The paper introduces TASCO, a test‑time adaptation method that improves Large Language Model reasoning by optimizing stability‑aware confidence. It keeps the LLM frozen and uses a lightweight task‑level prefix, applying Random Perturbation for distributional stability and Sharpness‑Aware Perturbation for worst‑case sensitivity. Experiments show enhanced reasoning accuracy and token efficiency across various LLMs and benchmarks, while preserving stable confidence without over‑concentrating predictions.
The paper introduces TASCO, a test‑time adaptation framework that enhances Large Language Model reasoning by incorporating local stability into confidence‑based adaptation while keeping the model frozen. TASCO optimizes a lightweight task‑level prefix using two perturbation strategies—Random Perturbation for distributional stability and Sharpness‑Aware Perturbation for worst‑case sensitivity—to ensure that high confidence aligns with correctness. Experiments show that TASCO improves reasoning accuracy and token efficiency across various LLMs and benchmarks, and behavioral analyses confirm that it maintains stable confidence without over‑concentrating the predictive distribution.
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