# L2B: Learning to Bootstrap Robust Models for Combating Label Noise

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.04291 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.04291/

## Key facts

- Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 45 of its 74 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Feb 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Identity Mappings in Deep Residual Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.05027/) (2016)
- [UNet++: A Nested U-Net Architecture for Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.10165/) (2018)
- [Co-teaching: Robust Training of Deep Neural Networks with Extremely Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.06872/) (2018)
- [A Closer Look at Memorization in Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.05394/) (2017)
- [DivideMix: Learning with Noisy Labels as Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.07394/) (2020)
- [Learning to Reweight Examples for Robust Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.09050/) (2018)
- [Making Deep Neural Networks Robust to Label Noise: a Loss Correction Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.03683/) (2016)
- [MentorNet: Learning Data-Driven Curriculum for Very Deep Neural Networks on Corrupted Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05055/) (2017)
- [Early-Learning Regularization Prevents Memorization of Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.00151/) (2020)
- [How does Disagreement Help Generalization against Label Corruption?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.04215/) (2019)
- [Unsupervised Label Noise Modeling and Loss Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.11238/) (2019)
- [Training Deep Neural Networks on Noisy Labels with Bootstrapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6596/) (2014)
- [Joint Optimization Framework for Learning with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11364/) (2018)
- [Combating noisy labels by agreement: A joint training method with co-regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.02752/) (2020)
- [Using Trusted Data to Train Deep Networks on Labels Corrupted by Severe Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05300/) (2018)
- [Probabilistic End-to-end Noise Correction for Learning with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.07788/) (2019)
- [Understanding and Utilizing Deep Neural Networks Trained with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.05040/) (2019)
- [Are Anchor Points Really Indispensable in Label-Noise Learning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00189/) (2019)
- [CleanNet: Transfer Learning for Scalable Image Classifier Training with Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.07131/) (2017)
- [Learning from Noisy Labels with Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.02391/) (2017)
- [Learning to Learn from Noisy Labeled Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.05214/) (2018)
- [NLNL: Negative Learning for Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07387/) (2019)
- [Dual T: Reducing Estimation Error for Transition Matrix in Label-noise Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07805/) (2020)
- [Deep Self-Learning From Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.02160/) (2019)
- [Learning From Noisy Large-Scale Datasets With Minimal Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.01619/) (2017)
- [Meta Label Correction for Noisy Label Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.03809/) (2019)
- [Rethinking Importance Weighting for Deep Learning under Distribution Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.04662/) (2020)
- [A Second-Order Approach to Learning with Instance-Dependent Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.11854/) (2020)
- [Multi-Objective Interpolation Training for Robustness to Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04462/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Consistency-guided Meta-Learning for Bootstrapping Semi-Supervised Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.11604/) (2023)
- [Set a Thief to Catch a Thief: Combating Label Noise through Noisy Meta Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.16104/) (2025)
- [NSegment : Label-specific Deformations for Remote Sensing Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19634/) (2025)
- [Learning to Forget with Information Divergence Reweighted Objectives for Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06622/) (2025)
- [Not All Pixels Are Equal: Pixel-wise Meta-Learning for Medical Segmentation with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18894/) (2025)
- [Generalizing Abstention for Noise-Robust Learning in Medical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.14039/) (2026)
- [Leveraging Data Symmetries to Select an Optimal Subset of Training Data under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01874/) (2026)
- [Radial-Angular Geometry for Reliable Update Diagnosis in Noisy-Label Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.17429/) (2026)
- [Robust Trajectory Distillation: Hybrid Reweighting Meets Teacher-Inspired Targets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.29837/) (2026)
- [XMix: Combating Extremely Noisy Labels via Local Smoothness in Self-Supervised Feature Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.23865/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Deep neural networks have shown great success in representation learning. However, when learning with noisy labels (LNL), they can easily overfit and fail to generalize to new data. This paper introduces a simple and effective method, named Learning to Bootstrap (L2B), which enables models to bootstrap themselves using their own predictions without being adversely affected by erroneous pseudo-labels. It achieves this by dynamically adjusting the importance weight between real observed and generated labels, as well as between different samples through meta-learning. Unlike existing instance reweighting methods, the key to our method lies in a new, versatile objective that enables implicit relabeling concurrently, leading to significant improvements without incurring additional costs. L2B offers several benefits over the baseline methods. It yields more robust models that are less susceptible to the impact of noisy labels by guiding the bootstrapping procedure more effectively. It better exploits the valuable information contained in corrupted instances by adapting the weights of both instances and labels. Furthermore, L2B is compatible with existing LNL methods and delivers competitive results spanning natural and medical imaging tasks including classification and segmentation under both synthetic and real-world noise. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method effectively mitigates the challenges of noisy labels, often necessitating few to no validation samples, and is well generalized to other tasks such as image segmentation. This not only positions it as a robust complement to existing LNL techniques but also underscores its practical applicability. The code and models are available at https://github.com/yuyinzhou/l2b.