用强化学习训练的模型能更可靠地做假设检验,减少错误结论。
Fisher-R1: Training LLM Agents for Reliable Hypothesis Testing

- 通过合成任务和强化学习训练模型,提升统计推理能力。
- 在425个真实任务上,性能比强基线高出21%以上,难题中达26%。
- 适合需要严谨数据分析的研究者或自动化科研工具开发者。
可靠的假设检验是众多实证科学主张的基础。大语言模型(LLM)代理正被越来越多用于自动化这一过程,因其可检查数据集、生成代码并端到端完成分析。然而,我们发现它们常因细微的推断错误导致错误结论,即使分析执行无误。现有基准未能捕捉此失败模式,因极少评估报告的p值在数据假设下是否统计有效。为此,我们构建了P-Bench,一个包含425个开放式、真实假设检验任务的基准,涵盖经济学、生物学和医学。每个任务要求代理根据科学假设和数据选择统计方法、计算p值并得出结论。我们进一步提出Fisher-R1,一个使用合成任务和强化学习训练的开源权重LLM代理。在P-Bench上,Fisher-R1-14B显著优于其基础模型,并超越多个强基线(包括GPT-5.4和DeepSeekV4-Pro),在单次试验成功率上相对提升21%,复杂任务最高达26%。结果表明,当前LLM代理在假设检验中缺乏可靠的统计推理能力,而基于经验证统计奖励的强化学习可显著提升可靠性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Reliable hypothesis testing is the foundation of many empirical scientific claims. Large language model (LLM) agents are increasingly used to automate this process, as they can inspect datasets, generate code, and produce analyses end-to-end. However, we show that they frequently make subtle inferential errors that lead to incorrect conclusions despite correctly executed analyses. Existing benchmarks fail to capture this failure mode, as they rarely assess whether a reported p-value is statistically valid given the assumptions underlying the data. We address this gap by building P-Bench, a benchmark comprising 425 open-ended, realistic hypothesis-testing tasks spanning economics, biology, and medicine. Each task requires an agent to select a statistical method, compute a p-value, and draw a conclusion given only a scientific hypothesis and a dataset. We further introduce Fisher-R1, an open-weight LLM agent trained for rigorous hypothesis testing using synthetic tasks and reinforcement learning. On P-Bench, Fisher-R1-14B substantially improves over its backbone and outperforms strong proprietary and open-source baselines, including GPT-5.4 and DeepSeekV4-Pro, achieving a 21% average relative improvement in single-trial success over DeepSeek-V4-Pro, with gains up to 26% on the most challenging tasks. Our results demonstrate that current LLM agents lack reliable statistical reasoning for hypothesis testing and that reinforcement learning on tasks with verified statistical reward substantially improves reliability.
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