The Compositional Architecture of Regret in Large Language Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cui, Xiangxiang, Yang, Shu, Huang, Tianjin, Lin, Wanyu, Hu, Lijie, Wang, Di
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Cui, Xiangxiang
Yang, Shu
Huang, Tianjin
Lin, Wanyu
Hu, Lijie
Wang, Di
author_facet Cui, Xiangxiang
Yang, Shu
Huang, Tianjin
Lin, Wanyu
Hu, Lijie
Wang, Di
contents Regret in Large Language Models refers to their explicit regret expression when presented with evidence contradicting their previously generated misinformation. Studying the regret mechanism is crucial for enhancing model reliability and helps in revealing how cognition is coded in neural networks. To understand this mechanism, we need to first identify regret expressions in model outputs, then analyze their internal representation. This analysis requires examining the model's hidden states, where information processing occurs at the neuron level. However, this faces three key challenges: (1) the absence of specialized datasets capturing regret expressions, (2) the lack of metrics to find the optimal regret representation layer, and (3) the lack of metrics for identifying and analyzing regret neurons. Addressing these limitations, we propose: (1) a workflow for constructing a comprehensive regret dataset through strategically designed prompting scenarios, (2) the Supervised Compression-Decoupling Index (S-CDI) metric to identify optimal regret representation layers, and (3) the Regret Dominance Score (RDS) metric to identify regret neurons and the Group Impact Coefficient (GIC) to analyze activation patterns. Our experimental results successfully identified the optimal regret representation layer using the S-CDI metric, which significantly enhanced performance in probe classification experiments. Additionally, we discovered an M-shaped decoupling pattern across model layers, revealing how information processing alternates between coupling and decoupling phases. Through the RDS metric, we categorized neurons into three distinct functional groups: regret neurons, non-regret neurons, and dual neurons.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15617
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Compositional Architecture of Regret in Large Language Models
Cui, Xiangxiang
Yang, Shu
Huang, Tianjin
Lin, Wanyu
Hu, Lijie
Wang, Di
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Regret in Large Language Models refers to their explicit regret expression when presented with evidence contradicting their previously generated misinformation. Studying the regret mechanism is crucial for enhancing model reliability and helps in revealing how cognition is coded in neural networks. To understand this mechanism, we need to first identify regret expressions in model outputs, then analyze their internal representation. This analysis requires examining the model's hidden states, where information processing occurs at the neuron level. However, this faces three key challenges: (1) the absence of specialized datasets capturing regret expressions, (2) the lack of metrics to find the optimal regret representation layer, and (3) the lack of metrics for identifying and analyzing regret neurons. Addressing these limitations, we propose: (1) a workflow for constructing a comprehensive regret dataset through strategically designed prompting scenarios, (2) the Supervised Compression-Decoupling Index (S-CDI) metric to identify optimal regret representation layers, and (3) the Regret Dominance Score (RDS) metric to identify regret neurons and the Group Impact Coefficient (GIC) to analyze activation patterns. Our experimental results successfully identified the optimal regret representation layer using the S-CDI metric, which significantly enhanced performance in probe classification experiments. Additionally, we discovered an M-shaped decoupling pattern across model layers, revealing how information processing alternates between coupling and decoupling phases. Through the RDS metric, we categorized neurons into three distinct functional groups: regret neurons, non-regret neurons, and dual neurons.
title The Compositional Architecture of Regret in Large Language Models
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15617