MultiMatch: Multihead Consistency Regularization Matching for Semi-Supervised Text Classification (2506.07801v2)

Abstract: We introduce MultiMatch, a novel semi-supervised learning (SSL) algorithm combining the paradigms of co-training and consistency regularization with pseudo-labeling. At its core, MultiMatch features a three-fold pseudo-label weighting module designed for three key purposes: selecting and filtering pseudo-labels based on head agreement and model confidence, and weighting them according to the perceived classification difficulty. This novel module enhances and unifies three existing techniques -- heads agreement from Multihead Co-training, self-adaptive thresholds from FreeMatch, and Average Pseudo-Margins from MarginMatch -- resulting in a holistic approach that improves robustness and performance in SSL settings. Experimental results on benchmark datasets highlight the superior performance of MultiMatch, achieving state-of-the-art results on 9 out of 10 setups from 5 natural language processing datasets and ranking first according to the Friedman test among 19 methods. Furthermore, MultiMatch demonstrates exceptional robustness in highly imbalanced settings, outperforming the second-best approach by 3.26% -- and data imbalance is a key factor for many text classification tasks.