aiqbench analysis
This paper establishes a rigorous theoretical foundation for the RL-STaR framework, explaining how reinforcement learning can iteratively enhance chain-of-thought reasoning without relying on scarce human-labeled data. By deriving convergence conditions and robustness criteria, the work bridges empirical observations with formal analysis to clarify why self-taught reasoners improve even when incorporating occasional errors. The study validates these insights across multiple model architectures, advancing our understanding of scalable reasoning training in large language models.
RL-STaR: Theoretical Analysis of Reinforcement Learning Frameworks for Self-Taught Reasoner
arXiv:2410.23912v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: The reasoning abilities of large language models (LLMs) have improved with chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting, allowing models to solve complex tasks stepwise. However, training CoT capabilities requires detailed reasoning data, which is often scarce. The self-taught reasoner (STaR) framework addresses this by using reinforcement learning to automatically generate reasoning steps, reducing reliance on human-labeled data. Although STaR and its variants have demonstrated empirical success, a theoretical foundation explaining these improvements is lacking. This work provides a theoretical framework for understanding the effectiveness of reinforcement learning on CoT reasoning and STaR. Our contributions are: (1) criteria for the quality of pre-trained models necessary to initiate effective reasoning improvement; (2) an analysis of policy improvement, showing why LLM reasoning improves iteratively with STaR; (3) conditions for convergence to an optimal reasoning policy; and (4) an examination of STaR's robustness, explaining how it can improve reasoning even when incorporating occasional incorrect steps. We also run RL-STaR on GPT-2, Qwen2.5-0.5B and Phi-3-mini, and the measured return curves follow the ones the analysis predicts. This framework bridges empirical findings with theoretical insights, advancing reinforcement learning approaches for reasoning in LLMs.
Abstract:The reasoning abilities of large language models (LLMs) have improved with chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting, allowing models to solve complex tasks stepwise. However, training CoT capabilities requires detailed reasoning data, which is often scarce. The self-taught reasoner (STaR) framework addresses this by using reinforcement learning to automatically generate reasoning steps, reducing reliance on human-labeled data. Although STaR and its variants have demonstrated empirical success, a theoretical foundation explaining these improvements is lacking. This work provides a theoretical framework for understanding the effectiveness of reinforcement learning on CoT reasoning and STaR. Our contributions are: (1) criteria for the quality of pre-trained models necessary to initiate effective reasoning improvement; (2) an analysis of policy improvement, showing why LLM reasoning improves iteratively with STaR; (3) conditions for convergence to an optimal reasoning policy; and (4) an examination of STaR's robustness, explaining how it can improve reasoning even when incorporating occasional incorrect steps. We also run RL-STaR on GPT-2, Qwen2.5-0.5B and Phi-3-mini, and the measured return curves follow the ones the analysis predicts. This framework bridges empirical findings with theoretical insights, advancing reinforcement learning approaches for reasoning in LLMs.
Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2410.23912 [cs.AI]
(or arXiv:2410.23912v3 [cs.AI] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2410.23912 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
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