mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

VisuoThink: Empowering LVLM Reasoning with Multimodal Tree Search

arXiv 2504.09130 ↗First posted 12 Apr 2025cs.CLcited by 36

On the map: LLM reasoning → Multimodal reasoning

also in 1 more
Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advancements in Large Vision-Language Models have showcased remarkable capabilities. However, they often falter when confronted with complex reasoning tasks that humans typically address through visual aids and deliberate, step-by-step thinking. While existing methods have explored text-based slow thinking or rudimentary visual assistance, they fall short of capturing the intricate, interleaved nature of human visual-verbal reasoning processes. To overcome these limitations and inspired by the mechanisms of slow thinking in human cognition, we introduce VisuoThink, a novel framework that seamlessly integrates visuospatial and linguistic domains. VisuoThink facilitates multimodal slow thinking by enabling progressive visual-textual reasoning and incorporates test-time scaling through look-ahead tree search. Extensive experiments demonstrate that VisuoThink significantly enhances reasoning capabilities via inference-time scaling, even without fine-tuning, achieving state-of-the-art performance in tasks involving geometry and spatial reasoning.

Key facts. Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 13 of its 38 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Apr 2025.

Builds on

13 of 38 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024AtomThink: Multimodal Slow Thinking with Atomic Step Reasoning18 Nov
  2. 2024We-Math: Does Your Large Multimodal Model Achieve Human-like Mathematical Reasoning?1 Jul

Other references · 11

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  2. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,330
  3. 2024GPT-4o System Cardcited by 4,588
  4. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
  5. 2024Gemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of contextcited by 3,224
  6. 2021Inter-GPS: Interpretable Geometry Problem Solving with Formal Language and Symbolic Reasoningcited by 383
  7. 2023Unleashing Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Visual Perceptioncited by 269
  8. 2023GeomVerse: A Systematic Evaluation of Large Models for Geometric Reasoningcited by 108
  9. 2024Does Spatial Cognition Emerge in Frontier Models?cited by 66
  10. 2024Scaling of Search and Learning: A Roadmap to Reproduce o1 from Reinforcement Learning Perspectivecited by 50
  11. 2024Evaluating Large Vision-and-Language Models on Children's Mathematical Olympiadscited by 16

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 20; 2026: 16.

36 papers.

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  1. 2025Thinking with Images for Multimodal Reasoning: Foundations, Methods, and Future Frontierscited by 199
  2. 2025Look-Back: Implicit Visual Re-focusing in MLLM Reasoningcited by 55
  3. 2025MathCanvas: Intrinsic Visual Chain-of-Thought for Multimodal Mathematical Reasoningcited by 35
  4. 2025Video-Thinker: Sparking "Thinking with Videos" via Reinforcement Learningcited by 34
  5. 2025Multimodal Spatial Reasoning in the Large Model Era: A Survey and Benchmarkscited by 33
  6. 2025Beyond Seeing: Evaluating Multimodal LLMs on Tool-Enabled Image Perception, Transformation, and Reasoningcited by 29
  7. 2025From Perception to Cognition: A Survey of Vision-Language Interactive Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 26
  8. 2026Think3D: Thinking with Space for Spatial Reasoningcited by 24
  9. 2025Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Systems via Textual Backpropagationcited by 23
  10. 2025A Survey on Agentic Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 23
  11. 2025CodePlot-CoT: Mathematical Visual Reasoning by Thinking with Code-Driven Imagescited by 23
  12. 2025MMReason: An Open-Ended Multi-Modal Multi-Step Reasoning Benchmark for MLLMs Toward AGIcited by 14
24 more
  1. 2025Geoint-R1: Formalizing Multimodal Geometric Reasoning with Dynamic Auxiliary Constructionscited by 11
  2. 2025GeometryZero: Advancing Geometry Solving via Group Contrastive Policy Optimizationcited by 9
  3. 2026Learning Modal-Mixed Chain-of-Thought Reasoning with Latent Embeddingscited by 6
  4. 2025DriveRX: A Vision-Language Reasoning Model for Cross-Task Autonomous Drivingcited by 5
  5. 2025EcoAlign: An Economically Rational Framework for Efficient LVLM Alignmentcited by 5
  6. 2025A Survey of Deep Learning for Geometry Problem Solvingcited by 4
  7. 2025Thinking with Images via Self-Calling Agentcited by 4
  8. 2026Understanding and Mitigating Hallucinations in Multimodal Chain-of-Thought Modelscited by 3
  9. 2025Test-time Scaling of LLMs: A Survey from A Subproblem Structure Perspectivecited by 2
  10. 2025Visual CoT Makes VLMs Smarter but More Fragilecited by 1
  11. 2025From Perception to Reasoning: Deep Thinking Empowers Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 1
  12. 2026Thinking with Constructions: A Benchmark and Policy Optimization for Visual-Text Interleaved Geometric Reasoningcited by 1
  13. 2026Skill-3D: Evolving Scene-Aware Skills for Agentic 3D Spatial Reasoningcited by 1
  14. 2026LASER: A Corrective Lens for LVLMs via Visual Attention Preservation and Sink Suppressioncited by 1
  15. 2026Architectural Sampling: Test-Time Scaling via Computational Diversity in Frozen Vision-Language Modelscited by 1
  16. 2026ConFoThinking: Consolidated Focused Attention Driven Thinking for Visual Question Answeringcited by 0
  17. 2026A Survey of Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning: From Perception, Alignment to Reasoningcited by 0
  18. 2026Reflect to Inform: Boosting Multimodal Reasoning via Information-Gain-Driven Verificationcited by 0
  19. 2026V-ABS: Action-Observer Driven Beam Search for Dynamic Visual Reasoningcited by 0
  20. 2026Test-Time Scaling in Multimodal Foundation Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Generation and Reasoningcited by 0
  21. 2026Learning Where Outcomes Change:Credit-Addressable Reasoning for Multimodal Geometrycited by 0
  22. 2026From Symbolic Perception to Logical Deduction: A Framework for Guiding Language Models in Geometric Reasoningcited by 0
  23. 2026VLM-in-Sandbox: Visual Workspaces for Agentic Visual Reasoningcited by 0
  24. 2026ReSight-SMC: Two-Stage Power Sampling via Island SMC with Visual Scoutscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Mind's Eye: A Benchmark of Visual Abstraction, Transformation and Composition for Multimodal LLMs
  2. 2025Reasoning Within the Mind: Dynamic Multimodal Interleaving in Latent Space
  3. 2025VisuLogic: A Benchmark for Evaluating Visual Reasoning in Multi-modal Large Language Models
  4. 2025Virgo: A Preliminary Exploration on Reproducing o1-like MLLM
  5. 2026Reasoning or Pattern Matching? Probing Large Vision-Language Models with Visual Puzzles
  6. 2025ThinkMorph: Emergent Properties in Multimodal Interleaved Chain-of-Thought Reasoning
  7. 2025Imagine while Reasoning in Space: Multimodal Visualization-of-Thought
  8. 2025Thinking with Visual Abstract: Enhancing Multimodal Reasoning via Visual Abstraction