arXiv:2603.26323cs.CLcs.AI2026-03被引 1

探究大模型空间推理的内在机制,发现其空间表征脆弱且依赖上下文。

From Human Cognition to Neural Activations: Probing the Computational Primitives of Spatial Reasoning in LLMs

  • 将空间推理拆解为三种计算原语,设计控制任务验证
  • 中间层编码空间信息但难以影响最终输出,表现碎片化
  • 跨语言分析显示行为相似但内部路径不同,机制退化明显

随着空间智能对基础模型愈发重要,大语言模型在空间推理基准上的表现是否反映结构化的内部空间表征,还是依赖语言启发式仍不明确。本文从机制角度出发,研究空间信息如何被内部表示与使用。基于人类空间认知的计算理论,我们将空间推理分解为三类原语:关系复合、表征变换和状态更新,并为每类设计控制任务。在英、中、阿三语下评估多语言大模型的单次推理表现,通过线性探测、稀疏自编码器特征分析及因果干预分析内部表示。结果表明,任务相关空间信息存在于中间层,可因果影响行为,但这些表征具有瞬时性、跨任务碎片化,且弱整合于最终预测。跨语言分析进一步揭示机制退化现象:相似行为表现源于不同的内部路径。总体而言,当前大模型仅具备有限且上下文依赖的空间表征,而非鲁棒通用的空间推理能力,强调需超越基准准确率进行机制层面评估。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

As spatial intelligence becomes an increasingly important capability for foundation models, it remains unclear whether large language models' (LLMs) performance on spatial reasoning benchmarks reflects structured internal spatial representations or reliance on linguistic heuristics. We address this question from a mechanistic perspective by examining how spatial information is internally represented and used. Drawing on computational theories of human spatial cognition, we decompose spatial reasoning into three primitives, relational composition, representational transformation, and stateful spatial updating, and design controlled task families for each. We evaluate multilingual LLMs in English, Chinese, and Arabic under single pass inference, and analyze internal representations using linear probing, sparse autoencoder based feature analysis, and causal interventions. We find that task relevant spatial information is encoded in intermediate layers and can causally influence behavior, but these representations are transient, fragmented across task families, and weakly integrated into final predictions. Cross linguistic analysis further reveals mechanistic degeneracy, where similar behavioral performance arises from distinct internal pathways. Overall, our results suggest that current LLMs exhibit limited and context dependent spatial representations rather than robust, general purpose spatial reasoning, highlighting the need for mechanistic evaluation beyond benchmark accuracy.

空间推理机制分析大模型表征

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