长上下文训练反而削弱模型参数化知识,导致依赖外部信息
Information Abundance Paradox: Long-Context Training Undermines Parametric Knowledge

- 用长上下文训练时,模型更倾向依赖上下文而非内部记忆
- 上下文窗口超过最优值后,语言理解与问答性能开始下降
- 适合关注模型鲁棒性与内在知识存储的研究者
大型语言模型越来越多地在长上下文(如文档、代码库、交互历史)中进行训练和部署。普遍假设是更长的上下文能提供更多证据,从而提升模型表现。我们提出‘信息丰裕悖论’:当训练上下文包含大量相关信息时,模型编码该信息为参数化知识的动机减弱,转而更依赖上下文。在长文本预训练中,增加上下文窗口可提升语言建模、自然语言理解与闭卷多选题性能,但仅到中间最优值,之后持续下降。在监督微调中,更多任务相关训练上下文虽提升有上下文时的表现,却降低在无上下文或误导性上下文下的鲁棒性。分析表明,这是由于更长上下文提供了更低复杂度的解决方案。机制上,富含信息的上下文使梯度压力从前馈网络(常关联参数化知识)转向注意力模块,因果干预证实此转移会增强推理时对上下文的依赖。总体而言,这些发现支持信息丰裕悖论,表明向近乎无限上下文扩展并非仅需更多数据,即使高质量长上下文数据充足亦如此。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language models are increasingly trained and deployed with long contexts that span documents, code repositories, and interaction histories. This scaling reflects the implicit assumption that training on longer contexts will only help the model by exposing it to richer evidence. We challenge this view by studying how the context window shapes a model's mode of learning, shifting it between parametric internalization and contextualization. We propose the Information Abundance Paradox, which hypothesizes that abundant relevant information in the training context can reduce the incentive to encode that information parametrically, thereby increasing reliance on context. In pretraining with long documents, increasing the context window improves language modeling, natural language understanding, and closed-book MCQA only up to an intermediate optimum, after which performance consistently declines. In supervised fine-tuning, more task-relevant train-time context improves performance with supporting context, but reduces robustness when context is absent or misleading at test time. Our analysis suggests that this behavior arises when longer context provides a lower complexity solution. Mechanistically, training with informative context shifts gradient pressure from feed-forward networks, often linked to parametric knowledge, toward attention modules, and causal interventions show that this shift increases reliance on context during inference. Overall, these findings support the Information Abundance Paradox and suggest that scaling toward near-infinite context is not simply a matter of supplying more data, even when high-quality long-context data is abundant.
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