This paper defines and quantifies transferability in domain generalization.
problem Understanding and quantifying transferability between domains.
method Formal definition and estimation of transferability, upper bound for target error.
result Many algorithms do not learn transferable features, proposing a new algorithm.
Interventional domain adaptation improves feature transferability by removing spurious correlations.
problem Improper feature transferability due to spurious correlations in domain adaptation.
method Intervention strategy using unlabeled target data to generate counterfactual features and train discriminability invariance.
result Consistent performance improvements over state-of-the-art approaches in various domain adaptation tasks.
AdaTrans adapts to feature and sample transfer in high-dimensional regression.
problem High-dimensional linear regression with more features than samples.
method F-AdaTrans and S-AdaTrans methods using fused-penalties and adaptive weights.
result AdaTrans achieves convergence rates close to oracle estimators and near-minimax optimal rates.
Transfer learning from natural image datasets, particularly ImageNet, using standard large models and corresponding pretrained weights has become a de-facto method for deep learning applications to medical imaging. However, there are fundamental differences in data sizes, features and task specifications between natura…
The paper investigates what enables successful transfer learning and separates feature reuse from data statistics.
problem Understanding what enables successful transfer learning and identifying the responsible parts of the network.
method Analyzes transfer learning on block-shuffled images to distinguish feature reuse from data statistics.
result Some benefit of transfer learning comes from learning low-level statistics of data, not just feature reuse.
Optimal feature transfer identified through bias-variance analysis.
problem Optimizing feature transfer in transfer learning.
method Simple linear model with fine-grained bias-variance decomposition.
result Optimal pretrained feature transform is naturally sparse.
WAPPO optimizes feature distributions for better visual transfer in RL.
problem Improving visual transfer in reinforcement learning.
method WAPPO uses Wasserstein Confusion to minimize feature distribution distance.
result WAPPO outperforms previous methods in visual transfer across different environments.
Arbitrary style transfer is an important problem in computer vision that aims to transfer style patterns from an arbitrary style image to a given content image. However, current methods either rely on slow iterative optimization or fast pre-determined feature transformation, but at the cost of compromised visual qualit…
One question central to Reinforcement Learning is how to learn a feature representation that supports algorithm scaling and re-use of learned information from different tasks. Successor Features approach this problem by learning a feature representation that satisfies a temporal constraint. We present an implementation…
New theory explains when pre-trained models can improve downstream tasks.
problem Lack of theoretical understanding of task similarity for transfer learning.
method Feature-centric viewpoint, theoretical results on transferability phase diagram.
result Transfer learning outperforms training from scratch when target task is well represented in feature space.
Transfer learning improves image classifier performance in data-starved regimes.
problem Deploying image classifiers in domains with limited labeled data.
method Transfer learning with deep neural networks, focusing on feature reuse and overparameterization.
result Transfer learning enhances CNN performance in data-starved regimes.
Proposes a new model to predict polymer properties by integrating various data types.
problem Inaccurate polymer property prediction due to separate modeling of different data types.
method Multi-modal cascade feature transfer using GCN for chemical structure and molecular descriptors.
result Empirically evaluated model shows higher predictive performance than single-feature approaches.
New adversarial attack method based on deep feature distributions.
problem Adversarial attacks on CNN classifiers using output layer information.
method Modeling and exploiting class-wise and layer-wise deep feature distributions.
result Achieves state-of-the-art transfer-based attack results for undefended ImageNet models.
We propose Deep Asymmetric Multitask Feature Learning (Deep-AMTFL) which can learn deep representations shared across multiple tasks while effectively preventing negative transfer that may happen in the feature sharing process. Specifically, we introduce an asymmetric autoencoder term that allows reliable predictors fo…
New method improves blackbox attack transferability by perturbing feature hierarchy.
problem Improving transferability of blackbox attacks across different models and datasets.
method Perturbs representations throughout feature hierarchy to mimic other classes.
result Achieves 10x increase in targeted success rate compared to other methods.
Modern deep transfer learning approaches have mainly focused on learning generic feature vectors from one task that are transferable to other tasks, such as word embeddings in language and pretrained convolutional features in vision. However, these approaches usually transfer unary features and largely ignore more stru…
A simple strategy prevents negative transfer in transfer learning.
problem Negative transfer in transfer learning where source representations harm target performance.
method Residual feature integration with a trainable target-side encoder.
result The method provably prevents negative transfer with theoretical guarantees.
