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Main Authors: Yang, Shuo, Niu, Yuwei, Liu, Yuyang, Ye, Yang, Lin, Bin, Yuan, Li
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03019
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author Yang, Shuo
Niu, Yuwei
Liu, Yuyang
Ye, Yang
Lin, Bin
Yuan, Li
author_facet Yang, Shuo
Niu, Yuwei
Liu, Yuyang
Ye, Yang
Lin, Bin
Yuan, Li
contents Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have achieved remarkable progress in multimodal reasoning. However, they often excessively rely on textual information during the later stages of inference, neglecting the crucial integration of visual input. Current methods typically address this by explicitly injecting visual information to guide the reasoning process. In this work, through an analysis of MLLM attention patterns, we made an intriguing observation: with appropriate guidance, MLLMs can spontaneously re-focus their attention on visual inputs during the later stages of reasoning, even without explicit visual information injection. This spontaneous shift in focus suggests that MLLMs are intrinsically capable of performing visual fusion reasoning. Building on this insight, we introduce Look-Back, an implicit approach designed to guide MLLMs to ``look back" at visual information in a self-directed manner during reasoning. Look-Back empowers the model to autonomously determine when, where, and how to re-focus on visual inputs, eliminating the need for explicit model-structure constraints or additional input. We demonstrate that Look-Back significantly enhances the model's reasoning and perception capabilities, as evidenced by extensive empirical evaluations on multiple multimodal benchmarks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_03019
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Look-Back: Implicit Visual Re-focusing in MLLM Reasoning
Yang, Shuo
Niu, Yuwei
Liu, Yuyang
Ye, Yang
Lin, Bin
Yuan, Li
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have achieved remarkable progress in multimodal reasoning. However, they often excessively rely on textual information during the later stages of inference, neglecting the crucial integration of visual input. Current methods typically address this by explicitly injecting visual information to guide the reasoning process. In this work, through an analysis of MLLM attention patterns, we made an intriguing observation: with appropriate guidance, MLLMs can spontaneously re-focus their attention on visual inputs during the later stages of reasoning, even without explicit visual information injection. This spontaneous shift in focus suggests that MLLMs are intrinsically capable of performing visual fusion reasoning. Building on this insight, we introduce Look-Back, an implicit approach designed to guide MLLMs to ``look back" at visual information in a self-directed manner during reasoning. Look-Back empowers the model to autonomously determine when, where, and how to re-focus on visual inputs, eliminating the need for explicit model-structure constraints or additional input. We demonstrate that Look-Back significantly enhances the model's reasoning and perception capabilities, as evidenced by extensive empirical evaluations on multiple multimodal benchmarks.
title Look-Back: Implicit Visual Re-focusing in MLLM Reasoning
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03019