模型学会依赖答案位置而非真实推理,导致数学能力评估失效。
Measuring Reward Hacking and Reasoning-Answer Decoupling Under Position-Confounded Optimization

- 用位置混淆的奖励训练语言模型,使模型偏好选项A
- 小模型选A率超90%,无偏测试准确率退化至随机水平
- 大模型虽能正确推理却仍选A,说明推理与答案脱钩
当奖励在训练样本上正确但与多个目标一致时,模型可能习得非预期目标,即目标误泛化。仅靠训练分布上的终点准确率无法区分任务解决与表面特征利用。我们将其视为测量问题:模型在优化一个正确但混淆的信号后,基准分数究竟衡量什么?我们在多项选择数学题上使用GRPO训练语言模型,正确答案始终为选项A,随后在无偏测试集(答案位置随机)上评估。在Qwen2.5、Llama 3.x和Gemma-3模型中,有偏训练使小型模型选A率超过0.90,无偏准确率跌至随机水平,表明准确率不再反映数学能力,而是衡量答案位置策略。进一步发现推理-答案解耦:能力强的模型生成正确推理过程但仍选择A。我们通过数值提取与LLM裁判(GPT-4.1-mini;Qwen2.5-3B解耦率为0.66)追踪此现象。该偏差不仅限于训练域:有偏模型在跨域MMLU和价值导向提示中仍抬高选项A概率。持续在无偏数据上训练可部分逆转域内偏差,但无法完全修复跨域偏差,导致模型在训练集上看似恢复,实则对未见输入仍存在偏见。推理-答案解耦率、答案分布及跨域行为可区分能力退化与可迁移的捷径学习。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
When a reward is correct on every training example yet consistent with more than one goal, a model can acquire an unintended one, a failure known as goal misgeneralization. Endpoint accuracy on the training distribution cannot tell the two apart, because solving the task and exploiting a surface feature can satisfy the reward equally well. We treat this as a measurement problem: what does a benchmark score measure once a model has been optimized against a correct but confounded signal? We train language models with GRPO on multiple-choice math problems where the correct answer is always option A, then evaluate on an unseen test set with unbiased answer positions. Across Qwen2.5, Llama 3.x and Gemma-3 models, biased training often drives option-A rates above 0.90 in smaller models and collapses unbiased accuracy toward chance, so accuracy stops measuring math ability and instead measures an answer-position policy. We further find reasoning-answer decoupling: capable models generate reasoning that reaches the correct numeric answer while still selecting A. We track this with numeric extraction and an LLM judge (GPT-4.1-mini; Qwen2.5-3B decoupling rate is about 0.66). The broken construct generalizes beyond the training domain: biased models inflate A-rates on out-of-domain MMLU and value-laden prompts. Continued training on unbiased data reverses the in-domain shift unevenly and only partially reverses the out-of-domain one, so a model can appear restored on its training distribution while remaining biased on unseen inputs. Reasoning-answer decoupling rate, together with answer distributions and out-of-domain behavior, separates capability loss from a learned, transferable shortcut.
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