统奖励机制。
The Role of Feedback Alignment in Self-Distillation

- 用与推理过程对齐的分步反馈训练模型自蒸馏
- 分步反馈使性能提升16.11点,显著优于二值奖励
- 反馈与推理结构匹配能精准修正错误,不扰动正确步骤
在语言模型中引入额外上下文(如前次尝试的反馈)通常能提升输出质量。自蒸馏旨在让模型在无上下文时仍保持该改进。方法是通过对比仅见问题的“学生”与同时见上下文的“自教师”输出分布来训练。模型学习效果取决于自教师接收的上下文设计,但这一设计尚未被系统研究。本文通过在冻结的评判器反馈上训练求解器,比较三种条件:(i) 二值奖励(GRPO),(ii) 参考答案,(iii) 与求解器推理轨迹对齐的分步批判。结果表明,分步对齐反馈表现最佳,平均得分提升16.11点(相比GRPO)和5.27点(相比参考答案)。逐标记分析显示:分步反馈仅作用于推理失败的标记,保留正确行为;而参考答案则迫使模型在每个标记上都改变行为(即使正确步骤),因不同推导路径必然存在表述差异。这说明反馈与推理结构的对齐是自蒸馏有效性的关键驱动因素。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Conditioning a language model on additional context, such as feedback on a previous attempt, typically improves its response. Self-distillation trains the model to retain this improvement when the context is not present. The method works by matching the model's output distribution under two settings: a student that sees only the question, and a self-teacher that also sees the context. What the model learns therefore depends on what context the self-teacher receives, yet the design of this context remains largely unexplored. We study context design for self-distillation by training a solver on feedback from a frozen critic. We compare three conditions: (i) a binary reward (GRPO), (ii) the reference solution, and (iii) a step-by-step critique aligned to the solver's reasoning trace. Step-aligned critique yields the largest gains, outperforming GRPO by 16.11 points and reference-solution-conditioned self-distillation by 5.27 points (Avg@12). Per-token advantage analysis reveals why: step-aligned feedback targets only the tokens where reasoning fails, leaving correct behavior intact. Conditioning on the reference solution, by contrast, pressures the model to change its behavior at every token (even correct steps) because an alternative derivation inevitably differs in phrasing and approach. This suggests that structural alignment between feedback and the solver's reasoning is a key driver of self-distillation effectiveness.
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。