English
Related papers

Related papers: Progress measures for grokking via mechanistic int…

200 papers

Grokking, or delayed generalization, is an intriguing learning phenomenon where test set loss decreases sharply only after a model's training set loss has converged. This challenges conventional understanding of the training dynamics in…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-02-05 Breno W. Carvalho , Artur S. d'Avila Garcez , Luís C. Lamb , Emílio Vital Brazil

Neural network grokking -- the abrupt memorization-to-generalization transition -- challenges our understanding of learning dynamics. Through finite-size scaling of gradient avalanche dynamics across eight model scales, we find that…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-07 Ping Wang

Grokking, the unusual phenomenon for algorithmic datasets where generalization happens long after overfitting the training data, has remained elusive. We aim to understand grokking by analyzing the loss landscapes of neural networks,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-24 Ziming Liu , Eric J. Michaud , Max Tegmark

Grokking is proposed and widely studied as an intricate phenomenon in which generalization is achieved after a long-lasting period of overfitting. In this work, we propose NeuralGrok, a novel gradient-based approach that learns an optimal…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-04-28 Xinyu Zhou , Simin Fan , Martin Jaggi , Jie Fu

We propose that the grokking phenomenon, where the train loss of a neural network decreases much earlier than its test loss, can arise due to a neural network transitioning from lazy training dynamics to a rich, feature learning regime. To…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-04-12 Tanishq Kumar , Blake Bordelon , Samuel J. Gershman , Cengiz Pehlevan

We investigate grokking in transformers through the lens of inductive bias: dispositions arising from architecture or optimization that let the network prefer one solution over another. We first show that architectural choices such as the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-09 Jaisidh Singh , Diganta Misra , Antonio Orvieto

Grokking is a intriguing phenomenon in machine learning where a neural network, after many training iterations with negligible improvement in generalization, suddenly achieves high accuracy on unseen data. By working in the quantum-inspired…

This paper focuses on predicting the occurrence of grokking in neural networks, a phenomenon in which perfect generalization emerges long after signs of overfitting or memorization are observed. It has been reported that grokking can only…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-10-02 Pascal Jr. Tikeng Notsawo , Hattie Zhou , Mohammad Pezeshki , Irina Rish , Guillaume Dumas

Grokking, the phenomenon of delayed generalization, is often attributed to the depth and compositional structure of deep neural networks. We study grokking in one of the simplest possible settings: the learning of a linear model with…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-10 Nataraj Das , Atreya Vedantam , Chandrashekar Lakshminarayanan

Delayed generalization, termed grokking, in a machine learning calculation occurs when the increase in test accuracy is delayed relative to the training accuracy. This paper examines grokking in the context of a dense neural network trained…

Disordered Systems and Neural Networks · Physics 2026-02-06 Karolina Hutchison , David Yevick

''Grokking'' is a phenomenon where a neural network first memorizes training data and generalizes poorly, but then suddenly transitions to near-perfect generalization after prolonged training. While intriguing, this delayed generalization…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-04-21 Zhiwei Xu , Zhiyu Ni , Yixin Wang , Wei Hu

We aim to understand grokking, a phenomenon where models generalize long after overfitting their training set. We present both a microscopic analysis anchored by an effective theory and a macroscopic analysis of phase diagrams describing…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-10-17 Ziming Liu , Ouail Kitouni , Niklas Nolte , Eric J. Michaud , Max Tegmark , Mike Williams

Grokking typically achieves similar loss to ordinary, "steady", learning. We ask whether these different learning paths - grokking versus ordinary training - lead to fundamental differences in the learned models. To do so we compare the…

Grokking in modular arithmetic has established itself as the quintessential fruit fly experiment, serving as a critical domain for investigating the mechanistic origins of model generalization. Despite its significance, existing research…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-04-01 Junjie Zhang , Zhen Shen , Gang Xiong , Xisong Dong

While the phenomenon of grokking, i.e., delayed generalization, has been studied extensively, it remains an open problem whether there is a mathematical framework that characterizes what kind of features will emerge, how and in which…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-03 Yuandong Tian

The training dynamics of deep neural networks often defy expectations, even as these models form the foundation of modern machine learning. Two prominent examples are grokking, where test performance improves abruptly long after the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-28 Keitaro Sakamoto , Issei Sato

In continual learning problems, it is often necessary to overwrite components of a neural network's learned representation in response to changes in the data stream; however, neural networks often exhibit \primacy bias, whereby early…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-07-29 Clare Lyle , Gharda Sokar , Razvan Pascanu , Andras Gyorgy

Grokking is a puzzling phenomenon in neural networks where full generalization occurs only after a substantial delay following the complete memorization of the training data. Previous research has linked this delayed generalization to…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-12 Tiberiu Musat

In this paper we propose to study generalization of neural networks on small algorithmically generated datasets. In this setting, questions about data efficiency, memorization, generalization, and speed of learning can be studied in great…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-01-07 Alethea Power , Yuri Burda , Harri Edwards , Igor Babuschkin , Vedant Misra

Training dynamics during grokking concentrate along a small number of dominant update directions -- the spectral edge -- which reliably distinguishes grokking from non-grokking regimes. We show that standard mechanistic interpretability…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-09 Yongzhong Xu