Dense Passage Retrieval in Conversational Search

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Salamah, Ahmed H., McWhannel, Pierre, Yan, Nicole
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Salamah, Ahmed H.
McWhannel, Pierre
Yan, Nicole
author_facet Salamah, Ahmed H.
McWhannel, Pierre
Yan, Nicole
contents Information retrieval systems have traditionally relied on exact term match methods such as BM25 for first-stage retrieval. However, recent advancements in neural network-based techniques have introduced a new method called dense retrieval. This approach uses a dual-encoder to create contextual embeddings that can be indexed and clustered efficiently at run-time, resulting in improved retrieval performance in Open-domain Question Answering systems. In this paper, we apply the dense retrieval technique to conversational search by conducting experiments on the CAsT benchmark dataset. We also propose an end-to-end conversational search system called GPT2QR+DPR, which incorporates various query reformulation strategies to improve retrieval accuracy. Our findings indicate that dense retrieval outperforms BM25 even without extensive fine-tuning. Our work contributes to the growing body of research on neural-based retrieval methods in conversational search, and highlights the potential of dense retrieval in improving retrieval accuracy in conversational search systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_17507
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dense Passage Retrieval in Conversational Search
Salamah, Ahmed H.
McWhannel, Pierre
Yan, Nicole
Information Retrieval
Information retrieval systems have traditionally relied on exact term match methods such as BM25 for first-stage retrieval. However, recent advancements in neural network-based techniques have introduced a new method called dense retrieval. This approach uses a dual-encoder to create contextual embeddings that can be indexed and clustered efficiently at run-time, resulting in improved retrieval performance in Open-domain Question Answering systems. In this paper, we apply the dense retrieval technique to conversational search by conducting experiments on the CAsT benchmark dataset. We also propose an end-to-end conversational search system called GPT2QR+DPR, which incorporates various query reformulation strategies to improve retrieval accuracy. Our findings indicate that dense retrieval outperforms BM25 even without extensive fine-tuning. Our work contributes to the growing body of research on neural-based retrieval methods in conversational search, and highlights the potential of dense retrieval in improving retrieval accuracy in conversational search systems.
title Dense Passage Retrieval in Conversational Search
topic Information Retrieval
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.17507