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arXiv 提交日期: 2026-06-29
📄 Abstract - SGD Provably Prioritizes a Shortcut Spurious Feature in the XOR Model

Neural networks are known to be susceptible to over-reliance on spurious correlations. However, the precise mechanism by which models exploit shortcut features is not fully understood, and algorithms to mitigate this behavior rely on as yet unjustified assumptions about the learned representations. In this work, we provide the first end-to-end theoretical characterization of spurious feature learning for two-layer ReLU neural networks trained by online minibatch SGD on the logistic loss. We consider data drawn from the high-dimensional Boolean hypercube with a quadratic signal function (namely XOR) and a linear spurious correlation. We show that SGD learns the spurious feature first, and exponentially fast. Moreover, the optimization dynamics couple the spurious and signal features, with a stronger spurious component inhibiting signal feature learning. Our analysis reveals precise phase transitions in the learning dynamics. In the first phase, alignment between the signs of the spurious feature and second-layer weight drives rapid growth of the spurious feature. In the second phase, large majority group margin slows learning and the signal feature remains suppressed. When the spurious correlation is maximally strong, we show theoretically that the spurious feature dominates even at the sample complexity threshold where XOR would be learned in isolation (i.e., if the spurious feature was absent). In contrast, when the correlation strength is constant, we provide preliminary empirical evidence that the model can eventually learn the XOR signal, although the spurious feature is not forgotten.

顶级标签: theory machine learning
详细标签: spurious correlations sgd dynamics neural network theory feature learning xor model 或 搜索:

SGD在XOR模型中优先学习虚假捷径特征 / SGD Provably Prioritizes a Shortcut Spurious Feature in the XOR Model


1️⃣ 一句话总结

本文通过理论证明和实验验证,揭示了两层ReLU神经网络在使用随机梯度下降(SGD)训练时,会优先且极快地学习一个线性虚假特征,而真正重要的非线性信号(XOR)特征则被抑制,直到虚假相关减弱或样本量极大增加时才可能被学习。

源自 arXiv: 2606.30444