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Abstract

Parameter-Efficient Tuning (PETuning) methods have been deemed by many as the new paradigm for using pretrained language models (PLMs). By tuning just a fraction amount of parameters comparing to full model finetuning, PETuning methods claim to have achieved performance on par with or even better than finetuning. In this work, we take a step back and re-examine these PETuning methods by conducting the first comprehensive investigation into the training and evaluation of them. We found the problematic validation and testing practice in current studies, when accompanied by the instability nature of PETuning methods, has led to unreliable conclusions. When being compared under a truly fair evaluation protocol, PETuning cannot yield consistently competitive performance while finetuning remains to be the best-performing method in medium- and high-resource settings. We delve deeper into the cause of the instability and observed that the number of trainable parameters and training iterations are two main factors: reducing trainable parameters and prolonging training iterations may lead to higher stability in PETuning methods.

Details

1009240
Identifier / keyword
Title
Revisiting Parameter-Efficient Tuning: Are We Really There Yet?
Publication title
arXiv.org; Ithaca
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Oct 22, 2022
Section
Computer Science
Publisher
Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
Source
arXiv.org
Place of publication
Ithaca
Country of publication
United States
University/institution
Cornell University Library arXiv.org
e-ISSN
2331-8422
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
Document type
Working Paper
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2022-10-25
Milestone dates
2022-02-16 (Submission v1); 2022-10-22 (Submission v2)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
25 Oct 2022
ProQuest document ID
2629522725
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/working-papers/revisiting-parameter-efficient-tuning-are-we/docview/2629522725/se-2?accountid=208611
Full text outside of ProQuest
Copyright
© 2022. This work is published under http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2022-10-26
Database
2 databases
  • ProQuest One Academic
  • ProQuest One Academic