arXiv Computer Vision By Xiaoshan Zhou

FearCaut-Qwen: Affective Steering in a Vision-Language Model Shifts the Decision Criterion for Hazard Assessment

Read the original on arXiv Computer Vision →

The paper investigates why vision‑language models (VLMs) often miss hazards, attributing this to an overly conservative decision criterion rather than poor perception. By identifying and steering an affective ‘fear’ circuit within the model, the authors shift the decision threshold, dramatically increasing hazard recall from 27.0 % to 75.7 % without retraining. The study demonstrates that affect‑based inference-time manipulation can correct VLM decision biases in practical applications.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at arXiv Computer Vision.

arXiv Computation and Language
Sep 17

When Cognitive Graphs Meet LLMs: BDEI Cognitive Pathways for Panic Emotional Arousal Prediction

The paper introduces PanicCognitivePath (PCP), a model that predicts the timing of panic emotional arousal by integrating appraisal emotion theory into a Belief‑Desire‑Emotion‑Intention (BDEI) framework. PCP uses a Psychological Safety Distance (PSD) model to fuse physical, social, cognitive, and informational signals into a unified risk metric, and confines large language models to a single parameter‑estimation step to reduce hallucinations. Experiments on Hurricane Sandy data show PCP improves individual prediction accuracy by 10.68% and reduces peak count error to 7.07%.

By Mengzhu Liu, Long Qin, Chuan Ai, Zhengqiu Zhu, Hongru Liang, Fangfang Li, Chen Gao, Yong Li, Xin Lu, Quanjun Yin
arXiv Machine Learning
Oct 23

Probing and Steering for Safety-Relevant Behaviours in Large Language Models

The paper introduces activation probes—directions in a language model’s residual stream—that can both detect and steer safety‑relevant behaviors such as deception, high‑stakes awareness, and sycophancy. By evaluating different estimators (difference‑of‑means vs. logistic regression) and token‑pooling schemes (last, mean, learned attention) on Llama‑3.1‑8B‑Instruct, the authors find that logistic regression excels at detection while difference‑of‑means excels at steering, except for sycophancy where the pattern reverses. The study highlights that the optimal pooling method, layer choice, and steering metric vary by behavior and data, and provides exported probes that enable an interactive interface for scoring and steering text.

By Nimun Bajwa, Massimo Poesio
arXiv AI
Jul 3

ESC: Emotional Self-Correction for Reliable Vision-Language Models

arXiv:2607. 02089v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Vision-language models (VLMs) have achieved strong performance across diverse multimodal tasks, yet they remain vulnerable to unreliable reasoning.

By Tien-Huy Nguyen, Minh-Nhat Nguyen, Nguyen Nhat Huy, Hung Viet Nguyen, Huy Nguyen Minh Nhat, Thanh-Huy Nguyen, Cuong Tuan Nguyen, Hoang M. Le, Dat Nguyen, Phat Kim Huynh, Min Xu, Ulas Bagci