arXiv:2607.17674cs.LGcs.AI2026-07

揭示大模型解题背后的隐含策略,让推理过程可解释

Uncovering Latent Reasoning Strategies in Language Models

论文配图:Uncovering Latent Reasoning Strategies in Language Models
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 用路由+生成结构分解模型响应,分离输入与策略的关联
  • 通过高基线困惑度词强化训练,避免潜在变量失效
  • 在算法任务中成功识别多种独立策略,适合研究模型可解释性

一个在推理任务上训练的语言模型 $p_θ(y ackslashmid x)$ 会采用多种不同的解题策略,但这些策略隐含且纠缠于模型的输出分布中。本文研究如何将预训练语言模型的输出分布分解为结构化的、基于策略的表示。具体地,我们学习一种潜变量因子化 $p_θ(y ackslashmid x) \leadsto (r_ϕ(z ackslashmid x), g_ϕ(y ackslashmid x,z))$,其中路由模块 $r$ 将每个输入映射到潜策略 $z$ 的分布,生成器 $g$ 则根据该策略生成回答。关键挑战在于,初始化后的生成器已能直接表示 $p_θ(y ackslashmid x)$,不依赖 $z$。标准变分推断因此无法激励模型使用 $z$,导致严重后验坍缩。为此,我们提出一种新的变分目标:衡量相对于基线模型响应损失的信息增益,并将重建压力集中在基线模型困惑度高的词上,促使 $z$ 编码与策略相关的响应变化。我们引入了一个多策略算法任务基准,结果表明该目标能恢复与参考策略对齐的潜码,同时保持基线模型的输出分布。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

A language model $p_θ(y \mid x)$ trained on reasoning tasks learns to solve problems via multiple distinct strategies, yet these strategies are implicit and entangled within the model's response distribution. We study the problem of decomposing the response distribution of a given pretrained language model into a structured, strategy-conditioned representation. Specifically, we learn a latent-variable factorization $p_θ(y \mid x) \leadsto (r_ϕ(z \mid x), g_ϕ(y \mid x,z))$, where a router $r$ maps each input to a distribution over latent strategies $z$ and a generator $g$ produces the response conditioned on that strategy. A key challenge is that the generator, initialized from the base model, already represents $p_θ(y \mid x)$ without using $z$. Standard variational inference therefore gives the model no incentive to route information through $z$ and can yield a severe form of posterior collapse. To address this, we propose a variational objective that measures fractional information gain relative to the base model's response loss and concentrates reconstruction pressure on tokens with high base model surprisal, encouraging $z$ to encode strategy-relevant response variation. We introduce a benchmark of multi-strategy algorithmic tasks and show that this objective recovers latent codes aligned with distinct reference strategies while preserving the base model's response distribution.

模型解释潜变量推理策略

Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。