Transfer Learning

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Overview

Transfer learning asks how a model trained on one task or domain can help with another, reducing the need for target-specific data and computation. Common approaches include pretraining followed by fine-tuning or parameter-efficient adapters, feature alignment for domain shifts, and knowledge transfer through distillation, model merging, or shared representations. Evaluations span zero-shot and few-shot transfer, cross-domain benchmarks in vision and language, and adaptation in settings such as clinical data, robotics, and scientific modeling. A central tension is that transferred knowledge can improve accuracy and sample efficiency or cause negative transfer; predicting when it will help, and separating reusable knowledge from dataset or architecture effects, remains difficult.

Latest papers

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422 papers62 papers in the last four weeks, up 29% on the four weeks before. 0.4% of all new papers.

  1. SegDem: Segmentation helps Demosaicing

    Aug 8, 2026Ping Chen, Xiangming Wang, Yongyong Chen +5Image ReconstructionTransfer Learning

    Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Nanjing University (Suzhou)

  2. DINO-3DRA: Leveraging 2D Foundation Model Semantics for 3D Cerebral Aneurysm Segmentation

    Aug 7, 2026Jiayang Lu, Fengming Lin, Alejandro F. Frangi +1Medical Imaging Foundation ModelsTransfer Learning

    Centre for Computational Imaging and Modelling in Medicine (CIMIM), University of Manchester, Manchester, UK · Christabel Pankhurst Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK · Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK +2

  3. Ghost Features and Spooky Transfer Learning for Hypercomplex-Valued Neural Networks

    Aug 7, 2026Guilherme Vieira Neto, Marcos Eduardo ValleComplex-Valued Neural NetworksTransfer Learning

    Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil

  4. Robustness of transferability estimation metrics for medical imaging

    Aug 7, 2026Niclas Claßen, Théo Sourget, Dovile Juodelyte +2Medical Image AnalysisTask Transferability Estimation

    IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

  5. A Transferable Autologistic Model for Predicting Rare Failures in Heterogeneous Equipment

    Aug 7, 2026Islam Benamirouche, Djemel Ziou, Feriel FassPredictive MaintenanceTransfer Learning

    Département d’informatique, Université de Sherbrooke, 2500 boulevard de l’Université, Sherbrooke, J1N 3C6, QC, Canada

  6. MarsCast: Transfer Learning of AI Weather Foundation Models to Planetary Atmospheres

    Aug 5, 2026M. L. Carroll, J. Li, S. D. Guzewich +3Transfer LearningTime-Series Foundation Models

    1) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center · 2) ADNet Systems, Inc.

  7. Towards Physics of Multimodal Pretraining: Knowledge Flow, Modality Synergy, Early Unification, and Recipes

    Aug 5, 2026Junlin Han, Shengbang Tong, David Fan +4Unified Multimodal ModelsMultimodal Pretraining

    1FAIR · University of Oxford · 2Reality Labs

  8. Transfer Learning for Avian Bioacoustics under Sparse Positive Labels

    Aug 4, 2026Dhyey Patel, Yunting YinMulti-Source Domain AdaptationWeakly Supervised Learning

    Eastern Michigan University Computer Science Department Ypsilanti, MI, USA

  9. Disentangling Language Modeling and Boundaries

    Aug 4, 2026Mykola HaltiukTokenization in Language ModelsByte-Level Language Model

    Faculty of Computer Science AGH University of Krakow Krakow, Poland

  10. Sedentary Behavior Classification for Wearable Sensors with a CNN-BiLSTM Model

    Aug 3, 2026Yuliang Chen, Weiwei Shi, Jingjing Zou +10Human Activity RecognitionWearable Sensing

    Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA · Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA +4

  11. Temporal Generalization in fNIRS-Based Autism Classification: A Cross-Time-Window Transfer Benchmark

    Aug 3, 2026Marios Petrov, Sahana Vinayak, Targol Bakhtiarvand +4Unsupervised Domain AdaptationAutism Spectrum Disorder

    Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, USA · Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA · Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

  12. STEAM: A Spatio-TEmporal Alignment Mixture-of-Experts Model with Hierarchical Pre-training for EEG Decoding

    Aug 3, 2026Zhu Chen, Dingkun Liu, Yuheng Chen +1Brain-Computer InterfacesEEG Decoding

    Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Image Processing and Intelligent Control, School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China · Zhongguancun Academy, Beijing 100094, China

  13. Ordered-to-disordered transfer learning with graph neural networks for formation-energy and HOMO-LUMO gap prediction in high-entropy perovskite oxides

    Jul 31, 2026Panupol Untarabut, Narjes Jomaa, Sylvian Cadars +4Graph Neural NetworksMaterials Property Prediction

    University of Limoges, CNRS, IRCER, UMR 7315, F-87000, Limoges, France

  14. Same Graph Cross-Task Transfer in GNNs: Protocols and Predictors

    Jul 30, 2026Neelam Akula, Surbhi Kumar, Murat Kantarcioglu +1Graph Neural NetworksLink Prediction

    Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA · Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

