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Related papers: Emergence in non-neural models: grokking modular a…

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We design and analyze a new paradigm for building supervised learning networks, driven only by local optimization rules without relying on a global error function. Traditional neural networks with a fixed topology are made up of identical…

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems · Physics 2024-10-04 S. Barland , L. Gil

The grokking phenomenon as reported by Power et al. ( arXiv:2201.02177 ) refers to a regime where a long period of overfitting is followed by a seemingly sudden transition to perfect generalization. In this paper, we attempt to reveal the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-14 Vimal Thilak , Etai Littwin , Shuangfei Zhai , Omid Saremi , Roni Paiss , Joshua Susskind

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

Neural networks readily learn a subset of the modular arithmetic tasks, while failing to generalize on the rest. This limitation remains unmoved by the choice of architecture and training strategies. On the other hand, an analytical…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-06 Darshil Doshi , Tianyu He , Aritra Das , Andrey Gromov

Neural collapse, i.e., the emergence of highly symmetric, class-wise clustered representations, is frequently observed in deep networks and is often assumed to reflect or enable generalization. In parallel, flatness of the loss landscape…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-05 Ting Han , Linara Adilova , Henning Petzka , Jens Kleesiek , Michael Kamp

''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

Grokking, the sudden transition from memorization to generalization, is characterized by the emergence of low-dimensional representations, yet the mechanism underlying this organization remains elusive. We propose that intrinsic task…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Hyeonbin Hwang , Yeachan Park

Grokking the delayed transition from memorization to generalization in neural networks remains poorly understood, in part because prior empirical studies confound the roles of architecture, optimization, and regularization. We present a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-27 Shalima Binta Manir , Anamika Paul Rupa

In this technical report, we explore the behavior of Recursive Feature Machines (RFMs), a type of novel kernel machine that recursively learns features via the average gradient outer product, through a series of experiments on regression…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-03-29 Arunav Gupta , Rohit Mishra , William Luu , Mehdi Bouassami

The manifold hypothesis (MH) is often used to explain how machine learning can overcome the curse of dimensionality. However, the MH is only applicable in regimes where the training data provides a sufficiently dense sample of the…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-05-18 Thomas Walker , T. Mitchell Roddenberry , Ahmed Imtiaz Humayun , Randall Balestriero , Richard Baraniuk

Standard optimization theories struggle to explain grokking, where generalization occurs long after training convergence. While geometric studies attribute this to slow drift, they often overlook the interaction between the optimizer's…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-17 Pratyush Acharya , Habish Dhakal

We present a comprehensive analysis of how two-layer neural networks learn features to solve the modular addition task. Our work provides a full mechanistic interpretation of the learned model and a theoretical explanation of its training…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-20 Jianliang He , Leda Wang , Siyu Chen , Zhuoran Yang

Large language models can solve tasks that were not present in the training set. This capability is believed to be due to in-context learning and skill composition. In this work, we study the emergence of in-context learning and skill…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-11-05 Tianyu He , Darshil Doshi , Aritra Das , Andrey Gromov

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

Grokking, or delayed generalization, is a phenomenon where generalization in a deep neural network (DNN) occurs long after achieving near zero training error. Previous studies have reported the occurrence of grokking in specific controlled…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-10 Ahmed Imtiaz Humayun , Randall Balestriero , Richard Baraniuk

An important characteristic of neural networks is their ability to learn representations of the input data with effective features for prediction, which is believed to be a key factor to their superior empirical performance. To better…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-06-06 Zhenmei Shi , Junyi Wei , Yingyu Liang

Grokking -- the abrupt transition from memorization to generalization after prolonged training -- has been linked to confinement on low-dimensional execution manifolds in modular arithmetic. Whether this mechanism extends beyond arithmetic…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-06 Yongzhong Xu

Explaining the predictions of neural black-box models is an important problem, especially when such models are used in applications where user trust is crucial. Estimating the influence of training examples on a learned neural model's…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-12-16 Carolin Lawrence , Timo Sztyler , Mathias Niepert

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 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…