Marginal Advantage Accumulation for Memory-Driven Agent Self-Evolution
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Abstract (arXiv)
In batch-style trace distillation, the same memory operation may receive contradictory feedback across different batches. Existing methods lack a cross-batch, operation-level evidence accumulation mechanism, making it impossible to distinguish stably effective operations from accidental hits. This paper formalizes the requirement as two structural conditions, alignability and comparability, and proposes Marginal Advantage Accumulation (MAA). MAA constructs differential signals to make them comparable across batches, accumulates signed evidence per operation via EMA, and ensures cross-batch traceability through semantic identity merging. As a post-processing architecture, MAA achieves the best results in 14 out of 16 settings across 4 benchmarks and 4 target models, consistently outperforming existing batch-level distillation baselines and matching or surpassing online alternatives in most settings, while reducing optimization-phase token consumption by approximately 75%.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 41 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 Jun 2026.
Builds on
39 of 41 references.
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