Incremental Learning

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Overview

Incremental learning studies how a model can learn from data that arrives over time—such as new classes, changing domains, or streaming examples—without losing what it learned before. Common approaches replay stored examples, regularize or distill the model to preserve earlier behavior, or isolate and expand parts of the model with adapters, experts, or new parameters. Methods are evaluated in settings such as class-, domain-, and task-incremental learning, using benchmarks including CIFAR-100, ImageNet variants, and language-task sequences; newer work also considers pretrained multimodal models, long-tailed data, and task-free streams. The central tension is stability versus plasticity: preserving old knowledge can hinder learning new information, while memory, model growth, task-order effects, and realistic evaluation remain open challenges.

Latest papers

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146 papers17 papers in the last four weeks, down 6% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Compensating Visual Insufficiency with Stratified Language Guidance for Long-Tail Class Incremental Learning

    Mar 23, 2026Xi Wang, Xu Yang, Donghao Sun +1Class-Incremental LearningIncremental Learning

    School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China

  2. MARLIN: Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Incremental DAG Discovery

    Mar 19, 2026Dong Li, Zhengzhang Chen, Xujiang Zhao +5Causal DiscoveryCausal Structure Learning

    Department of Computer Science, Baylor University · NEC Labs America · School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, Augusta University +2

  3. A Simple Efficiency Incremental Learning Framework via Vision-Language Model with Nonlinear Multi-Adapters

    Mar 11, 2026Haihua Luo, Xuming Ran, Jiangrong Shen +4Incremental LearningContinual Learning for VLMs

    Faculty of Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland · Equal contribution · National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore +2

  4. LCA: Local Classifier Alignment for Continual Learning

    Mar 10, 2026Tung Tran, Danilo Vasconcellos Vargas, Khoat ThanContinual LearningIncremental Learning

    Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan · Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam

  5. Grow, Assess, Compress: Adaptive Backbone Scaling for Memory-Efficient Class Incremental Learning

    Mar 9, 2026Adrian Garcia-Castañeda, Jon Irureta, Jon Imaz +1Storage-Efficient Continual LearningClass-Incremental Learning

    Ikerlan Technology Research Center, Arrasate, Spain · Goi Eskola Politeknikoa, Mondragon Unibertsitatea, Arrasate, Spain · University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Spain

  6. Why Do Neural Networks Forget: A Study of Collapse in Continual Learning

    Mar 4, 2026Yunqin Zhu, Jun JinCatastrophic ForgettingIncremental Learning

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

  7. Towards an Incremental Unified Multimodal Anomaly Detection: Augmenting Multimodal Denoising From an Information Bottleneck Perspective

    Mar 3, 2026Kaifang Long, Lianbo Ma, Jiaqi Liu +2Multimodal Anomaly DetectionUnified Multimodal Models

    Software College, Northeastern University, China · Independent Researcher · CATL, China

  8. RAIE: Region-Aware Incremental Preference Editing with LoRA for LLM-based Recommendation

    Feb 28, 2026Jin Zeng, Yupeng Qi, Hui Li +4Recommender SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Recommendation

    School of Cyber Science and Technology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China · Department of Computer Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China · Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China +2

  9. On Imbalanced Regression with Hoeffding Trees

    Feb 25, 2026Pantia-Marina Alchirch, Dimitrios I. DiochnosDecision Tree LearningKernel Density Estimation

    University of Oklahoma

  10. From Isolation to Integration: Building an Adaptive Expert Forest for Pre-Trained Model-based Class-Incremental Learning

    Feb 24, 2026Ruiqi Liu, Boyu Diao, Hangda Liu +3Adapter-Based Continual LearningClass-Incremental Learning

    Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

  11. Incremental Learning of Sparse Attention Patterns in Transformers

    Feb 22, 2026Oğuz Kaan Yüksel, Rodrigo Alvarez Lucendo, Nicolas FlammarionSelf-AttentionTransformer Training Dynamics

    TML Lab, EPFL

  12. Revisiting Weight Regularization for Low-Rank Continual Learning

    Feb 19, 2026Yaoyue Zheng, Yin Zhang, Joost van de Weijer +4Incremental LearningElastic Weight Consolidation

