mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

TurnaboutLLM: A Deductive Reasoning Benchmark from Detective Games

arXiv 2505.15712 ↗First posted 21 May 2025cs.CLcited by 4

On the map: LLM reasoning → Reasoning for agents, planning and code

Abstract (arXiv)

This paper introduces TurnaboutLLM, a novel framework and dataset for evaluating the deductive reasoning abilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) by leveraging the interactive gameplay of detective games Ace Attorney and Danganronpa. The framework tasks LLMs with identifying contradictions between testimonies and evidences within long narrative contexts, a challenging task due to the large answer space and diverse reasoning types presented by its questions. We evaluate twelve state-of-the-art LLMs on the dataset, hinting at limitations of popular strategies for enhancing deductive reasoning such as extensive thinking and Chain-of-Thought prompting. The results also suggest varying effects of context size, the number of reasoning step and answer space size on model performance. Overall, TurnaboutLLM presents a substantial challenge for LLMs' deductive reasoning abilities in complex, narrative-rich environments.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning for agents, planning and code, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 16 of its 22 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 May 2025.

Builds on

16 of 22 references.

References · 16

  1. 2020Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understandingcited by 7,963
  2. 2022Challenging BIG-Bench Tasks and Whether Chain-of-Thought Can Solve Themcited by 1,807
  3. 2019SuperGLUE: A Stickier Benchmark for General-Purpose Language Understanding Systemscited by 1,729
  4. 2022Language Models Are Greedy Reasoners: A Systematic Formal Analysis of Chain-of-Thoughtcited by 337
  5. 2020ProofWriter: Generating Implications, Proofs, and Abductive Statements over Natural Languagecited by 324
  6. 2020Transformers as Soft Reasoners over Languagecited by 270
  7. 2020ReClor: A Reading Comprehension Dataset Requiring Logical Reasoningcited by 217
  8. 2020Retrieve, Program, Repeat: Complex Knowledge Base Question Answering via Alternate Meta-learningcited by 216
  9. 2023MuSR: Testing the Limits of Chain-of-thought with Multistep Soft Reasoningcited by 201
  10. 2025ZebraLogic: On the Scaling Limits of LLMs for Logical Reasoningcited by 201
  11. 2023Towards LogiGLUE: A Brief Survey and A Benchmark for Analyzing Logical Reasoning Capabilities of Language Modelscited by 35
  12. 2022True Detective: A Deep Abductive Reasoning Benchmark Undoable for GPT-3 and Challenging for GPT-4cited by 19
4 more
  1. 2024Large Language Models Fall Short: Understanding Complex Relationships in Detective Narrativescited by 14
  2. 2023Kani: A Lightweight and Highly Hackable Framework for Building Language Model Applicationscited by 11
  3. 2024DetectBench: Can Large Language Model Detect and Piece Together Implicit Evidence?cited by 4
  4. 2025WHODUNIT: Evaluation benchmark for culprit detection in mystery storiescited by 3

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 3.

4 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024GameArena: Evaluating LLM Reasoning through Live Computer Games
  2. 2024DetectiveQA: Evaluating Long-Context Reasoning on Detective Novels
  3. 2025Baba is LLM: Reasoning in a Game with Dynamic Rules
  4. 2026How Clued up are LLMs? Evaluating Multi-Step Deductive Reasoning in a Text-Based Game Environment
  5. 2026Clueing up LLMs with Tool-Augmented Deductive Reasoning
  6. 2025Multi-Turn Puzzles: Evaluating Interactive Reasoning and Strategic Dialogue in LLMs
  7. 2026Watson & Holmes: A Naturalistic Benchmark for Comparing Human and LLM Reasoning
  8. 2026Evaluating Interactive Reasoning in Large Language Models: A Hierarchical Benchmark with Executable Games