arXiv:2608.02089cs.LGcs.AI2026-08

模型推理摘要能透露多少信息?研究揭示了可观察性层级。

How Much Does a Reasoning Summary Reveal? An Observability Ladder for Large Language Models

论文配图:How Much Does a Reasoning Summary Reveal? An Observability Ladder for Large Language Models
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 构建可观察性阶梯,对比不同信息层级对正确性的判断效果
  • 无提示时摘要比响应多提升0.156的准确率,有提示则基本失效
  • 完整推理轨迹仍具优势,尤其在长文本末尾蕴含更多纠错线索

大型语言模型通常只向用户展示最终答案和简短推理摘要,而完整推理过程保持隐藏。本文提出一个可观察性阶梯,固定每次运行结果,仅改变读者可查看的内容:答案、模型自动生成的摘要、完整推理轨迹及内部信号,每种情况均在有/无提示下测试。在三个基准测试和五款开源Qwen3与gpt-oss模型上,对每个层级训练匹配的线性正确性预测器。无提示时,摘要承载了轨迹大部分排序信号(平均AUROC 0.774 vs 0.813),较仅看答案提升0.156;有提示时,摘要增益降至0.019,而轨迹仍额外提升0.041。即使长度相同,轨迹末尾部分的预测能力不亚于摘要,且包含更密集、更具区分度的不确定性和自我修正线索。在MMLU-Pro中,同时存在正确与错误运行的情况下,线性摘要读者接近随机水平,轨迹读者虽保留一定信号,但影响有限(无提示时AUROC 0.503–0.545,有提示时0.544–0.590)。当提示不可见时,GPT-5-mini读者在gpt-oss-20b上从摘要和轨迹中恢复更多信号,但轨迹仍保持+0.034优势。大部分轨迹信号与长度相关。因此,在用户已知提示的常见场景下,摘要对监控正确性帮助有限。可监控性是显示内容与读者共同决定的属性,任何关于可解释性或忠实性的主张都应明确说明二者。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Large language models often show users a final response and a short reasoning summary while the full reasoning trace stays hidden. We introduce an observability ladder that holds each completed run fixed and varies only what a reader inspects to judge whether the answer is correct: the response, a self-summary the model writes from the trace, the trace itself, and internal signals, each with and without the prompt. Across three benchmarks and five open-weight Qwen3 and gpt-oss models, we train matched linear correctness predictors on each access level. Without the prompt, summaries carry most of the trace's ranking signal (mean AUROC 0.774 versus 0.813) and add +0.156 over the response alone. With the prompt visible, the summary's gain collapses to +0.019, while the trace still adds +0.041. Even at equal length, the trace's last words predict correctness as well as summaries, or slightly better, and carry denser and more discriminative uncertainty and self-correction cues. On MMLU-Pro questions with both correct and incorrect runs, linear summary readers are near chance and trace readers retain only modest signal, both with and without the prompt (prompt-withheld AUROC 0.503-0.545 versus 0.544-0.590). With the prompt withheld, a GPT-5-mini reader recovers substantially more signal from both summaries and traces on gpt-oss-20b, and even then the trace keeps a small +0.034 advantage. Much of the linear readers' trace signal is associated with length. In the common case where users already hold the prompt, summaries are less helpful than the full trace for monitoring correctness. Monitorability is thus a joint property of the display and the reader, so any monitorability claim, including for faithfulness, should specify both.

可观察性模型可信度推理分析

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