Enhancing Pre-Trained Model-Based Class-Incremental Learning through Neural Collapse

Abstract: Class-Incremental Learning (CIL) is a critical capability for real-world applications, enabling learning systems to adapt to new tasks while retaining knowledge from previous ones. Recent advancements in pre-trained models (PTMs) have significantly advanced the field of CIL, demonstrating superior performance over traditional methods. However, understanding how features evolve and are distributed across incremental tasks remains an open challenge. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to modeling feature evolution in PTM-based CIL through the lens of neural collapse (NC), a striking phenomenon observed in the final phase of training, which leads to a well-separated, equiangular feature space. We explore the connection between NC and CIL effectiveness, showing that aligning feature distributions with the NC geometry enhances the ability to capture the dynamic behavior of continual learning. Based on this insight, we introduce Neural Collapse-inspired Pre-Trained Model-based CIL (NCPTM-CIL), a method that dynamically adjusts the feature space to conform to the elegant NC structure, thereby enhancing the continual learning process. Extensive experiments demonstrate that NCPTM-CIL outperforms state-of-the-art methods across four benchmark datasets. Notably, when initialized with ViT-B/16-IN1K, NCPTM-CIL surpasses the runner-up method by 6.73% on VTAB, 1.25% on CIFAR-100, and 2.5% on OmniBenchmark.