arXiv:2607.20046cs.LGcs.AI2026-07中稿 · ISSTA 2026

通过检测模型训练后期的不稳定性,提升深度神经网络测试用例的故障发现效率。

Test Case Prioritization for DNNs via Neural Collapse Instability

论文配图:Test Case Prioritization for DNNs via Neural Collapse Instability
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 利用训练末期权重间夹角一致性,筛选代表性训练检查点。
  • 根据测试样本在检查点间的预测波动排序,优先覆盖易出错样本。
  • 在多个数据集和模型上均显著优于基线,适合资源受限的可靠性验证场景。

随着深度神经网络在安全关键领域广泛应用,有限测试预算下降低模型验证成本愈发重要。现有测试用例优先级方法依赖单一检查点的输出置信度,但深度神经网络可能高自信地犯错,且预测类别的置信度差距常较小,削弱了早期故障发现能力。为此,本文提出受神经坍缩启发的测试用例优先级框架(NCIP),将绝对置信度替换为终端训练阶段的跨检查点预测变异性。NCIP引入两个核心组件:首先,通过分类器权重向量间成对余弦相似性的标准差(即等角性评分)选择具有代表性的训练检查点子集;其次,依据测试输入在选定检查点间的预测变异性进行排序,从而暴露边界邻近、对检查点变化敏感的故障易发样本。在多个数据集与模型上的大量实验表明,相较于竞争性基线,NCIP在相同测试预算下实现了1.5%至16.6%的RAUC-ALL提升,以及4.9%至20.6%的RAUC-500提升,并在所有数据集-模型组合上取得最佳平均性能。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

With the widespread deployment of deep neural networks (DNNs) in safety-critical domains, reducing the cost of model validation under limited testing budgets has become increasingly important. Existing test case prioritization techniques often rely on single-checkpoint confidence signals derived from output probabilities. However, DNNs can be confidently wrong, and the confidence margin between the predicted and competing classes is frequently small, which weakens early fault discovery. To address this limitation, we propose a Neural-Collapse-Inspired Prioritization (NCIP) framework that replaces absolute confidence with cross-checkpoint prediction variability in the terminal training regime, where model geometry becomes highly structured. NCIP introduces two key components. First, it selects an NC-guided representative subset of training checkpoints using an equiangularity score of classifier weights, quantified as the standard deviation of pairwise cosine similarities among class weight vectors. Second, it prioritizes test inputs by their prediction variability across the selected checkpoints, surfacing boundary-adjacent and failure-prone samples that are unstable under checkpoint-induced decision boundary shifts. Extensive experiments across multiple datasets and architectures show that NCIP achieves strong performance in early fault discovery compared with competitive baselines, with 1.5 to 16.6 percent RAUC-ALL gains and 4.9 to 20.6 percent RAUC-500 gains under the same testing budget. NCIP further attains the best average performance across all dataset-model pairs.

测试优先神经坍缩模型验证

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