arXiv:2608.11690cs.LGstat.ML2026-08

提出分层信息论框架,解析重放缓冲导致遗忘的双重机制。

Drift and Dependence: Layer-wise Information-Theoretic Bounds for Replay-Based Continual Learning

  • 分层拆解重放缓冲中的表征漂移与优化依赖,揭示遗忘根源
  • 发现稳定中间层可最小化漂移敏感度,提升记忆保持能力
  • 设计在线诊断指标,实时追踪任务间遗忘风险

持续学习需在不遗忘旧知识的前提下吸收新任务,重放缓冲(将少量历史样本混入当前训练)是缓解灾难性遗忘的有效方法。然而其泛化行为受两个耦合效应影响:有限记忆用经验近似替代过往分布,重复使用使缓冲区、当前数据与最终模型通过共享优化轨迹相互关联。本文构建分层信息论框架,在每一层分离这两个效应。主要结果将期望泛化误差分解为重放缓冲引发的表征漂移和优化依赖项,后者进一步拆分为稳定性、可塑性、交互作用与残余耦合成分。两项改进使框架可操作:基于Wasserstein的漂移项松弛,适用于支持不匹配场景,导出深度相关的漂移-敏感度权衡,其最小值指示应稳定哪个内部层;采用SGLD实现优化项,将其转化为轨迹级对数行列式预算,暴露一个曲率感知的梯度对齐统计量,可作为任务遗忘的在线诊断。控制实验与基准测试验证了预测的记忆规模、中间漏斗现象及对齐信号与遗忘的关联。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Continual learning must absorb new tasks without erasing old ones, and replay---mixing a small buffer of past examples into current training---is among the most effective remedies for catastrophic forgetting. Yet its generalization behavior is shaped by two coupled effects that existing analyses fold into a single hypothesis-level quantity: finite memory replaces each past distribution with an empirical proxy, and repeated reuse couples the buffer, the current data, and the final hypothesis through a shared optimization trajectory. We develop a layer-wise information-theoretic framework that separates these effects at every depth. Our main result decomposes the expected generalization gap into a replay-induced representation drift and an optimization-dependence term, the latter further resolved into stability, plasticity, interaction, and residual-coupling components. Two refinements make the framework operational. A Wasserstein relaxation of the drift term, valid under support mismatch, yields a depth-dependent drift--sensitivity trade-off whose minimizer identifies which interior layer to stabilize. An SGLD instantiation of the optimization term reduces it to a trajectory-level log-determinant budget, exposing a curvature-aware gradient-alignment statistic that serves as an online diagnostic of task-wise forgetting. Controlled and benchmark experiments confirm the predicted memory scaling, the interior funnel, and the alignment signal's link to forgetting.

持续学习重放缓冲信息论遗忘诊断

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