Ziwei Zhang, Tianyin Liao, Chunyu Hu, Ge Lan, Nuo Xu, Yi Huang, Qingyun Sun, Xingxuan Zhang 等 10 位作者
Graph Foundation Models (GFMs) have recently emerged as a promising paradigm for learning transferable representations across different graphs and domains. However, existing GFMs face notable limitations, including limited pre-training scale or reliance on aligning with textual information in Large Language Models (LLMs). To overcome these limitations, recent studies have drawn inspiration from prior-data fitted networks (PFNs), which learn from large synthetic datasets and support multi-domain prediction backed by causal learning. However, existing graph PFNs encounter severe difficulties in modeling causal relationships within and across node and edge sets, generating diverse graph structures, and designing suitable architectures that can learn from complex synthetic datasets. To address these challenges, we propose **GSCM-PFN** (Graph SCM-based Prior-Data Fitted Network), a graph PFN pre-trained on synthetic data generated from an SCM-based prior that jointly models nodes and graph topology. Specifically, we (1) design a joint feature-edge-label structural causal model (SCM) to guide synthetic graph generation and capture causal relationships within and across node and edge sets; (2) introduce prior-guided node-edge dependency modeling to instantiate diverse graph generation strategies, and prove that our SCM-based generation prior is more expressive than existing priors; and (3) propose a feature-permutation-invariant dual-path graph network with theoretical guarantees for learning from diverse synthetic graphs. Experiments on 23 real-world benchmarks show that GSCM-PFN outperforms both conventional GFMs and PFN-based GFMs, without utilizing real-world graph data for pre-training. Code: https://anonymous.4open.science/r/GSCM-PFN-A3A3/
Zhuoming Liu, Jinhong Lin, Kwan Man Cheng, Lin Zhang, Shayok Bagchi, Yin Li
Many modern vision-language models (VLMs) build on autoregressive decoding of discrete tokens. While text-based output interfaces enable scalable pretraining and strong zero-shot generalization across diverse tasks, they are poorly suited for problems that require precise continuous outputs, such as localizing temporal boundaries of events or generating robotic control actions. To address this challenge, we propose DRIFT, a general framework for adapting pretrained VLMs to continuous decoding tasks. DRIFT combines a base predictor, which provides a coarse estimate of the target output, with a generative refinement module based on flow matching that iteratively improves the prediction. This residual formulation transforms the generative modeling problem from learning a global output distribution to modeling a localized residual distribution around a strong prior, substantially simplifying optimization. We evaluate DRIFT on both perception and planning tasks, including visual grounding and robotic control. Across multiple tasks and architectures spanning MLLMs, VLAs, and WAMs, DRIFT consistently outperforms a strong set of regression- and generative-based solutions.
Long-context multimodal document question answering (QA) has become an important yet challenging task for modern vision-language models (VLMs), as it requires reasoning over evidence dispersed across pages and modalities within limited input budgets. Current pipelines adopt retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to select multimodal evidence for downstream VLMs. However, existing systems mainly rely on static selection rules over fixed-granularity retrieval units such as pages or blocks, resulting in information loss during retrieval and suboptimal performance in downstream reasoning. To alleviate these issues, we formulate the core task as budget-aware evidence selection over structured document evidence and propose HyperDoc, a document RAG framework that constructs compact yet sufficient evidence while preserving document relations. Specifically, HyperDoc constructs a document hypergraph to explicitly capture structural, logical, and cross-modal relationships among multimodal document elements. Over this structured evidence space, HyperDoc performs adaptive cost-aware hyperedge selection based on query intent and input budget. Extensive experiments on three representative benchmarks demonstrate that HyperDoc outperforms various types of state-of-the-art baselines.
