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Hauptverfasser: de Langis, Karin, Öncel, Püren, Peters, Ryan, Elfenbein, Andrew, Allen, Laura Kristen, Schramm, Andreas, Kang, Dongyeop
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07777
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author de Langis, Karin
Öncel, Püren
Peters, Ryan
Elfenbein, Andrew
Allen, Laura Kristen
Schramm, Andreas
Kang, Dongyeop
author_facet de Langis, Karin
Öncel, Püren
Peters, Ryan
Elfenbein, Andrew
Allen, Laura Kristen
Schramm, Andreas
Kang, Dongyeop
contents Leveraging a dataset of paired narratives, we investigate the extent to which large language models (LLMs) can reliably separate incoherent and coherent stories. A probing study finds that LLMs' internal representations can reliably identify incoherent narratives. However, LLMs generate responses to rating questions that fail to satisfactorily separate the coherent and incoherent narratives across several prompt variations, hinting at a gap in LLM's understanding of storytelling. The reasoning LLMs tested do not eliminate these deficits, indicating that thought strings may not be able to fully address the discrepancy between model internal state and behavior. Additionally, we find that LLMs appear to be more sensitive to incoherence resulting from an event that violates the setting (e.g., a rainy day in the desert) than to incoherence arising from a character violating an established trait (e.g., Mary, a vegetarian, later orders a cheeseburger), suggesting that LLMs may rely more on prototypical world knowledge than building meaning-based narrative coherence. The consistent asymmetry found in our results suggests that LLMs do not have a complete grasp on narrative coherence.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_07777
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Mary, the Cheeseburger-Eating Vegetarian: Do LLMs Recognize Incoherence in Narratives?
de Langis, Karin
Öncel, Püren
Peters, Ryan
Elfenbein, Andrew
Allen, Laura Kristen
Schramm, Andreas
Kang, Dongyeop
Computation and Language
Leveraging a dataset of paired narratives, we investigate the extent to which large language models (LLMs) can reliably separate incoherent and coherent stories. A probing study finds that LLMs' internal representations can reliably identify incoherent narratives. However, LLMs generate responses to rating questions that fail to satisfactorily separate the coherent and incoherent narratives across several prompt variations, hinting at a gap in LLM's understanding of storytelling. The reasoning LLMs tested do not eliminate these deficits, indicating that thought strings may not be able to fully address the discrepancy between model internal state and behavior. Additionally, we find that LLMs appear to be more sensitive to incoherence resulting from an event that violates the setting (e.g., a rainy day in the desert) than to incoherence arising from a character violating an established trait (e.g., Mary, a vegetarian, later orders a cheeseburger), suggesting that LLMs may rely more on prototypical world knowledge than building meaning-based narrative coherence. The consistent asymmetry found in our results suggests that LLMs do not have a complete grasp on narrative coherence.
title Mary, the Cheeseburger-Eating Vegetarian: Do LLMs Recognize Incoherence in Narratives?
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07777