Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization

Prompt tuning visual-language models (VLMs) for specialized tasks often involves leveraging task-specific textual tokens, which can tailor the pre-existing, broad capabilities of a VLM to more narrowly focused applications. This approach, exemplified by CoOp-based methods, integrates mutable textual...

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Main Authors: Qiangxing Tian, Min Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Entropy
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/3/301
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author Qiangxing Tian
Min Zhang
author_facet Qiangxing Tian
Min Zhang
author_sort Qiangxing Tian
collection DOAJ
description Prompt tuning visual-language models (VLMs) for specialized tasks often involves leveraging task-specific textual tokens, which can tailor the pre-existing, broad capabilities of a VLM to more narrowly focused applications. This approach, exemplified by CoOp-based methods, integrates mutable textual tokens with categorical tokens to foster nuanced textual comprehension. Nonetheless, such specialized textual insights often fail to generalize beyond the scope of familiar categories, as they tend to overshadow the versatile, general textual knowledge intrinsic to the model’s wide-ranging applicability. Addressing this base-novel dilemma, we propose the innovative concept of <b>SparseK</b>nowledge-<b>g</b>uided <b>Co</b>ntext <b>Op</b>timization (Sparse-KgCoOp). This technique aims to fortify the adaptable prompts’ capacity to generalize to categories yet unencountered. The cornerstone of Sparse-KgCoOp is based on the premise that reducing the differences between adaptive prompt and their hand-crafted counterparts through sparsification operations can mitigate the erosion of fundamental knowledge. Specifically, Sparse-KgCoOp seeks to narrow the gap between the textual embeddings produced by both the dynamic prompts and the manually devised ones, thus preserving the foundational knowledge while maintaining adaptability. Extensive experiments of several benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed Sparse-KgCoOp is an efficient method for prompt tuning.
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spelling doaj-art-d1735aa5861840a699095cbb69339e1f2025-08-20T02:42:29ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002025-03-0127330110.3390/e27030301Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context OptimizationQiangxing Tian0Min Zhang1School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Hangzhou City University, Hangzhou 310015, ChinaSchool of Computer Science and Technology, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, ChinaPrompt tuning visual-language models (VLMs) for specialized tasks often involves leveraging task-specific textual tokens, which can tailor the pre-existing, broad capabilities of a VLM to more narrowly focused applications. This approach, exemplified by CoOp-based methods, integrates mutable textual tokens with categorical tokens to foster nuanced textual comprehension. Nonetheless, such specialized textual insights often fail to generalize beyond the scope of familiar categories, as they tend to overshadow the versatile, general textual knowledge intrinsic to the model’s wide-ranging applicability. Addressing this base-novel dilemma, we propose the innovative concept of <b>SparseK</b>nowledge-<b>g</b>uided <b>Co</b>ntext <b>Op</b>timization (Sparse-KgCoOp). This technique aims to fortify the adaptable prompts’ capacity to generalize to categories yet unencountered. The cornerstone of Sparse-KgCoOp is based on the premise that reducing the differences between adaptive prompt and their hand-crafted counterparts through sparsification operations can mitigate the erosion of fundamental knowledge. Specifically, Sparse-KgCoOp seeks to narrow the gap between the textual embeddings produced by both the dynamic prompts and the manually devised ones, thus preserving the foundational knowledge while maintaining adaptability. Extensive experiments of several benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed Sparse-KgCoOp is an efficient method for prompt tuning.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/3/301visual-language modelsprompt tuningsparse knowledge-guided context optimization
spellingShingle Qiangxing Tian
Min Zhang
Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
Entropy
visual-language models
prompt tuning
sparse knowledge-guided context optimization
title Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
title_full Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
title_fullStr Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
title_short Enhancing Visual-Language Prompt Tuning Through Sparse Knowledge-Guided Context Optimization
title_sort enhancing visual language prompt tuning through sparse knowledge guided context optimization
topic visual-language models
prompt tuning
sparse knowledge-guided context optimization
url https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/27/3/301
work_keys_str_mv AT qiangxingtian enhancingvisuallanguageprompttuningthroughsparseknowledgeguidedcontextoptimization
AT minzhang enhancingvisuallanguageprompttuningthroughsparseknowledgeguidedcontextoptimization