arXiv:2607.06640cs.LGcs.AI2026-07

世界模型到底学到了什么?关键看三个问题:能学、能用、谁在用。

What a World Model Represents Is Three Questions

论文配图:What a World Model Represents Is Three Questions
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 通过可到达性、可接纳性和分配性三重检验,判断变量是否被模型有效学习。
  • 一个方向能否进入隐空间,取决于训练信号能否识别它;预测数量决定可容纳方向数(1~4个)。
  • 即使多条路径都能携带同一变量,路径间的竞争不随成本变化而切换,适合研究模型表征机制的学者参考。

世界模型通过观测重建、递归状态、时间滤波和显式任务监督等多种途径学习任务相关的信息。不同途径可能使不同变量可用,同一变量也可能通过多条途径同时存在。当多个途径同时携带时,移除某条途径对损失的影响无法说明模型实际使用的是哪条。为此提出三个核心问题:可到达性(训练信号能否识别任务相关方向)、可接纳性(该方向能否从隐空间恢复)、分配性(在多个候选路径中,哪一条真正承载该信息)。在已知所需坐标集的环境中测试发现:只有训练信号能识别的方向才能进入隐空间;重建、递归或滤波可能已恢复部分坐标,导致奖励或价值头无残余方向可接纳。剩余方向的容量由目标提供独立预测的数量决定——1至4个独立预测可接纳1至4个方向,包括通过价值头实现。可到达性不等于可接纳性:例如时间二阶矩系数在下一项预测中可保持缺失,即便累积贡献不足损失的百分之一,但若加入专门预测该系数的头部,即可恢复。分配性是独立的测试:两条单独训练时均能携带相同变量的路径,在互换移除成本后不会互换载体。基于Transformer记录序列训练的递归模型也呈现相同模式。在竞争路径接近探测阈值时,独立训练结果存在分歧。因此,世界模型所表示的内容本质是三个问题:哪些信息可到达、哪些被接纳、哪个路径实际承载。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

World models learn task-relevant information through many routes: observation reconstruction, recurrent state, temporal filtering, and explicit task supervision. Different routes can make different variables available. The same variable can also be available through several routes at once. When it is, looking at which route would increase the training loss most if removed does not tell you which route the model actually uses. The questions are reachability, whether a training signal can identify a task-relevant direction; admission, whether that direction is recoverable from the latent; and assignment, which eligible route carries it. We test them in environments with a known set of required coordinates. A direction cannot enter the latent unless some training signal can identify it. Reconstruction, recurrence, or filtering may already recover some of those coordinates; a reward or value head then has no residual direction to admit. For what remains, how many independent predictions the target supplies is how many coordinates install: one through four independent predictions admit one through four directions, including through the value head. Reachability is not admission: a temporal second-moment coefficient can remain absent under next-token prediction when accumulating it is a fraction of a percent of that loss, and a head that predicts the coefficient restores it. Assignment is a different test. Two routes that each carry the same variable when trained alone do not swap the carrier when we reverse which is more costly to remove. A recurrent model trained on a transformer's recorded sequences shows the same pattern. Near the point where the competing route is beginning to clear the probe threshold, independent training runs disagree. What a world model represents is therefore three questions: what information is reachable, what supervision admits, and which competing route carries it.

世界模型表征学习可解释性神经科学

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