Summary of Do Language Models Understand the Cognitive Tasks Given to Them? Investigations with the N-back Paradigm, by Xiaoyang Hu and Richard L. Lewis
Do Language Models Understand the Cognitive Tasks Given to Them? Investigations with the N-Back Paradigm
by Xiaoyang Hu, Richard L. Lewis
First submitted to arxiv on: 24 Dec 2024
Categories
- Main: Computation and Language (cs.CL)
- Secondary: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
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| Summary difficulty | Written by | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| High | Paper authors | High Difficulty Summary Read the original abstract here |
| Medium | GrooveSquid.com (original content) | Medium Difficulty Summary This study explores the application of human-developed cognitive tasks to evaluate language models. While these tasks are straightforward to apply, interpreting results can be challenging, especially when a model underperforms. The researchers analyzed various open-source language models’ performance on 2-back and 3-back tasks, typically used to test working memory capacity. They found that poor performance is not due to working memory limits but rather limitations in task comprehension and maintenance. To further investigate, they challenged the best-performing model with increasingly difficult versions of the task (up-to 10-back) and experimented with alternative prompting strategies. Their aim is to contribute to refining methodologies for cognitive evaluation of language models. |
| Low | GrooveSquid.com (original content) | Low Difficulty Summary Language models are being tested using tasks originally designed for humans. This study looked at how well different language models did on these tasks, like remembering a sequence of numbers. The researchers found that when the models didn’t do well, it wasn’t because they had a hard time remembering things, but rather because they struggled to understand what was asked of them. They tried making the task harder and changing how they were prompted, but the best model still struggled. This study helps us figure out better ways to test language models. |
Keywords
» Artificial intelligence » Prompting
