Revisiting Bi-Linear State Transitions in Recurrent Neural Networks
Authors: name: M. Reza Ebrahimi; name: Roland Memisevic
Published: 2025-05-27 20:38:19

Abstract: The role of hidden units in recurrent neural networks is typically seen as
modeling memory, with research focusing on enhancing information retention
through gating mechanisms. A less explored perspective views hidden units as
active participants in the computation performed by the network, rather than
passive memory stores. In this work, we revisit bi-linear operations, which
involve multiplicative interactions between hidden units and input embeddings.
We demonstrate theoretically and empirically that they constitute a natural
inductive bias for representing the evolution of hidden states in state
tracking tasks. These are the simplest type of task that require hidden units
to actively contribute to the behavior of the network. We also show that
bi-linear state updates form a natural hierarchy corresponding to state
tracking tasks of increasing complexity, with popular linear recurrent networks
such as Mamba residing at the lowest-complexity center of that hierarchy.