区分语言模型事实补全的四种机制,揭示其真实推理路径。
Fact Recall, Heuristics or Pure Guesswork? Precise Interpretations of Language Models for Fact Completion
- 构建四类预测场景数据集,区分记忆、猜测、启发式与通用语言建模。
- 发现中段MLP层负责事实回忆,末尾层负责猜测与启发式判断。
- 为理解模型如何处理事实问题提供可量化分析框架,适合模型解释研究者。
语言模型在完成事实补全时可能基于多种信号做出正确预测,但这些信号并不都源于对事实的记忆。当前解释方法未能区分此类差异。例如,当查询为"Astrid Lindgren was born in",答案为"Sweden"时,无法判断是因知道作者出生地,还是因名字听起来像瑞典人而猜测。本文提出针对特定模型的构建方法PrISM,生成包含四种预测情景(通用语言建模、猜测、启发式回忆、精确事实回忆)的数据集,并应用因果追踪(CT)和信息流分析两种可解释性方法。结果表明,不同情景下两类方法均产生显著差异。精确事实回忆与通用语言建模情景验证了中段MLP子层对事实回忆的重要性;而猜测与启发式情景则凸显末尾最后一个标记位置的MLP子层的关键作用。本工作提供了更细致研究语言模型事实补全的新资源,深化了对模型处理事实查询机制的理解。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Language models (LMs) can make a correct prediction based on many possible signals in a prompt, not all corresponding to recall of factual associations. However, current interpretations of LMs fail to take this into account. For example, given the query "Astrid Lindgren was born in" with the corresponding completion "Sweden", no difference is made between whether the prediction was based on knowing where the author was born or assuming that a person with a Swedish-sounding name was born in Sweden. In this paper, we present a model-specific recipe - PrISM - for constructing datasets with examples of four different prediction scenarios: generic language modeling, guesswork, heuristics recall and exact fact recall. We apply two popular interpretability methods to the scenarios: causal tracing (CT) and information flow analysis. We find that both yield distinct results for each scenario. Results for exact fact recall and generic language modeling scenarios confirm previous conclusions about the importance of mid-range MLP sublayers for fact recall, while results for guesswork and heuristics indicate a critical role of late last token position MLP sublayers. In summary, we contribute resources for a more extensive and granular study of fact completion in LMs, together with analyses that provide a more nuanced understanding of how LMs process fact-related queries.
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