模型过思考源于输入引发的内在偏见,导致冗余推理。
The First Impression Problem: Internal Bias Triggers Overthinking in Reasoning Models
- 发现输入问题会引发模型的初步直觉判断(内部偏见)
- 移除输入后冗余推理减少,验证因果关系
- 适合研究大模型推理偏差与优化策略的读者
推理模型常出现冗余推理步骤,表现为过思考。我们识别出输入问题引发的‘内部偏见’是关键诱因:模型在接收到问题后立即形成未经系统推理的初步答案猜测。当该猜测与后续推理冲突时,模型倾向于过度反思,造成计算浪费。我们在多个模型和多样化推理任务中验证了内部偏见与过思考的关联。通过双重反事实干预实验发现,移除输入后冗余推理显著下降;人工注入偏见则相应加剧过思考。可解释性分析表明,模型对输入问题的过度关注是内部偏见影响推理路径的核心机制。尽管尝试多种缓解方法,内部偏见的影响在所有条件下仍持续存在。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reasoning models often exhibit overthinking, characterized by redundant reasoning steps. We identify \emph{internal bias} elicited by the input question as a key trigger of such behavior. Upon encountering a problem, the model immediately forms a preliminary guess about the answer, which we term an internal bias since it may not be explicitly generated, and it arises without systematic reasoning. When this guess conflicts with its subsequent reasoning, the model tends to engage in excessive reflection, resulting in wasted computation. We validate the association between internal bias and overthinking across multiple models and diverse reasoning tasks. To demonstrate the causal relationship more rigorously, we conduct two counterfactual interventions, showing that removing the input question after the model reduces the redundant reasoning across various complex reasoning tasks, and manually injecting bias affects overthinking accordingly. Further interpretability experiments suggest that excessive attention to the input question serves as a key mechanism through which internal bias influences subsequent reasoning trajectories. Finally, we evaluated several methods aimed at mitigating overthinking, yet the influence of internal bias persisted under all conditions.
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