BabyLM Challenge: Exploring the Effect of Variation Sets on Language Model Training Efficiency

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Main Authors: Haga, Akari, Fukatsu, Akiyo, Oba, Miyu, Bisazza, Arianna, Oseki, Yohei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Haga, Akari
Fukatsu, Akiyo
Oba, Miyu
Bisazza, Arianna
Oseki, Yohei
author_facet Haga, Akari
Fukatsu, Akiyo
Oba, Miyu
Bisazza, Arianna
Oseki, Yohei
contents While current large language models have achieved a remarkable success, their data efficiency remains a challenge to overcome. Recently it has been suggested that child-directed speech (CDS) can improve training data efficiency of modern language models based on Transformer neural networks. However, it is not yet understood which specific properties of CDS are effective for training these models. In the context of the BabyLM Challenge, we focus on Variation Sets (VSs), sets of consecutive utterances expressing a similar intent with slightly different words and structures, which are ubiquitous in CDS. To assess the impact of VSs on training data efficiency, we augment CDS data with different proportions of artificial VSs and use these datasets to train an auto-regressive model, GPT-2. We find that the best proportion of VSs depends on the evaluation benchmark: BLiMP and GLUE scores benefit from the presence of VSs, but EWOK scores do not. Additionally, the results vary depending on multiple factors such as the number of epochs and the order of utterance presentation. Taken together, these findings suggest that VSs can have a beneficial influence on language models, while leaving room for further investigation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_09587
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle BabyLM Challenge: Exploring the Effect of Variation Sets on Language Model Training Efficiency
Haga, Akari
Fukatsu, Akiyo
Oba, Miyu
Bisazza, Arianna
Oseki, Yohei
Computation and Language
While current large language models have achieved a remarkable success, their data efficiency remains a challenge to overcome. Recently it has been suggested that child-directed speech (CDS) can improve training data efficiency of modern language models based on Transformer neural networks. However, it is not yet understood which specific properties of CDS are effective for training these models. In the context of the BabyLM Challenge, we focus on Variation Sets (VSs), sets of consecutive utterances expressing a similar intent with slightly different words and structures, which are ubiquitous in CDS. To assess the impact of VSs on training data efficiency, we augment CDS data with different proportions of artificial VSs and use these datasets to train an auto-regressive model, GPT-2. We find that the best proportion of VSs depends on the evaluation benchmark: BLiMP and GLUE scores benefit from the presence of VSs, but EWOK scores do not. Additionally, the results vary depending on multiple factors such as the number of epochs and the order of utterance presentation. Taken together, these findings suggest that VSs can have a beneficial influence on language models, while leaving room for further investigation.
title BabyLM Challenge: Exploring the Effect of Variation Sets on Language Model Training Efficiency
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.09587