Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Popovič, Nicholas, Färber, Michael
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2026
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.19934
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866910160261218304
author Popovič, Nicholas
Färber, Michael
author_facet Popovič, Nicholas
Färber, Michael
contents We study how large language models recall relational knowledge during text generation, with a focus on identifying latent representations suitable for relation classification via linear probes. Prior work shows how attention heads and MLPs interact to resolve subject, predicate, and object, but it remains unclear which representations support faithful linear relation classification and why some relation types are easier to capture linearly than others. We systematically evaluate different latent representations derived from attention head and MLP contributions, showing that per-head attention contributions to the residual stream are comparatively strong features for linear relation classification. Feature attribution analyses of the trained probes, as well as characteristics of the different relation types, reveal clear correlations between probe accuracy and relation specificity, entity connectedness, and how distributed the signal on which the probe relies is across attention heads. Finally, we show how token-level feature attribution of probe predictions can be used to reveal probe behavior in further detail.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_19934
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tracing Relational Knowledge Recall in Large Language Models
Popovič, Nicholas
Färber, Michael
Computation and Language
We study how large language models recall relational knowledge during text generation, with a focus on identifying latent representations suitable for relation classification via linear probes. Prior work shows how attention heads and MLPs interact to resolve subject, predicate, and object, but it remains unclear which representations support faithful linear relation classification and why some relation types are easier to capture linearly than others. We systematically evaluate different latent representations derived from attention head and MLP contributions, showing that per-head attention contributions to the residual stream are comparatively strong features for linear relation classification. Feature attribution analyses of the trained probes, as well as characteristics of the different relation types, reveal clear correlations between probe accuracy and relation specificity, entity connectedness, and how distributed the signal on which the probe relies is across attention heads. Finally, we show how token-level feature attribution of probe predictions can be used to reveal probe behavior in further detail.
title Tracing Relational Knowledge Recall in Large Language Models
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.19934