Internal Consistency and Self-Feedback in Large Language Models: A Survey

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Main Authors: Liang, Xun, Song, Shichao, Zheng, Zifan, Wang, Hanyu, Yu, Qingchen, Li, Xunkai, Li, Rong-Hua, Wang, Yi, Wang, Zhonghao, Xiong, Feiyu, Li, Zhiyu
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Published: 2024
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author Liang, Xun
Song, Shichao
Zheng, Zifan
Wang, Hanyu
Yu, Qingchen
Li, Xunkai
Li, Rong-Hua
Wang, Yi
Wang, Zhonghao
Xiong, Feiyu
Li, Zhiyu
author_facet Liang, Xun
Song, Shichao
Zheng, Zifan
Wang, Hanyu
Yu, Qingchen
Li, Xunkai
Li, Rong-Hua
Wang, Yi
Wang, Zhonghao
Xiong, Feiyu
Li, Zhiyu
contents Large language models (LLMs) often exhibit deficient reasoning or generate hallucinations. To address these, studies prefixed with "Self-" such as Self-Consistency, Self-Improve, and Self-Refine have been initiated. They share a commonality: involving LLMs evaluating and updating themselves. Nonetheless, these efforts lack a unified perspective on summarization, as existing surveys predominantly focus on categorization. In this paper, we use a unified perspective of internal consistency, offering explanations for reasoning deficiencies and hallucinations. Internal consistency refers to the consistency in expressions among LLMs' latent, decoding, or response layers based on sampling methodologies. Then, we introduce an effective theoretical framework capable of mining internal consistency, named Self-Feedback. This framework consists of two modules: Self-Evaluation and Self-Update. The former captures internal consistency signals, while the latter leverages the signals to enhance either the model's response or the model itself. This framework has been employed in numerous studies. We systematically classify these studies by tasks and lines of work; summarize relevant evaluation methods and benchmarks; and delve into the concern, "Does Self-Feedback Really Work?" We also propose several critical viewpoints, including the "Hourglass Evolution of Internal Consistency", "Consistency Is (Almost) Correctness" hypothesis, and "The Paradox of Latent and Explicit Reasoning". The relevant resources are open-sourced at https://github.com/IAAR-Shanghai/ICSFSurvey.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_14507
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Internal Consistency and Self-Feedback in Large Language Models: A Survey
Liang, Xun
Song, Shichao
Zheng, Zifan
Wang, Hanyu
Yu, Qingchen
Li, Xunkai
Li, Rong-Hua
Wang, Yi
Wang, Zhonghao
Xiong, Feiyu
Li, Zhiyu
Computation and Language
Large language models (LLMs) often exhibit deficient reasoning or generate hallucinations. To address these, studies prefixed with "Self-" such as Self-Consistency, Self-Improve, and Self-Refine have been initiated. They share a commonality: involving LLMs evaluating and updating themselves. Nonetheless, these efforts lack a unified perspective on summarization, as existing surveys predominantly focus on categorization. In this paper, we use a unified perspective of internal consistency, offering explanations for reasoning deficiencies and hallucinations. Internal consistency refers to the consistency in expressions among LLMs' latent, decoding, or response layers based on sampling methodologies. Then, we introduce an effective theoretical framework capable of mining internal consistency, named Self-Feedback. This framework consists of two modules: Self-Evaluation and Self-Update. The former captures internal consistency signals, while the latter leverages the signals to enhance either the model's response or the model itself. This framework has been employed in numerous studies. We systematically classify these studies by tasks and lines of work; summarize relevant evaluation methods and benchmarks; and delve into the concern, "Does Self-Feedback Really Work?" We also propose several critical viewpoints, including the "Hourglass Evolution of Internal Consistency", "Consistency Is (Almost) Correctness" hypothesis, and "The Paradox of Latent and Explicit Reasoning". The relevant resources are open-sourced at https://github.com/IAAR-Shanghai/ICSFSurvey.
title Internal Consistency and Self-Feedback in Large Language Models: A Survey
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.14507