  15. SemAnCorr: Semantic Anchored Correspondence for Zero-Shot Manipulation Skill Transfer

    Jul 30, 2026Xiaoxiang Dong, William Baron, Hongyi Chen +3Semantic CorrespondenceZero-Shot Robotic Manipulation

    Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA. · College of Connected Computing, Vanderbilt University, USA. · College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, USA. +1

  16. Train Small, Deploy Large: Zero-Shot GNN Transfer Through Geometric Renormalization

    Jul 30, 2026Robert Jankowski, Pedro Almagro-Blanco, Marián Boguñá +2Zero-Shot LearningGraph Neural Networks

    TU Delft · University of Seville · University of Barcelona +2

  17. Strategy, Not Payoffs: A Behavioural Embedding of Normal-Form Games

    Jul 30, 2026Joshua Caiata, Sreepriya Pulyassary, Xiang Li +1LLM Fine-TuningStrategic Reasoning Risks in Language Models

    University of Waterloo

  18. Latent States in Neural Networks: Recovering the Temporal Structure of Drifting Data from Model Weights

    Jul 29, 2026Kevin GuanConcept DriftTransfer Learning

    Department of Mathematics, Princeton University

  19. SkillRise: Agentic Reinforcement Learning for Cross-Task Skill Evolution

    Jul 29, 2026Zhiyuan Yao, Yuxin Chen, Zhengxi Lu +13Agentic RLCurriculum RL

    1Zhejiang University · 2National University of Singapore · 3Shanghai Jiao Tong University +1

  20. Speech2Grasp: Data-Efficient Transfer of Text-Conditioned Grasp Detection to Speech in Humanoid Robots

    Jul 29, 2026Hung Nguyen, Kim Nhat Minh Nguyen, Van Duc Vu +6Robotic GraspingLanguage-Conditioned Robot Manipulation

    University of California San Diego · VinMotion · Hanoi University of Science and Technology +2

  21. AgentGFM: A Graph Foundation Model with Node-Agent Information-Flow Control

    Jul 29, 2026Jingbo Cui, Jitao Zhao, Di Jin +1Graph Neural NetworksMessage Passing Neural Networks

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Tianjin University Tianjin, China

  22. Re-thinking Mammography Transfer Learning: The Dataset-Informed Transfer Learning (DITL) Framework for Breast Cancer Screening and Lesion Diagnosis

    Jul 28, 2026Adarsh Bhandary Panambur, Siming Bayer, Andreas MaierMetric LearningMedical Image Classification

    Pattern Recognition Lab, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany · Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany

  23. CHARM: A Multimodal Graph Foundation Model with Hierarchical Context Modeling for Zero-Shot Transfer

    Jul 28, 2026Ankang Yang, Jitao Zhao, Di Jin +2Transfer LearningGraph Foundation Models

    School of Computer Science and Technology, College of Intelligence and Computing, Tianjin University · Data Science Program, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University

  24. When Does Legacy Data Start to Help? Emergent Transfer in Cross-Configuration Robot Learning

    Jul 28, 2026Tao Wang, Hudson Hou, Yingdong Hu +7Robot Skill LearningRobotic Data Collection

    Huazhong University of Science and Technology · Spirit AI · Peking University +3

  25. Transfer Learning Architectures for Scalable Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization

    Jul 26, 2026Jaewook Lee, Ethan Errington, Christian D. Lorenz +1Multi-Fidelity OptimizationSurrogate Modeling

    Department of Engineering, King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom.

  26. CAPT: A Multi-task Continuous Autoregressive Transformer enabling Cross-dataset and Cross-species Transfer for Calcium Population Dynamics

    Jul 25, 2026Xinhong Xu, Yimeng Zhang, Yuanlong ZhangTransformerNeural Decoding

    Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China · School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

  27. Multi-Task Learning for Heterogeneous Prediction from Video Game State with Transfer Learning

    Jul 23, 2026Jonas Peché, Aliaksei Tsishurou, Alexander Zap +1Multi-Task LearningCross-Domain Transfer Learning

    Computer Graphics Johannes Kepler University Linz Linz, Austria · Independent Researcher Wroclaw, Poland · DS Research Wargaming Berlin, Germany

  28. Domain Shift in Echocardiography: Interpretable Quantification and Prediction of Cross-Dataset Left Ventricular Segmentation

    Jul 22, 2026Soroush Elyasi, Nasim Dadashi Serej, Julie Wall +1Ultrasound Image SegmentationDistribution Shift

    THRIVE Centre, School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London, UK · School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London, London, UK

  29. GUIDED Network-Agnostic Feature Initialization for Spatial Transferability in GNN-based Models

    Jul 21, 2026Alessandro Scalese, Santhanakrishnan Narayanan, Constantinos AntoniouGraph Representation LearningIntelligent Transportation Systems

    Technical University of Munich, Arcisstrasse 21, 80333 Munich, Germany

  30. DADiff: Diffusion-Driven Cross-Domain Policy Adaptation for Reinforcement Learning

    Jul 17, 2026Hanyang Chen, Anirudh Satheesh, Longchao Da +1Transfer LearningGeneralization in RL

    Arizona State University · University of Maryland, College Park