New research shows deep models learn sparse features, limiting transfer learning; ensembling improves performance.
problem Sparse feature learning in deep models limits transfer learning performance.
method Developed a theoretical framework and proposed an ensembling strategy to aggregate multiple models.
result Ensembling yields a 9% improvement in transfer accuracy without extra pretraining cost.
A key question in Reinforcement Learning is which representation an agent can learn to efficiently reuse knowledge between different tasks. Recently the Successor Representation was shown to have empirical benefits for transferring knowledge between tasks with shared transition dynamics. This paper presents Model Featu…
Headless attacks bypass classification heads to fool transfer learning models.
problem Adversarial attacks against transfer learning models without access to the classification head.
method Label-blind adversarial attacks that do not require class-label information.
result Transfer attack lowers ResNet18 accuracy on CIFAR10 by over 40%.
Proposes TFCL to mitigate negative transfer in MTL by collaborating across features and tasks.
problem Negative transfer in Multi-Task Learning (MTL) due to dissimilar tasks.
method Task-Feature Collaborative Learning (TFCL) with heterogeneous block-diagonal structure regularizer and optimization method.
result Global convergence and block-diagonal structure recovery guarantees.
RTFE provides adversarial robustness to multiple models.
problem Adversarial examples can transfer to other models, compromising robustness.
method Proposes RTFE, a deep learning-based pre-processing mechanism.
result RTFE provides adversarial robustness to multiple independently trained classifiers.
Proposes TFDF to learn transferable and discriminative features for unsupervised domain adaptation.
problem Difficult to induce supervised classifier without labeled data in unsupervised domain adaptation.
method TFDF optimizes transferability and discriminability by aligning distributions and minimizing class confusion.
result TFDF achieves better performance on real-world datasets compared to existing methods.
We consider a transfer-learning problem by using the parameter transfer approach, where a suitable parameter of feature mapping is learned through one task and applied to another objective task. Then, we introduce the notion of the local stability and parameter transfer learnability of parametric feature mapping,and th…
How can we recognise social roles of people, given a completely unlabelled social network? We present a transfer learning approach to network role classification based on feature transformations from each network's local feature distribution to a global feature space. Experiments are carried out on real-world datasets.…
FRA-Attack improves adversarial transferability for closed-source MLLMs by aligning visual focus across models.
problem Improving adversarial transferability for closed-source MLLMs, especially with high accuracy.
method Unified frequency-domain regularization approach: high-pass DCT objective for feature alignment and Frequency-domain Gradient Regularization (FGR) for gradient optimization.
result FRA-Attack achieves superior cross-model transferability, especially on GPT-5.4, Claude-Opus-4.6, and Gemini-3-flash.
This work investigates how neural collapse improves transfer learning for large-scale models.
problem Improving transfer learning for large-scale models with limited labeled data.
method Investigates neural collapse and develops a fine-tuning method using skip-connections.
result Feature collapse on downstream data correlates with higher transfer accuracy.
Method transfers feature representation from large to small models using perception coherence.
problem Transfer feature representation from large to small models.
method Defines perception coherence, proposes loss function to minimize.
result Method outperforms or achieves on-par performance compared to strong baseline methods.
Transfer learning and data augmentation improve stock classification performance.
problem Challenges in stock classification due to noise and volatility.
method Pre-trained model on S&P500 index features, transfer learning to new models, data augmentation on feature space.
result Augmentation on feature space leads to 20% increase in risk-adjusted returns.
Method uses random forest with distance covariance for transfer learning in healthcare.
problem Transfer learning in random forests with sparse differences between source and target.
method Distance covariance-based feature weights in residual random forest.
result Upper bound on mean square error rate for transfer learning in RF.
Transfer learning is a cornerstone of computer vision, yet little work has been done to evaluate the relationship between architecture and transfer. An implicit hypothesis in modern computer vision research is that models that perform better on ImageNet necessarily perform better on other vision tasks. However, this hy…
Algorithm identifies and transfers unstable features to create robust classifiers.
problem Developing unbiased classifiers from input-label pairs alone.
method Contrast different data environments in source tasks to encode unstable features, then cluster target task data and minimize worst-case risk.
result Our method maintains robustness across synthetic and real-world environments.
