KEEPER: Learning Control-Sufficient Textual Memory for Long-Horizon LLM Agents
Jinkyeong Choi, Chaebin Jeong, Junsung Jeon, Donghyeon Park
Abstract
Recursive textual memory can carry earlier errors into later updates, yet task performance alone does not establish memory reliability. We define self-consistency bias as the persistence of incorrect claims already present in the incoming memory. We present KEEPER, a comparative analysis of four auxiliary objectives along information-content and update-sensitivity axes within a shared recursive interface, examining how supervision targets relate to agent performance. Among evaluated conditions, reward-related prediction achieve the highest task performance before and after offline reinforcement learning, outperforming joint supervision. A claim-level analysis of one baseline trajectory documents error persistence despite corrective observations. Together, these analyses motivate evaluating error persistence and valid-information retention alongside task outcomes.