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Few-shot learning evaluation protocols may overestimate model performance

A new paper critically examines the assumptions behind few-shot learning evaluations, particularly the common practice of pre-training models on large auxiliary datasets. Researchers found that pre-training, even with classes disjoint from the target episodes but within the same visual domain, significantly overestimates performance. The study suggests that out-of-domain pre-training is more realistic for scarce target-domain data, and surprisingly, label-free augmentation strategies can achieve comparable results to supervised out-of-domain pre-training. The paper advocates for moving away from in-domain pre-training as the default evaluation protocol to better reflect real-world scenarios. AI

IMPACT Challenges standard evaluation methods for few-shot learning, potentially leading to more realistic performance assessments and influencing future model development.

RANK_REASON Academic paper published on arXiv detailing a critical examination of a machine learning evaluation protocol. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]

Read on arXiv cs.LG →

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Few-shot learning evaluation protocols may overestimate model performance

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Academic paper published on arXiv detailing a critical examination of a machine learning evaluation protocol. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]
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COVERAGE [1]

  1. arXiv cs.LG TIER_1 English(EN) · Alejandro Galan-Cuenca, Marcelo Saval-Calvo, Antonio Javier Gallego ·

    Are We Really Doing Few-Shot Learning? A Critical Examination of Pre-Training Assumptions

    arXiv:2609.10851v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Few-shot learning is commonly evaluated under protocols that pre-train a model on a large auxiliary set whose classes are disjoint from the target episodes yet drawn from the same visual domain. This paper examines whether such pr…