Abstract
In-context retrieval (ICR) is a retrieval-based form of in-context learning (ICL) in which demonstrations are retrieved from a source database based on similarity to the query, rather than sampled independently. In this work, we formulate ICR as a type of domain adaptation problem, where the source distribution $P$ of the database may differ from the target distribution $Q$ of the test query-label pair. We investigate the performance of ICR under a flexible class of distributional shifts that substantially extends prior work \citep{li2024fine,guo2025retrieval}, and establish theoretical guarantees that quantify the benefits and pitfalls of this learning paradigm. Our theory is verified by experiments on synthetic and language tasks.
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Publication details
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Cite this article
APA 7
Zhu, Y., Deng, N., Li, Y., Shi, N., & Scott, C. (2026). Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework
MLA 9
Zhu, Yilun, et al. "Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework.
Chicago (author–date)
Zhu, Yilun, Naihao Deng, Yingcong Li, Naichen Shi, and Clayton Scott. 2026. "Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework.
Harvard
Zhu, Y., Deng, N., Li, Y., Shi, N. and Scott, C. (2026) 'Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework.
Vancouver
Zhu Y, Deng N, Li Y, Shi N, Scott C. Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework
IEEE
Y. Zhu, N. Deng, Y. Li, N. Shi, and C. Scott, "Retrieval-Based In-Context Learning: A Domain Adaptation Framework," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/retrieval-based-in-context-learning-a-domain-adaptation-framework.