arXiv Computation and Language
Oct 21

Why Do LLMs Accept Generics? Explaining Acceptability using Psycholinguistic and Model-Derived Factors

The paper investigates why large language models (LLMs) accept or reject generic statements, drawing on psycholinguistic research that identifies factors beyond mere property frequency, such as distinctiveness and characteristicness. Using twelve LLMs evaluated on a psycholinguistic dataset and real-world generics, the study finds that models weigh property commonality against distinctiveness similarly to humans, but they prioritize factual truth and largely ignore striking properties. Manipulating hidden states along factor directions confirms that each factor influences judgments as predicted.

By Mervat Abassy, Zhaoxin Feng, Tatsuki Kuribayashi, Kentaro Inui, Emmanuele Chersoni
Hugging Face Trending Papers
Jul 8

Dissociating the Internal Representations of Sycophancy in LLMs

Large Language Models (LLMs) frequently exhibit sycophancy, where they agree with a user's statement even when incorrect. While sycophancy is often treated as a single defined behavior, it can manifest in substantially distinct ways and circumstances, raising the question of whether this multi-faceted nature is reflected in its internal mechanisms.

arXiv AI
Sep 10

Beliefs and Behavior in Language Models

arXiv:2609.07943v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: There is significant uncertainty about whether abstractions like beliefs or desires usefully describe the behavior of large language models (LLMs). In...

By Alex Smolin, Bryan Wilder