Learning from Human Preferences: Reward Models and Policy Optimisation · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.
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Turn human comparisons into a reward signal

Computing · Machine Learning · ages 23-24
Name ______________________   Date ____________
  1. What does the fitted reward model assign to a response together with its prompt?

    • One written explanation of the human comparison decision
    • One replacement policy trained on the preferred response
    • One scalar preference score for that prompt-response pair
  2. What data trains the comparison-based reward model in this lesson?

    • Same-prompt output pairs with human preference labels
    • Policy weight matrices paired with their update timestamps
    • Random scalar targets paired with generated response lengths
  3. What discourages output-distribution drift from the fixed reference policy?

    • A KL penalty relative to the reference distribution
    • A larger batch that keeps every output probability unchanged
    • A faster optimiser that restores the original weight vector
  4. A policy pads answers with flattery. Reward-model scores rise, but fresh human comparisons rate the answers worse. What is this?

    • Baseline subtraction
    • Data parallel training
    • Reward hacking
  5. With other training settings unchanged, which risk can increase when the KL penalty is removed?

    • A guaranteed return to the reference policy's output probabilities
    • Greater policy drift and exploitation of reward-model errors
    • A requirement that the reward model stop scoring all new responses
  6. For the same prompt and A/B pair, people pick B four times and A once. The taught comparison model exactly matches B's observed win rate of 4/5. Which score ordering follows?

    • Output A has the higher score
    • Output B has the higher score
    • Both outputs must have equal scores
  7. Keeping a KL penalty relative to a fixed reference guarantees that a policy cannot exploit flaws in its reward model.

    Circle one:   True   False

  8. A team's reward-model scores rise. Which check directly tests whether the new policy better meets human preferences?

    • Increase the batch size until all training score curves remain stable
    • Collect fresh human comparisons of new and reference outputs
    • Reduce the KL penalty until the fitted reward scores increase faster
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Answer key

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Turn human comparisons into a reward signal W1-mt_yA1ud53Oy_-s1

  1. One scalar preference score for that prompt-response pair · The reward model produces one number for a prompt-response pair. It is a learned preference score, not an absolute quality rating.
  2. Same-prompt output pairs with human preference labels · People compare outputs for the same prompt. Their preferences provide the labels used to fit the reward model.
  3. A KL penalty relative to the reference distribution · The KL penalty charges divergence between output distributions. It is not a distance between policy weight vectors.
  4. Reward hacking · In this scenario, the policy exploits the learned reward's preference for flattery while making outputs worse according to fresh human comparisons.
  5. Greater policy drift and exploitation of reward-model errors · Removing the KL term removes its pressure against reference-policy drift. Drift and exploitation of reward-model errors can increase, but need not.
  6. Output B has the higher score · The assumed exact fit predicts B winning with probability 4/5, above 1/2. Under the taught comparison rule, B must have the higher score.
  7. False · The KL term discourages distribution drift. It does not make the reward model accurate or prevent every form of reward hacking.
  8. Collect fresh human comparisons of new and reference outputs · Fresh human comparisons test the preference goal. Changing batch size or the KL penalty does not directly measure people's judgments.
Worksheet · LightMySky