Agent harnesses enable large language models to act through tools, observe the results, and iteratively work toward a task goal. Verification checks and revises agents' work to improve output quality. Yet there is limited guidance on how harnesses should organize this effort. We study verification as an axis of test-time scaling by examining when to intervene, who checks the work, and how checking leads to revision. Our framework spans four layers of the agent lifecycle: initial instructions, mid-turn reminders, completion gates, and independent review. We compare 17 designs across seven frontier coding models on Terminal-Bench (TB) and SWE-bench Verified (SWE), and introduce VisualBench for expert evaluation of visual and interactive artifacts. Initial instructions and execution-time reminders yield modest, model-dependent average gains on the coding benchmarks, without substantially increasing average output token use. Completion gates can yield larger gains but may substantially increase cost. Independent review by a critic offers a more favorable accuracy-cost tradeoff, improving average accuracy by 5.9-9.5 percentage points on TB and 3.9-6.6 on SWE at 1.13-1.25 and 1.00-1.04 times baseline cost, respectively. On VisualBench, independent review achieves net preferences of 13.2-23.8 points over the baseline across its four designs, exceeding the evaluated L0-L2 designs. Additional review rounds or independent critics further improve average TB accuracy by up to 3.5 percentage points. Together, these results provide empirical guidance for verification design in agent harnesses and support independent review as a practical axis of test-time scaling.
Zekun Li Tsinghua University, Jifan Yu, Haoxuan Li Tsinghua University, Ye He, Daniel Zhang-Li, Shangqing Tu, Joy Jia Yin Lim, Yikun Jiang 等 10 位作者
Accurate assessment of critical thinking is historically limited by the Intention Behavior Gap in psychology: the disconnect between what individuals self-reported disposition and their actual practical behaviors. We try to bridge this gap with MASA (Multi-Agent Scenario-based Assessment), a framework that operationalizes cognitive assessment into an interpretable and interactive multi-agent workflow with Assessment Chain-of-Thought (AsCoT). Validating on both large-scale simulations (N=1,161) and human participants (N=70), we find that MASA aligns better with human expert ratings (r=0.882) than traditional gold-standard inventories (r=0.720), with an average cost of only 0.41 per participant. These results suggest that by shifting from self-report inventory to behavior-grounded dialogue, MASA offers a more accurate, cost-effective, and transparent solution for real-world cognitive evaluation.
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cs.CL · cs.MA
Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) · 2026 · 正式发表
Yucheng Wang Tsinghua University, Shen Yang Tsinghua University, Jifan Yu, Haoxuan Li Tsinghua University, Joy Jia Yin Lim, Daniel Zhang-Li, Huiqin Liu Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University, Lei Hou Tsinghua University 等 10 位作者
Knowing and teaching differ fundamentally: effective instruction requires transforming knowledge into forms learners can grasp. Large language models, when asked to generate lessons (a concrete form of teaching), produce content lacking pedagogical depth. We trace this failure to three decisions that expert teachers make: selecting content by recognizing each source’s instructional role, sequencing topics so foundations precede applications, and synthesizing components into a unified whole. To scaffold these decisions, we introduce TeachCraft, a framework with three agents: Explorer classifies sources by pedagogical intent to guide selection; Planner orders objectives from foundational to advanced; Generator produces lesson materials through a schema that ensures consistency across components. To evaluate this approach, we construct LessonBench, 40 expert-designed lessons paired with two to five heterogeneous source documents, on which TeachCraft achieves 67.8% win rate in human evaluation and 79.6% in LLM-based evaluation against eight baselines, with ablations confirming that each decision contributes independently to overall lesson quality.[Source code is available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/TeachCraft-1672]
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cs.CL
Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) · 2026 · 正式发表
Daniel Zhang-Li, Joy Jia Yin Lim, Binglin Liu, Shangqing Tu, Zijun Yao, Hao Peng Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University, Jifan Yu, Haoxuan Li Tsinghua University 等 19 位作者
Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an important learning method that promotes understanding and acquiring practical skills through training learners through a project. However, effective PBL often requires sustained orchestration and collaboration, but existing LLM-based learning tools provide partial assistance without explicitly modeling these roles, and overly comprehensive help provided by LLM can reduce learner autonomy. We propose SimPBL, a multi-agent framework with an orchestrator agent that provides adaptive scaffolding from interaction logs and collaborator agents that support project work through boundary-aware collaboration. We conduct comprehensive evaluation to study the effectiveness of SimPBL, where we observe a 14% improvement in learner examination score. Results from extensive studies further highlights the ability of SimPBL to manage learning behavior and improve learning experience. Code and materials are available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/SimPBL-D5B8.
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cs.CL · cs.MA
Proceedings of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) · 2026 · 正式发表