Memento-II: Learning by Stateful Reflective Memory (2512.22716v1)

Abstract: We propose a theoretical framework for continual and experiential learning in LLM agents that integrates episodic memory with reinforcement learning. The framework identifies reflection as the key mechanism that enables agents to adapt through interaction without back propagation or model fine tuning, thereby relaxing the conventional separation between training and deployment.To formalise this process, we introduce the Stateful Reflective Decision Process, which models reflective learning as a two stage read write interaction with episodic memory. Writing stores interaction outcomes and corresponds to policy evaluation, while reading retrieves relevant past cases and corresponds to policy improvement. We show that this process induces an equivalent Markov decision process over augmented state memory representations, allowing the use of classical tools from dynamic programming and reinforcement learning. We further instantiate the framework using entropy regularised policy iteration and establish convergence guarantees. As episodic memory grows and achieves sufficient coverage of the state space, the resulting policy converges to the optimal solution. This work provides a principled foundation for memory augmented and retrieval based LLM agents capable of continual adaptation without parameter updates.