Separating Shortcut Transition from Cross-Family OOD Failure in a Minimal Model
Shortcut features are often invoked to explain out-of-distribution (OOD) failure, but training correlation, learned shortcut use, and test-time failure need not coincide. We study a minimal binary model with one invariant coordinate and one family-dependent shortcut coordinate. In the deterministic regime, positive average shortcut correlation pulls logistic ERM toward positive shortcut weight, but ridge regularization keeps the classifier invariant-dominated and prevents deterministic OOD failure. When the invariant coordinate is noisy, ridge-logistic ERM switches to the shortcut rule once the training shortcut signal exceeds the invariant signal. Whether that transition causes failure d...
| Authors | Hongmin Li |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.LG |
| Published | 13 May 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 30 June 2026 |
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