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Intra-Layer Recurrence in Transformers for Language Modeling (2505.01855v2)

Published 3 May 2025 in cs.CL and cs.AI

Abstract: Transformer models have established new benchmarks in natural language processing; however, their increasing depth results in substantial growth in parameter counts. While existing recurrent transformer methods address this issue by reprocessing layers multiple times, they often apply recurrence indiscriminately across entire blocks of layers. In this work, we investigate Intra-Layer Recurrence (ILR), a more targeted approach that applies recurrence selectively to individual layers within a single forward pass. Our experiments show that allocating more iterations to earlier layers yields optimal results. These findings suggest that ILR offers a promising direction for optimizing recurrent structures in transformer architectures.

Summary

Intra-Layer Recurrence in Transformers for LLMing

The paper explores an innovative method called Intra-Layer Recurrence (ILR) to optimize transformer architectures in NLP. The researchers analyze recurrent strategies applied to individual layers within transformers, aiming to decrease computational costs while maintaining or enhancing performance. They argue that conventional approaches to recurrence in transformers, which apply recurrence indiscriminately across entire blocks of layers, could be refined to target specific layers selectively for recurrent processing.

The primary hypothesis supporting ILR is that different layers within a transformer contribute uniquely to the model's performance, rather than equivalently. Specifically, early layers might play a more critical role in encoding key representations, whereas later layers serve to refine these representations. This insight is corroborated by prior findings that foundational syntactic patterns are captured early, while redundancy may increase later in the sequence of layers. By selectively reprocessing earlier layers multiple times within a single forward pass, the researchers demonstrate significant improvements in model perplexity, which measures predictive uncertainty.

Through experimental validation, using models based on the LLaMA architecture, the authors provide compelling evidence supporting ILR's efficacy. Specifically, ILR improves model perplexity without adding to the parameter count. For instance, configurations that prioritize early-layer reuse reduced perplexity numbers markedly, confirming the hypothesis that foundational representations emerge early in processing. This targeted approach allows for more granular control over the effective depth of the transformer without indiscriminate application of recurrence, thus optimizing computational resources.

A notable addition to this research is the rigorous examination of various positional encoding methods, including NoPE, RoPE, Learned Absolute PE, and ALiBi. These methods impact how models maintain positional information across recurrent processing steps. The research also carefully compares results from small-scale models with 1.2 million parameters to larger model configurations that scale up to 100 million parameters.

Despite achieving impressive results, the paper acknowledges that computational costs increase with recurrence. This introduces a compute-performance trade-off, a limitation that warrants further exploration, particularly adaptive mechanisms that could regulate layer recurrence based on the input complexity or task specificity.

The practical implications of this work lie in optimizing large-scale LLMs' computational efficiency. The ILR technique addresses the growing concerns regarding the resource demands of increasingly complex models while exploring avenues for maintaining high performance in NLP tasks. Theoretically, ILR contributes to the ongoing research narrative on the potential of recurrence within transformer architectures, proposing a more nuanced application for enhancing representational learning across different layers.

Future developments might include adaptive recurrence mechanisms to dynamically allocate computational resources based on real-time task demands or model requirements. Further refinement of ILR-based recurrence strategies could optimize scaling in large-modular architectures, facilitating improvements in parameter-efficient transformer models.

In conclusion, this paper presents significant insights into the interplay between recurrence and representational learning in transformers, underscoring the potential of ILR to optimize current LLM architectures efficiently. The precision and application of ILR invite further exploration into the multilayered dynamics of recurrent processing strategies within the context of advanced NLP research and implementation.

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