提出ACPO算法,让大模型强化学习更新更稳定有效。
What are Key Factors for Updates in RL for LLM Reasoning?

- 分析发现梯度步数影响重要性采样,决定哪些词主导更新
- 在3B和7B模型上优于DAPO、CISPO等基线,提升推理能力
- 适合研究强化学习优化或大模型推理的开发者
基于可验证奖励的强化学习(RLVR)成为提升大语言模型推理能力的有前景框架。然而现有工作多依赖启发式直觉,导致算法选择分歧甚至矛盾,却仍报告性能提升。为理解这一现象,我们对RLVR更新进行理论分析。研究发现,离策略程度(由每轮采样中梯度步数决定)显著影响重要性采样比率的分布及其裁剪行为,从而改变主导更新的词元。基于此,我们指出梯度期望是控制更新动态的核心量,并分析了词元概率、优势值与重要性采样比率的作用。受此启发,我们提出自适应裁剪策略优化(ACPO),根据各词元组重要性采样比率的经验方差动态调整裁剪边界。在3B与7B模型上,跨数学求解、表格问答与逻辑谜题等多样化推理基准的实验表明,ACPO优于强基线如DAPO与CISPO。结果表明,基于分析的原理性方法能带来更鲁棒高效的RLVR方法。代码见:https://github.com/Control-derek/ACPO
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reinforcement Learning from Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) has emerged as a promising framework for enhancing the reasoning ability of large language models. However, much of the existing work is guided by heuristic intuition, leading to divergent algorithmic choices, even contradictory ones that nevertheless report empirical gains. To better understand this phenomenon, we conduct a theoretical analysis of RLVR updates. Our study reveals that differences in off-policy degree, determined by the number of gradient steps per rollout, substantially affect the distribution of importance sampling ratios and their clipping behavior, thereby altering which tokens dominate the update. Building on this insight, we characterize gradient expectation as the central quantity governing update dynamics and analyze the roles of token probability, advantage, and importance sampling ratio. Motivated by these findings, we propose Adaptive Clip Policy Optimization (ACPO), which adjusts clipping boundaries across token groups according to the empirical variance of their importance sampling ratios. Experiments on 3B and 7B models across diverse reasoning benchmarks, spanning mathematical problem solving, tabular QA, and logic puzzles, demonstrate that ACPO outperforms strong baselines such as DAPO and CISPO. These results demonstrate that principled, analysis-driven approaches yield more robust and effective RLVR methods. Code is available in: https://github.com/Control-derek/ACPO
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