Bootstrapped Mixed Rewards for RL Post-Training: Injecting Canonical Action Order

Prakhar Gupta, Vaibhav Gupta

Track: tiny / short paper (up to 4 pages)

Keywords: Reinforcement learning, Post-training, Mixed rewards, Reward scaling, Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO)

Abstract: Post-training with reinforcement learning (RL) typically optimizes a single scalar objective and ignores structure in how solutions are produced. We ask whether a scalar hint toward a canonical solver ordering, used only during RL post-training, improves performance even when fine-tuned on randomized solution sequences. On Zebra puzzles, we fine-tune a Transformer on randomized solution orders, then post-train it with Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) using two rewards: a sparse task reward that is 1 only when the puzzle is fully solved, and an ordering reward that increases when the model's emission order aligns with the canonical solver order. To compare signals cleanly, we combine them via fixed mixtures and use a simple bootstrapped scaling to equalize component magnitudes at initialization. Mixed rewards generally outperform task-only optimization, suggesting that coarse ordering signals can steer RL post-training toward canonical trajectories without modifying supervised data or architecture.

Anonymization: This submission has been anonymized for double-blind review via the removal of identifying information such as names, affiliations, and identifying URLs.

Funding: Yes, the presenting author of this submission falls under ICLR’s funding aims, and funding would significantly impact their ability to attend the workshop in person.

Submission Number: 27