Boosting Self-Efficacy and Performance of Large Language Models via Verbal Efficacy Stimulations

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Hauptverfasser: Chen, Rui, Peng, Tailai, Xie, Xinran, Lin, Dekun, Cui, Zhe, Chen, Zheng
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Chen, Rui
Peng, Tailai
Xie, Xinran
Lin, Dekun
Cui, Zhe
Chen, Zheng
author_facet Chen, Rui
Peng, Tailai
Xie, Xinran
Lin, Dekun
Cui, Zhe
Chen, Zheng
contents Significant improvements have been observed in the zero-shot capabilities of the Large Language Models (LLMs). Due to their high sensitivity to input, research has increasingly focused on enhancing LLMs' performance via direct and simple prompt engineering rather than intricate domain adaptation. Studies suggest that LLMs exhibit emotional intelligence, and both positive and negative emotions can potentially enhance task performances. However, prior interaction prompts have predominantly concentrated on a single stimulus type, neglecting to compare different stimulus effects, examine the influence of varying task difficulties, or explore underlying mechanisms. This paper, inspired by the positive correlation between self-efficacy and task performance within the social cognitive theory, introduces Verbal Efficacy Stimulations (VES). Our VES comprises three types of verbal prompts: encouraging, provocative, and critical, addressing six aspects such as helpfulness and competence. And we further categorize task difficulty, aiming to extensively investigate how distinct VES influence the self-efficacy and task achievements of language models at varied levels of difficulty. The experimental results show that the three types of VES improve the performance of LLMs on most tasks, and the most effective VES varies for different models. In extensive experiments, we have obtained some findings consistent with psychological theories, providing novel insights for future research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06669
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Boosting Self-Efficacy and Performance of Large Language Models via Verbal Efficacy Stimulations
Chen, Rui
Peng, Tailai
Xie, Xinran
Lin, Dekun
Cui, Zhe
Chen, Zheng
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Significant improvements have been observed in the zero-shot capabilities of the Large Language Models (LLMs). Due to their high sensitivity to input, research has increasingly focused on enhancing LLMs' performance via direct and simple prompt engineering rather than intricate domain adaptation. Studies suggest that LLMs exhibit emotional intelligence, and both positive and negative emotions can potentially enhance task performances. However, prior interaction prompts have predominantly concentrated on a single stimulus type, neglecting to compare different stimulus effects, examine the influence of varying task difficulties, or explore underlying mechanisms. This paper, inspired by the positive correlation between self-efficacy and task performance within the social cognitive theory, introduces Verbal Efficacy Stimulations (VES). Our VES comprises three types of verbal prompts: encouraging, provocative, and critical, addressing six aspects such as helpfulness and competence. And we further categorize task difficulty, aiming to extensively investigate how distinct VES influence the self-efficacy and task achievements of language models at varied levels of difficulty. The experimental results show that the three types of VES improve the performance of LLMs on most tasks, and the most effective VES varies for different models. In extensive experiments, we have obtained some findings consistent with psychological theories, providing novel insights for future research.
title Boosting Self-Efficacy and Performance of Large Language Models via Verbal Efficacy Stimulations
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06669