    State Key Laboratory of Human-Machine Hybrid Augmented Intelligence Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China · Computer Vision Center, Barcelona, Spain · Universitat Aut`onoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain +3

  13. BOFA: Bridge-Layer Orthogonal Low-Rank Fusion for CLIP-Based Class-Incremental Learning

    Nov 14, 2025Lan Li, Tao Hu, Da-Wei Zhou +3Class-Incremental LearningVLM Adaptation

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University, China · National Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, China

  14. Mixtures of SubExperts for Large Language Continual Learning

    Nov 9, 2025Haeyong Kang, Hee Suk Yoon, Dahua Feng +1Continual Learning for LLMsMixture-of-Experts Language Models

    Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

  15. Online Continual Learning on Intel Loihi 2 via a Co-designed Spiking Neural Network

    Nov 3, 2025Elvin Hajizada, Danielle Rager, Timothy Shea +5Online Continual LearningIncremental Learning

    Institute of Informatics, University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany · Intel Labs, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA · Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA +3

  16. HERMAN: Hierarchical Representation Matching for CLIP-based Class-Incremental Learning

    Sep 26, 2025Zhen-Hao Xie, Yan Wang, Lan Li +3Class-Incremental LearningVision-Language Models

    School of Artificial Intelligence and the State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

  17. UniPrompt-CL: Efficient Single-Inference Continual Learning for Medical Image Classification

    Aug 14, 2025Gyutae Oh, Jitae ShinContinual LearningDomain-Incremental Learning

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea

  18. Dynamic gain neuromodulation attenuates stability gaps during continual joint training

    Jul 18, 2025Alejandro Rodriguez-Garcia, Anindya Ghosh, Srikanth RamaswamyContinual LearningIncremental Learning

    Neural Circuits Laboratory, Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, United Kingdom

  19. The Bayesian Approach to Continual Learning: An Overview

    Jul 11, 2025Tameem AdelTask-Incremental LearningClass-Incremental Learning

    NPL, Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 OHE, United Kingdom.

  20. TreeLoRA: Efficient Continual Learning via Layer-Wise LoRAs Guided by a Hierarchical Gradient-Similarity Tree

    Jun 12, 2025Yu-Yang Qian, Yuan-Ze Xu, Zhen-Yu Zhang +2Continual Learning for LLMsLow-Rank Adaptation

    National Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, Nanjing University, China · RIKEN AIP, Tokyo, Japan

  21. SEAL: Searching Expandable Architectures for Incremental Learning

    May 15, 2025Matteo Gambella, Manuel RoveriDynamic Neural NetworksContinual Learning

    Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

  22. EFC++: Elastic Feature Consolidation with Prototype Re-balancing for Cold Start Exemplar-free Incremental Learning

    Mar 13, 2025Simone Magistri, Tomaso Trinci, Albin Soutif-Cormerais +2Class-Incremental LearningPrototype-Based Classification

    Media Integration and Communication Center (MICC), University of Florence, Italy · Global Optimization Laboratory, University of Florence, Italy · LAMP Team, Computer Vision Center, Barcelona, Spain +1

  23. Universal Incremental Learning: Mitigating Confusion from Inter- and Intra-task Distribution Randomness

    Mar 10, 2025Yi Zhou, Jinsong Shi, Sheng Luo +1Incremental Learning

    School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, China · Key Laboratory of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Technology and Its Interdisciplinary Applications (Southeast University), Ministry of Education, China · Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

  24. AIR: Analytic Imbalance Rectifier for Continual Learning

    Aug 19, 2024Di Fang, Yinan Zhu, Zhiping Lin +3Class-Imbalanced LearningClass-Incremental Learning

    School of Future Technology, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China · Shien-Ming Wu School of Intelligent Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

  25. Mamba-FSCIL: Dynamic Adaptation with Selective State Space Model for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning

    Jul 8, 2024Xiaojie Li, Yibo Yang, Jianlong Wu +4Class-Incremental LearningIncremental Learning

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, China · Pengcheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China · King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia +1

  26. Rule Extraction in Machine Learning: Chat Incremental Pattern Constructor

    Jul 31, 2022Caleb Princewill NwokochaInterpretable MLIncremental Learning