arXiv:2607.02686cs.AIcs.LG2026-07中稿 · IJCAI

让小模型在信息不全时更有效帮大忙,靠的是给它看完整路径和历史。

ASK in the Dark: Uncertainty-Gated LLM Assistance under Partial Observability

  • 用轨迹感知上下文+结构化推理,让小模型主动提建议
  • 在门钥匙等任务上成功率从53%~89%提升至70%~93%
  • 小模型也能高效辅助,关键在提示设计而非模型大小

在部分可观测环境下,强化学习智能体需基于不完整信息决策,天然适合由携带广泛推理先验的小语言模型(SLMs)提供指导。然而,现有不确定性门控方法在所有测试环境中几乎无法触发独立动作(覆写率接近零),表明小模型几乎不贡献新动作。我们发现这是由于仅依赖自身视角的提示缺乏足够上下文,属于上下文不足问题而非能力限制。为此提出ASK+,向小模型提供轨迹感知上下文(部分揭示的地图、已访问位置、动作历史)与结构化思维链,使其从被动冗余检查转变为有信息量的顾问,偶尔纠正策略。进一步证明,用于选择性查询的预测熵信号衡量的是动作不确定性而非状态不确定性,在部分可观测马尔可夫决策过程(POMDPs)中仍具信息量,使不确定性门控辅助在非全可观测场景下可行。状态化提示带来显著提升:在DoorKey任务中,原版ASK与PPO持平(均为89%),而ASK+达93%;FourRooms成功率从53%升至70%;HigherLower准确率达73.7%,达到仅用小模型的上限。在所有环境中,Qwen3.5-2B表现匹配甚至超过Qwen3.5-4B,证实提示设计与选择性门控对效果的影响远超模型规模,实现无需大模型的高效引导。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Reinforcement learning agents operating under partial observability must act on incomplete information, making them natural candidates for guidance from small language models (SLMs) that carry broad reasoning priors. Yet integrating SLM guidance into this setting has proven difficult: across all test environments, vanilla uncertainty-gated approaches achieve an overwrite rate at or near zero, meaning the SLM almost never contributes an independent action. We trace this failure to the bare egocentric prompt, which provides insufficient context for genuine reasoning, and identify it as a context problem rather than a capacity problem. We propose ASK+, which supplies the SLM with trajectory-aware context (a partially revealed map, visited positions, and action history) and structured chain-of-thought reasoning, converting it from a passive redundancy check into a more informative consultant that occasionally corrects the policy. We further establish that the predictive entropy signal used for selective querying measures action uncertainty rather than state uncertainty and remains informative in POMDPs, making uncertainty-gated assistance viable beyond fully observable settings. The stateful prompt drives substantial gains: on DoorKey, where vanilla ASK matches PPO (both 89%), ASK+ reaches 93% success; on FourRooms, success climbs from 53% to 70%; on HigherLower, accuracy reaches 73.7%, matching the SLM-only upper bound. Across all environments, Qwen3.5-2B matches or exceeds Qwen3.5-4B, confirming that prompt design and selective gating dominate the impact of model scale, enabling guidance without large models.

强化学习小模型部分可观测提示工程

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