Does Your Reasoning Model Implicitly Know When to Stop Thinking?

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Huang, Zixuan, Xia, Xin, Ren, Yuxi, Zheng, Jianbin, Wang, Xuanda, Zhang, Zhixia, Xie, Hongyan, Liang, Songshi, Chen, Zehao, Xiao, Xuefeng, Zhuang, Fuzhen, Li, Jianxin, Wang, Deqing, Ban, Yikun
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Huang, Zixuan
Xia, Xin
Ren, Yuxi
Zheng, Jianbin
Wang, Xuanda
Zhang, Zhixia
Xie, Hongyan
Liang, Songshi
Chen, Zehao
Xiao, Xuefeng
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Li, Jianxin
Wang, Deqing
Ban, Yikun
author_facet Huang, Zixuan
Xia, Xin
Ren, Yuxi
Zheng, Jianbin
Wang, Xuanda
Zhang, Zhixia
Xie, Hongyan
Liang, Songshi
Chen, Zehao
Xiao, Xuefeng
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Li, Jianxin
Wang, Deqing
Ban, Yikun
contents Recent advancements in large reasoning models (LRMs) have greatly improved their capabilities on complex reasoning tasks through Long Chains of Thought (CoTs). However, this approach often results in substantial redundancy, impairing computational efficiency and causing significant delays in real-time applications. Recent studies show that longer reasoning chains are frequently uncorrelated with correctness and can even be detrimental to accuracy. In a further in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, we surprisingly uncover and empirically verify that LRMs implicitly know the appropriate time to stop thinking, while this capability is obscured by current sampling paradigms. Motivated by this, we introduce SAGE (Self-Aware Guided Efficient Reasoning), a novel sampling paradigm that unleashes this efficient reasoning potential. Furthermore, integrating SAGE as mixed sampling into group-based reinforcement learning (SAGE-RL) enables SAGE-RL to effectively incorporate SAGE-discovered efficient reasoning patterns into standard pass@1 inference, markedly enhancing both the reasoning accuracy and efficiency of LRMs across multiple challenging mathematical benchmarks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_08354
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Does Your Reasoning Model Implicitly Know When to Stop Thinking?
Huang, Zixuan
Xia, Xin
Ren, Yuxi
Zheng, Jianbin
Wang, Xuanda
Zhang, Zhixia
Xie, Hongyan
Liang, Songshi
Chen, Zehao
Xiao, Xuefeng
Zhuang, Fuzhen
Li, Jianxin
Wang, Deqing
Ban, Yikun
Artificial Intelligence
Recent advancements in large reasoning models (LRMs) have greatly improved their capabilities on complex reasoning tasks through Long Chains of Thought (CoTs). However, this approach often results in substantial redundancy, impairing computational efficiency and causing significant delays in real-time applications. Recent studies show that longer reasoning chains are frequently uncorrelated with correctness and can even be detrimental to accuracy. In a further in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, we surprisingly uncover and empirically verify that LRMs implicitly know the appropriate time to stop thinking, while this capability is obscured by current sampling paradigms. Motivated by this, we introduce SAGE (Self-Aware Guided Efficient Reasoning), a novel sampling paradigm that unleashes this efficient reasoning potential. Furthermore, integrating SAGE as mixed sampling into group-based reinforcement learning (SAGE-RL) enables SAGE-RL to effectively incorporate SAGE-discovered efficient reasoning patterns into standard pass@1 inference, markedly enhancing both the reasoning accuracy and efficiency of LRMs across multiple challenging mathematical benchmarks.
title Does Your Reasoning Model Implicitly Know When to Stop Thinking?
topic Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.08354