Data Efficacy for Language Model Training

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Dai, Yalun, Huang, Yangyu, Zhang, Xin, Wu, Wenshan, Li, Chong, Lu, Wenhui, Cao, Shijie, Dong, Li, Li, Scarlett
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Dai, Yalun
Huang, Yangyu
Zhang, Xin
Wu, Wenshan
Li, Chong
Lu, Wenhui
Cao, Shijie
Dong, Li
Li, Scarlett
author_facet Dai, Yalun
Huang, Yangyu
Zhang, Xin
Wu, Wenshan
Li, Chong
Lu, Wenhui
Cao, Shijie
Dong, Li
Li, Scarlett
contents Data is fundamental to the training of language models (LM). Recent research has been dedicated to data efficiency, which aims to maximize performance by selecting a minimal or optimal subset of training data. Techniques such as data filtering, sampling, and selection play a crucial role in this area. To complement it, we define Data Efficacy, which focuses on maximizing performance by optimizing the organization of training data and remains relatively underexplored. This work introduces a general paradigm, DELT, for considering data efficacy in LM training, which highlights the significance of training data organization. DELT comprises three components: Data Scoring, Data Selection, and Data Ordering. Among these components, we design Learnability-Quality Scoring (LQS), as a new instance of Data Scoring, which considers both the learnability and quality of each data sample from the gradient consistency perspective. We also devise Folding Ordering (FO), as a novel instance of Data Ordering, which addresses issues such as model forgetting and data distribution bias. Comprehensive experiments validate the data efficacy in LM training, which demonstrates the following: Firstly, various instances of the proposed DELT enhance LM performance to varying degrees without increasing the data scale and model size. Secondly, among these instances, the combination of our proposed LQS for data scoring and Folding for data ordering achieves the most significant improvement. Lastly, data efficacy can be achieved together with data efficiency by applying data selection. Therefore, we believe that data efficacy is a promising foundational area in LM training.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_21545
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Data Efficacy for Language Model Training
Dai, Yalun
Huang, Yangyu
Zhang, Xin
Wu, Wenshan
Li, Chong
Lu, Wenhui
Cao, Shijie
Dong, Li
Li, Scarlett
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Performance
Data is fundamental to the training of language models (LM). Recent research has been dedicated to data efficiency, which aims to maximize performance by selecting a minimal or optimal subset of training data. Techniques such as data filtering, sampling, and selection play a crucial role in this area. To complement it, we define Data Efficacy, which focuses on maximizing performance by optimizing the organization of training data and remains relatively underexplored. This work introduces a general paradigm, DELT, for considering data efficacy in LM training, which highlights the significance of training data organization. DELT comprises three components: Data Scoring, Data Selection, and Data Ordering. Among these components, we design Learnability-Quality Scoring (LQS), as a new instance of Data Scoring, which considers both the learnability and quality of each data sample from the gradient consistency perspective. We also devise Folding Ordering (FO), as a novel instance of Data Ordering, which addresses issues such as model forgetting and data distribution bias. Comprehensive experiments validate the data efficacy in LM training, which demonstrates the following: Firstly, various instances of the proposed DELT enhance LM performance to varying degrees without increasing the data scale and model size. Secondly, among these instances, the combination of our proposed LQS for data scoring and Folding for data ordering achieves the most significant improvement. Lastly, data efficacy can be achieved together with data efficiency by applying data selection. Therefore, we believe that data efficacy is a promising foundational area in LM training.
title Data Efficacy for Language Model Training
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Performance
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.21545