# VisuoThink: Empowering LVLM Reasoning with Multimodal Tree Search

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.09130 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.09130/

## 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.

## Placed in

- LLM reasoning / [Multimodal reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/lr/multimodal-reasoning/)
- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [VLM benchmarks and visual reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/vlm-benchmarks-and-visual-reasoning/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12948/) (2025)
- [GPT-4o System Card](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21276/) (2024)
- [Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11366/) (2023)
- [Gemini 1.5: Unlocking multimodal understanding across millions of tokens of context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.05530/) (2024)
- [Inter-GPS: Interpretable Geometry Problem Solving with Formal Language and Symbolic Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04165/) (2021)
- [We-Math: Does Your Large Multimodal Model Achieve Human-like Mathematical Reasoning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01284/) (2024)
- [Unleashing Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Visual Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.02153/) (2023)
- [GeomVerse: A Systematic Evaluation of Large Models for Geometric Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12241/) (2023)
- [Does Spatial Cognition Emerge in Frontier Models?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.06468/) (2024)
- [Scaling of Search and Learning: A Roadmap to Reproduce o1 from Reinforcement Learning Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.14135/) (2024)
- [AtomThink: Multimodal Slow Thinking with Atomic Step Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.11930/) (2024)
- [Evaluating Large Vision-and-Language Models on Children's Mathematical Olympiads](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15736/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [Thinking with Images for Multimodal Reasoning: Foundations, Methods, and Future Frontiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23918/) (2025)
- [Look-Back: Implicit Visual Re-focusing in MLLM Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.03019/) (2025)
- [MathCanvas: Intrinsic Visual Chain-of-Thought for Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14958/) (2025)
- [Video-Thinker: Sparking "Thinking with Videos" via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23473/) (2025)
- [Multimodal Spatial Reasoning in the Large Model Era: A Survey and Benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25760/) (2025)
- [Beyond Seeing: Evaluating Multimodal LLMs on Tool-Enabled Image Perception, Transformation, and Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.12712/) (2025)
- [From Perception to Cognition: A Survey of Vision-Language Interactive Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25373/) (2025)
- [Think3D: Thinking with Space for Spatial Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.13029/) (2026)
- [Self-Evolving Multi-Agent Systems via Textual Backpropagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09046/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Agentic Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.10991/) (2025)
- [CodePlot-CoT: Mathematical Visual Reasoning by Thinking with Code-Driven Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11718/) (2025)
- [MMReason: An Open-Ended Multi-Modal Multi-Step Reasoning Benchmark for MLLMs Toward AGI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23563/) (2025)
- [Geoint-R1: Formalizing Multimodal Geometric Reasoning with Dynamic Auxiliary Constructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03173/) (2025)
- [GeometryZero: Advancing Geometry Solving via Group Contrastive Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07160/) (2025)
- [Learning Modal-Mixed Chain-of-Thought Reasoning with Latent Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00574/) (2026)
- [DriveRX: A Vision-Language Reasoning Model for Cross-Task Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20665/) (2025)
- [EcoAlign: An Economically Rational Framework for Efficient LVLM Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.11301/) (2025)
- [A Survey of Deep Learning for Geometry Problem Solving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11936/) (2025)
- [Thinking with Images via Self-Calling Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08511/) (2025)
- [Understanding and Mitigating Hallucinations in Multimodal Chain-of-Thought Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27201/) (2026)
- [Test-time Scaling of LLMs: A Survey from A Subproblem Structure Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.14772/) (2025)
- [Visual CoT Makes VLMs Smarter but More Fragile](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23789/) (2025)
- [From Perception to Reasoning: Deep Thinking Empowers Multimodal Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12861/) (2025)
- [Thinking with Constructions: A Benchmark and Policy Optimization for Visual-Text Interleaved Geometric Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18662/) (2026)
- [Skill-3D: Evolving Scene-Aware Skills for Agentic 3D Spatial Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.07436/) (2026)
- [LASER: A Corrective Lens for LVLMs via Visual Attention Preservation and Sink Suppression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01707/) (2026)
- [Architectural Sampling: Test-Time Scaling via Computational Diversity in Frozen Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01687/) (2026)
- [ConFoThinking: Consolidated Focused Attention Driven Thinking for Visual Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00165/) (2026)
- [A Survey of Multimodal Mathematical Reasoning: From Perception, Alignment to Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08291/) (2026)
- [Reflect to Inform: Boosting Multimodal Reasoning via Information-Gain-Driven Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26348/) (2026)

## 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.