Does Mixed Label Imbalance Matter to Minority Collapse in Imbalanced Learning?

Abstract

*Minority collapse*, where minority classes become indistinguishable, is a significant challenge in imbalanced learning. This challenge is addressed by methods such as Mixup with class-balanced sampling. Although minority collapse has been mathematically analyzed using the layer-peeled model alongside Neural Collapse, no prior work has analyzed minority collapse under Mixup, particularly from the perspective of mixed labels. We investigate this overlooked factor and raise the question: *Is mixed label balance important for alleviating minority collapse?* Our analysis reveals that (i) mixed labels should be balanced, and (ii) in this setting, interpreting mixed labels as singletons is beneficial. Motivated by this analysis, we propose a *Balanced Mixed Label Sampler* and a *Mixed-Singleton classifier*, which balance mixed labels and treat them as singleton labels. Through theoretical analysis and experimental results, we highlight the importance of balancing mixed labels in imbalanced learning.