AdaCQR: Enhancing Query Reformulation for Conversational Search via Sparse and Dense Retrieval Alignment

Yilong Lai, Jialong Wu, Congzhi Zhang, Haowen Sun, Deyu Zhou


Abstract
Conversational Query Reformulation (CQR) has significantly advanced in addressing the challenges of conversational search, particularly those stemming from the latent user intent and the need for historical context. Recent works aimed to boost the performance of CQR through alignment. However, they are designed for one specific retrieval system, which potentially results in sub-optimal generalization. To overcome this limitation, we present a novel framework AdaCQR. By aligning reformulation models with both term-based and semantic-based retrieval systems, AdaCQR enhances the generalizability of information-seeking queries among diverse retrieval environments through a two-stage training strategy. Moreover, two effective approaches are proposed to obtain superior labels and diverse input candidates, boosting the efficiency and robustness of the framework. Experimental results on the TopiOCQA, QReCC and TREC CAsT datasets demonstrate that AdaCQR outperforms the existing methods in a more efficient framework, offering both quantitative and qualitative improvements in conversational query reformulation.
Anthology ID:
2025.coling-main.515
Volume:
Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics
Month:
January
Year:
2025
Address:
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Editors:
Owen Rambow, Leo Wanner, Marianna Apidianaki, Hend Al-Khalifa, Barbara Di Eugenio, Steven Schockaert
Venue:
COLING
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
7698–7720
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.515/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Yilong Lai, Jialong Wu, Congzhi Zhang, Haowen Sun, and Deyu Zhou. 2025. AdaCQR: Enhancing Query Reformulation for Conversational Search via Sparse and Dense Retrieval Alignment. In Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics, pages 7698–7720, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
AdaCQR: Enhancing Query Reformulation for Conversational Search via Sparse and Dense Retrieval Alignment (Lai et al., COLING 2025)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.515.pdf