arXiv:2505.18949cs.CLcs.AI2025-05EMNLP被引 44

结构化提示导致大模型输出多样性下降,影响创造力。

The Price of Format: Diversity Collapse in LLMs

  • 用角色标记和特殊符号强化格式,却压缩了输出空间。
  • 高温度采样也无法缓解多样性崩溃,结构词是主因。
  • 少用格式可提升多样性,适合需要创意的场景。

指令微调的大语言模型在推理时使用结构化模板(如角色标记、特殊符号)以保证格式一致性。然而我们发现,这种格式化会引发‘多样性崩溃’现象:对开放式输入生成语义相近的输出,削弱创造性与变化性。我们在故事续写和自由生成等任务中系统评估该现象,发现:(1) 即使采用高温度采样,多样性崩溃仍持续存在;(2) 模板中的结构化符号显著限制模型输出空间。为深入分析,我们使用不同结构化提示微调同一模型,并从下游任务表现、对齐行为、输出多样性三方面评估。结果表明:格式一致性对结构敏感任务(如GSM8K、IFEval)至关重要,但对知识密集型任务(如MMLU、WebQuestions)影响较小;而输出多样性主要取决于是否使用结构化符号,无格式提示产生的输出最丰富。这揭示当前提示范式虽利于对齐,却可能抑制多样性,亟需设计更关注多样性的提示与指令微调方法。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Instruction-tuned large language models (LLMs) employ structured templates, such as role markers and special tokens, to enforce format consistency during inference. However, we identify a critical limitation of such formatting: it induces a phenomenon we term diversity collapse, where the model generates semantically similar outputs for open-ended inputs, undermining creativity and variability. We systematically evaluate this effect across tasks like story completion and free-form generation, finding that (1) diversity collapse persists even under high-temperature sampling, and (2) structural tokens in templates significantly constrain the model's output space. To contextualize these findings, we fine-tune the same model using a range of structured prompts and then evaluate them across three axes: downstream task performance, alignment behavior, and output diversity. Our analysis shows that format consistency between fine-tuning and inference is crucial for structure-sensitive tasks (e.g., GSM8K, IFEval), but has marginal influence on knowledge-heavy tasks (e.g., MMLU, WebQuestions). In contrast, output diversity is primarily governed by the presence or absence of structural tokens, with minimal formatting yielding the most diverse outputs. These findings reveal that current prompting conventions, while beneficial for alignment, may inadvertently suppress output diversity, underscoring the need for diversity-aware prompt design and instruction tuning.

大模型多样性提示工程

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