DyJR: Preserving Diversity in Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards via Dynamic Jensen-Shannon Replay

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Li, Long, Zhou, Zhijian, Wang, Tianyi, Xu, Weidi, Huang, Zuming, Chu, Wei, Wang, Zhe, Pan, Shirui, Qu, Chao, Qi, Yuan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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_version_ 1866917349756502016
author Li, Long
Zhou, Zhijian
Wang, Tianyi
Xu, Weidi
Huang, Zuming
Chu, Wei
Wang, Zhe
Pan, Shirui
Qu, Chao
Qi, Yuan
author_facet Li, Long
Zhou, Zhijian
Wang, Tianyi
Xu, Weidi
Huang, Zuming
Chu, Wei
Wang, Zhe
Pan, Shirui
Qu, Chao
Qi, Yuan
contents While Reinforcement Learning (RL) enhances Large Language Model reasoning, on-policy algorithms like GRPO are sample-inefficient as they discard past rollouts. Existing experience replay methods address this by reusing accurate samples for direct policy updates, but this often incurs high computational costs and causes mode collapse via overfitting. We argue that historical data should prioritize sustaining diversity rather than simply reinforcing accuracy. To this end, we propose Dynamic Jensen-Shannon Replay (DyJR), a simple yet effective regularization framework using a dynamic reference distribution from recent trajectories. DyJR introduces two innovations: (1) A Time-Sensitive Dynamic Buffer that uses FIFO and adaptive sizing to retain only temporally proximal samples, synchronizing with model evolution; and (2) Jensen-Shannon Divergence Regularization, which replaces direct gradient updates with a distributional constraint to prevent diversity collapse. Experiments on mathematical reasoning and Text-to-SQL benchmarks demonstrate that DyJR significantly outperforms GRPO as well as baselines such as RLEP and Ex-GRPO, while maintaining training efficiency comparable to the original GRPO. Furthermore, from the perspective of Rank-$k$ token probability evolution, we show that DyJR enhances diversity and mitigates over-reliance on Rank-1 tokens, elucidating how specific sub-modules of DyJR influence the training dynamics.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_16157
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DyJR: Preserving Diversity in Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards via Dynamic Jensen-Shannon Replay
Li, Long
Zhou, Zhijian
Wang, Tianyi
Xu, Weidi
Huang, Zuming
Chu, Wei
Wang, Zhe
Pan, Shirui
Qu, Chao
Qi, Yuan
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
While Reinforcement Learning (RL) enhances Large Language Model reasoning, on-policy algorithms like GRPO are sample-inefficient as they discard past rollouts. Existing experience replay methods address this by reusing accurate samples for direct policy updates, but this often incurs high computational costs and causes mode collapse via overfitting. We argue that historical data should prioritize sustaining diversity rather than simply reinforcing accuracy. To this end, we propose Dynamic Jensen-Shannon Replay (DyJR), a simple yet effective regularization framework using a dynamic reference distribution from recent trajectories. DyJR introduces two innovations: (1) A Time-Sensitive Dynamic Buffer that uses FIFO and adaptive sizing to retain only temporally proximal samples, synchronizing with model evolution; and (2) Jensen-Shannon Divergence Regularization, which replaces direct gradient updates with a distributional constraint to prevent diversity collapse. Experiments on mathematical reasoning and Text-to-SQL benchmarks demonstrate that DyJR significantly outperforms GRPO as well as baselines such as RLEP and Ex-GRPO, while maintaining training efficiency comparable to the original GRPO. Furthermore, from the perspective of Rank-$k$ token probability evolution, we show that DyJR enhances diversity and mitigates over-reliance on Rank-1 tokens, elucidating how specific sub-modules of DyJR influence the training dynamics.
title DyJR: Preserving Diversity in Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards via Dynamic Jensen-Shannon Replay
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.16157