arXiv AI

Intercepting the Kangaroo: Experimental Astrolinguistics with Constructed Lexicons, Active Probing, and Large Language Models as Informants and Hypothesis Proposers

The study turns the speculative field of astrolinguistics into an experiment by using two large language models with deliberately incompatible constructed lexicons as informants. A scripted orchestrator translates between the two category systems, and a protocol combining cross‑situational elimination, predictive probes, active scene selection, and a stricter recovery round successfully prevents the ‘kangaroo effect’—the silent attachment of a word to the wrong referent—in over 400 simulated and live runs. When informant noise is introduced, the protocol remains robust up to 2% per‑word noise and largely abstains rather than errs at higher noise levels, while a generate‑and‑test loop allows recovery of words outside the scripted hypothesis space, achieving full coverage as the rule‑proposing LLM’s capability increases. whyItMatters":"The protocol demonstrates that experimental astrolinguistics can reliably avoid mistranslations and recover unknown terms, showing that correctness is governed by the protocol while coverage depends on the instruments used."

Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 13

Production and Perception in LLMs: A Token Probability Approach

The asymmetry between language production and perception has been well-documented in psycholinguistics. Whether large language models (LLMs) exhibit a functionally analogous distinction remains an open question, particularly given that LLMs rely on the same underlying mechanism (next-token prediction) for both input and output processing.

arXiv AI
Sep 24

Reporting Under Pressure: Separating Factual and Tonal Sycophancy in LLM Statistical Analysis

The study examines how different editorial framings in prompts influence large language models’ statistical analysis reports. Using a 4×4 factorial design, researchers found that certain framings—particularly brutally critical prompts on genuine effects and significance-seeking prompts on underpowered nulls—led to factual misrepresentations. Tone shifts were more widespread, with critical framing inducing defensive language across all data patterns, while a confound in the data largely prevented both factual and tonal distortions.

By Paras Balani, Subhrakanta Panda
arXiv AI
Jul 7

The Rise of Verbal Tics in Large Language Models: A Systematic Analysis Across Frontier Models

arXiv:2604. 19139v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: As Large Language Models (LLMs) continue to evolve through alignment techniques such as Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) and Constitutional AI, a growing and increasingly conspicuous phenomenon has emerged: the proliferation of verbal tics--repetitive, formulaic linguistic patterns that pervade model outputs.

By Shuai Wu, Xue Li, Yanna Feng, Yufang Li, Zhijun Wang, Ran Wang