arXiv:2607.15587cs.LG2026-07

提出可选择性回放的迁移学习方法,提升新任务学习效果。

Rethinking Transfer in Continual Learning: A Replay-Based Realisation

  • 根据三条件筛选有益于当前任务的过往数据进行回放
  • 在低预算下显著提升前向迁移性能,优于传统回放方法
  • 适合关注持续学习中知识迁移效率的研究者

持续学习研究如何让部署的语言模型在不从头昂贵训练的情况下持续学习新任务。现有方法(基于回放或免回放)大多只关注防止灾难性遗忘。前向迁移——过去知识帮助未来学习——通常仅通过参数复用实现,缺乏对何时应发生迁移的明确判断。本文从源头出发:在设计迁移机制前,先回答迁移是否应存在。提出三个可测量条件:目标任务在自身有限监督下仍有提升空间、可迁移信息需在持续优化中存活、回放数据需来自兼容的先前任务。据此构建迁移选择性回放(TSR):依据无需训练的任务签名筛选预期有益的数据,再通过知识蒸馏保持旧任务稳定性。在标准持续学习协议下,低预算场景中TSR一致提升前向迁移性能,且在异构与同构任务流上均优于现有回放基线。结果表明,应将迁移视为持续学习的首要目标,先理解再工程。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Continual learning studies how deployed language models can continually acquire new tasks without expensive retraining from scratch. Existing methods, whether rehearsal-based (replaying stored past data) or rehearsal-free (regularising or isolating parameters), overwhelmingly target one objective: preventing catastrophic forgetting. Forward transfer, the past helping the future, has meanwhile been pursued almost exclusively through parameter reuse, with no explicit account of when transfer should be expected at all. We begin one step earlier: before designing a transfer mechanism, we ask when transfer should exist at all. We answer with a framework of three measurable conditions: the target task must leave room for improvement beyond its own limited supervision, transferable information must survive continued optimisation, and replay must come from compatible previous tasks. We instantiate this view as Transfer-Selective Replay (TSR), which selects replay data predicted to benefit the incoming task rather than replaying past examples indiscriminately. Selection is guided by a zero-training task signature, while distillation preserves stability on previous tasks. Under the standard continual learning protocol in the low-budget regime, TSR consistently improves forward transfer while maintaining stability, outperforming existing replay baselines across heterogeneous and homogeneous task streams. More broadly, the results argue for treating transfer as a first-class objective of continual learning, to be understood before it is engineered.

持续学习迁移学习回放机制

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