Prediction horizon shapes representations in predictive learning
Fuente:
arXiv
Salvato in:
| Autori principali: | , |
|---|---|
| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2025
|
| Soggetti: | |
| Accesso online: | |
| Tags: |
Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
|
| _version_ | 1866913089886093312 |
|---|---|
| author | Ratzon, Aviv Barak, Omri |
| author_facet | Ratzon, Aviv Barak, Omri |
| contents | Predictive learning has emerged as a central paradigm for training models across diverse data domains and is increasingly viewed as a foundation for modern artificial intelligence. A common intuition for this success is that accurate prediction requires models to capture the underlying dynamics of the environment, leading to the emergence of structured world models. However, predictive learning does not universally yield such representations, and a mechanistic account of when and why it does remains incomplete. In this work, we identify the prediction horizon as a critical, but often implicit, component of predictive learning objectives. We show that increasing the prediction horizon fundamentally shapes the effective structure of the learning problem. In a minimal setting, we demonstrate both theoretically and empirically that the model's implicit biases interact with this structural change to recover the latent geometry of the task. We then extend these empirical results to nonlinear architectures and more complex datasets, where similar phenomena persist. These findings provide a principled explanation for the emergence of structured representations in predictive learning paradigms and clarify the conditions under which such representations should be expected. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09290 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Prediction horizon shapes representations in predictive learning Ratzon, Aviv Barak, Omri Machine Learning Neurons and Cognition Predictive learning has emerged as a central paradigm for training models across diverse data domains and is increasingly viewed as a foundation for modern artificial intelligence. A common intuition for this success is that accurate prediction requires models to capture the underlying dynamics of the environment, leading to the emergence of structured world models. However, predictive learning does not universally yield such representations, and a mechanistic account of when and why it does remains incomplete. In this work, we identify the prediction horizon as a critical, but often implicit, component of predictive learning objectives. We show that increasing the prediction horizon fundamentally shapes the effective structure of the learning problem. In a minimal setting, we demonstrate both theoretically and empirically that the model's implicit biases interact with this structural change to recover the latent geometry of the task. We then extend these empirical results to nonlinear architectures and more complex datasets, where similar phenomena persist. These findings provide a principled explanation for the emergence of structured representations in predictive learning paradigms and clarify the conditions under which such representations should be expected. |
| title | Prediction horizon shapes representations in predictive learning |
| topic | Machine Learning Neurons and Cognition |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09290 |