arXiv AI By Changming Li, Kaixing Zhang, Haoyun Xu, Yingdong Shi, Zheng Zhang, Kaitao Song, Kan Ren

From Outcome to Representation: Tracing Reasoning Mechanisms through Integrated Policy Gradient

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The paper introduces Integrated Policy Gradient (IPG), a training‑free framework that applies policy‑based attribution to large language model reasoning. IPG backpropagates outcome‑level, non‑differentiable signals through entire inference trajectories, using path integration to isolate outcome‑relevant mediators at the component level. Empirical results show that IPG precisely localizes sparse internal components linked to specific reasoning behaviors and enables modulation of reasoning capabilities.

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