Do language models have coherent mental models of everyday things?
Not on the map. Why?
Abstract (arXiv)
When people think of everyday things like an egg, they typically have a mental image associated with it. This allows them to correctly judge, for example, that "the yolk surrounds the shell" is a false statement. Do language models similarly have a coherent picture of such everyday things? To investigate this, we propose a benchmark dataset consisting of 100 everyday things, their parts, and the relationships between these parts, expressed as 11,720 "X relation Y?" true/false questions. Using these questions as probes, we observe that state-of-the-art pre-trained language models (LMs) like GPT-3 and Macaw have fragments of knowledge about these everyday things, but do not have fully coherent "parts mental models" (54-59% accurate, 19-43% conditional constraint violation). We propose an extension where we add a constraint satisfaction layer on top of the LM's raw predictions to apply commonsense constraints. As well as removing inconsistencies, we find that this also significantly improves accuracy (by 16-20%), suggesting how the incoherence of the LM's pictures of everyday things can be significantly reduced.
Key facts. Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 17 of its 39 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 20 Dec 2022.
Builds on
17 of 39 references.
References · 17
- 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
- 2019PIQA: Reasoning about Physical Commonsense in Natural Languagecited by 2,883
- 2018CommonsenseQA: A Question Answering Challenge Targeting Commonsense Knowledgecited by 1,822
- 2018World Modelscited by 1,513
- 2022Talking About Large Language Modelscited by 175
- 2022Language Models as Agent Modelscited by 132
- 2021Improving Coherence and Consistency in Neural Sequence Models with Dual-System, Neuro-Symbolic Reasoningcited by 85
- 2019A Logic-Driven Framework for Consistency of Neural Modelscited by 64
- 2021BeliefBank: Adding Memory to a Pre-Trained Language Model for a Systematic Notion of Beliefcited by 57
- 2022Abstract Visual Reasoning with Tangram Shapescited by 43
- 2021General-Purpose Question-Answering with Macawcited by 40
- 2021PTR: A Benchmark for Part-based Conceptual, Relational, and Physical Reasoningcited by 34
5 more
- 2019HAKE: Human Activity Knowledge Enginecited by 32
- 2021DREAM: Improving Situational QA by First Elaborating the Situationcited by 18
- 2022Unpacking Large Language Models with Conceptual Consistencycited by 18
- 2022Just-DREAM-about-it: Figurative Language Understanding with DREAM-FLUTEcited by 8
- 2020Understanding Spatial Relations through Multiple Modalitiescited by 4
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2023: 4; 2024: 6; 2025: 2; 2026: 1.
13 papers.
Sort:
- 2023ChatGPT is a Knowledgeable but Inexperienced Solver: An Investigation of Commonsense Problem in Large Language Modelscited by 63
- 2024SimpleToM: Exposing the Gap between Explicit ToM Inference and Implicit ToM Application in LLMscited by 57
- 2024A Vision Check-up for Language Modelscited by 36
- 2023Language Models with Rationalitycited by 15
- 2024Concept Space Alignment in Multilingual LLMscited by 13
- 2023EpiK-Eval: Evaluation for Language Models as Epistemic Modelscited by 6
- 2023Towards Concept-Aware Large Language Modelscited by 6
- 2024WinoViz: Probing Visual Properties of Objects Under Different Statescited by 1
- 2025The quasi-semantic competence of LLMs: a case study on the part-whole relationcited by 1
- 2026How Do Large Language Models Learn Concepts During Continual Pre-Training?cited by 1
- 2024Aligned at the Start: Conceptual Groupings in LLM Embeddingscited by 0
- 2024Large Language Models as a Tool for Mining Object Knowledgecited by 0
1 more
- 2026How Do Large Language Models Learn Concepts During Continual Pre-Training?7 Jan 2026
- 2025The quasi-semantic competence of LLMs: a case study on the part-whole relation3 Apr 2025
- 2025Beyond Pattern Recognition: Probing Mental Representations of LMs23 Feb 2025
- 2024SimpleToM: Exposing the Gap between Explicit ToM Inference and Implicit ToM Application in LLMs17 Oct 2024
- 2024Large Language Models as a Tool for Mining Object Knowledge16 Oct 2024
- 2024Concept Space Alignment in Multilingual LLMs1 Oct 2024
- 2024Aligned at the Start: Conceptual Groupings in LLM Embeddings8 Jun 2024
- 2024WinoViz: Probing Visual Properties of Objects Under Different States21 Feb 2024
- 2024A Vision Check-up for Language Models3 Jan 2024
- 2023Towards Concept-Aware Large Language Models3 Nov 2023
- 2023EpiK-Eval: Evaluation for Language Models as Epistemic Models23 Oct 2023
- 2023Language Models with Rationality23 May 2023
- 2023ChatGPT is a Knowledgeable but Inexperienced Solver: An Investigation of Commonsense Problem in Large Language Modelscited by 63
- 2024SimpleToM: Exposing the Gap between Explicit ToM Inference and Implicit ToM Application in LLMscited by 57
- 2024A Vision Check-up for Language Modelscited by 36
- 2023Language Models with Rationalitycited by 15
- 2024Concept Space Alignment in Multilingual LLMscited by 13
- 2023EpiK-Eval: Evaluation for Language Models as Epistemic Modelscited by 6
- 2023Towards Concept-Aware Large Language Modelscited by 6
- 2024WinoViz: Probing Visual Properties of Objects Under Different Statescited by 1
- 2025The quasi-semantic competence of LLMs: a case study on the part-whole relationcited by 1
- 2026How Do Large Language Models Learn Concepts During Continual Pre-Training?cited by 1
- 2024Aligned at the Start: Conceptual Groupings in LLM Embeddingscited by 0
- 2024Large Language Models as a Tool for Mining Object Knowledgecited by 0
12 most cited of 13 All 13 (JSON)
- 2026How Do Large Language Models Learn Concepts During Continual Pre-Training?7 Jan 2026
- 2025The quasi-semantic competence of LLMs: a case study on the part-whole relation3 Apr 2025
- 2025Beyond Pattern Recognition: Probing Mental Representations of LMs23 Feb 2025
- 2024SimpleToM: Exposing the Gap between Explicit ToM Inference and Implicit ToM Application in LLMs17 Oct 2024
- 2024Large Language Models as a Tool for Mining Object Knowledge16 Oct 2024
- 2024Concept Space Alignment in Multilingual LLMs1 Oct 2024
- 2024Aligned at the Start: Conceptual Groupings in LLM Embeddings8 Jun 2024
- 2024WinoViz: Probing Visual Properties of Objects Under Different States21 Feb 2024
- 2024A Vision Check-up for Language Models3 Jan 2024
- 2023Towards Concept-Aware Large Language Models3 Nov 2023
- 2023EpiK-Eval: Evaluation for Language Models as Epistemic Models23 Oct 2023
- 2023Language Models with Rationality23 May 2023
12 newest of 13 All 13 (JSON)