Paper improves few-shot classification accuracy using feature distribution preprocessing.
problem Challenges of few-shot classification due to limited labelled samples.
method Proposes a novel transfer-based method that preprocesses feature vectors to Gaussian-like distributions and uses optimal-transport inspired algorithms.
result Achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on standardized vision benchmarks.
Paper improves feature selection accuracy using transfer learning.
problem Improving feature selection accuracy in information criteria-based methods.
method Proposes TLCp, a transfer learning procedure based on Mallows' Cp.
result TLCp outperforms conventional Cp in accuracy and stability.
SF-DQN improves RL transfer by learning successor features.
problem Transfer RL with shared dynamics but different reward functions.
method Decomposes Q-function into SF and reward mapping; uses GPI for policy improvement.
result SF-DQN with GPI converges faster and generalizes better than traditional RL methods.
Method learns feature map between source and target domains for high-dimensional regression with missing features.
problem High-dimensional regression with differing feature sets in target and source domains.
method First learns a feature map between missing and observed features using source data, then imputes missing features in target domain, and performs two-step transfer learning for penalized regression.
result Developed upper bounds on estimation and prediction errors for HTL, showing dependence on model complexity, sample size, feature map quality, and domain differences.
This work proposes an ensemble clustering method using transfer learning approach. We consider a clustering problem, in which in addition to data under consideration, "similar" labeled data are available. The datasets can be described with different features. The method is based on constructing meta-features which desc…
Enhances performance on downstream tasks using multi-domain data.
problem Improving performance on tasks with limited downstream data.
method Deep transfer learning framework leveraging shared and domain-specific features.
result Significantly improves convergence rate for learning Lipschitz functions.
Domain adaptation is the supervised learning setting in which the training and test data are sampled from different distributions: training data is sampled from a source domain, whilst test data is sampled from a target domain. This paper proposes and studies an approach, called feature-level domain adaptation (FLDA), …
A new method transfers adversarial robustness from teacher to student using feature distillation.
problem Adversarial robustness transfer across different models and tasks.
method Guided Adversarial Contrastive Distillation (GACD) with contrastive learning and sample reweighted estimation.
result GACD effectively transfers adversarial robustness from teacher to student, achieving comparable or better results.
New method improves model robustness against adversarial attacks.
problem Adversarial attacks can deceive models trained with transfer learning.
method Noisy feature distillation method for random initialization.
result Models trained with random initialization are more robust to attacks.
Deep tabular models outperform GBDT in medical diagnosis tasks.
problem Transfer learning for tabular data in medical diagnosis.
method Proposes a pseudo-feature method for transfer learning between different feature sets.
result Tabular neural networks outperform GBDT in medical diagnosis tasks.
As the application of deep learning has expanded to real-world problems with insufficient volume of training data, transfer learning recently has gained much attention as means of improving the performance in such small-data regime. However, when existing methods are applied between heterogeneous architectures and task…
In this work, we evaluate adversarial robustness in the context of transfer learning from a source trained on CIFAR 100 to a target network trained on CIFAR 10. Specifically, we study the effects of using robust optimisation in the source and target networks. This allows us to identify transfer learning strategies unde…
Transfer in Reinforcement Learning (RL) refers to the idea of applying knowledge gained from previous tasks to solving related tasks. Learning a universal value function (Schaul et al., 2015), which generalizes over goals and states, has previously been shown to be useful for transfer. However, successor features are b…
Deep networks, composed of multiple layers of hierarchical distributed representations, tend to learn low-level features in initial layers and transition to high-level features towards final layers. Paradigms such as transfer learning, multi-task learning, and continual learning leverage this notion of generic hierarch…
Proposes a framework for extracting consistent physiological features across users.
problem Variability of biosignals across different users and tasks.
method Adversarial feature extractor for disentangled universal representations.
result Up to 8.8% improvement in average accuracy of classification.
This work improves transferability by considering conditional distributions in feature representations.
problem Improving transferability across multiple domains by considering conditional distributions.
method Introducing von Neumann conditional divergence to quantify the functional dependence between features and desired response.
result Favorable performance in terms of smaller generalization error and less catastrophic forgetting.