VisualSphinx: Large-Scale Synthetic Vision Logic Puzzles for RL
On the map: LLM reasoning → Multimodal reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
Vision language models (VLMs) are expected to perform effective multimodal reasoning and make logically coherent decisions, which is critical to tasks such as diagram understanding and spatial problem solving. However, current VLM reasoning lacks large-scale and well-structured training datasets. To bridge this gap, we propose VisualSphinx, a first-of-its-kind large-scale synthetic visual logical reasoning training data. To tackle the challenge of image synthesis with grounding answers, we propose a rule-to-image synthesis pipeline, which extracts and expands puzzle rules from seed questions and generates the code of grounding synthesis image synthesis for puzzle sample assembly. Experiments demonstrate that VLM trained using GRPO on VisualSphinx benefit from logical coherence and readability of our dataset and exhibit improved performance on logical reasoning tasks. The enhanced reasoning capabilities developed from VisualSphinx also benefit other reasoning tasks such as algebraic reasoning, arithmetic reasoning and geometry reasoning.
Key facts. Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 32 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 May 2025.
Builds on
32 of 46 references.
Closest ancestors · 8
Same direction, newest first
- 2025Reinforced MLLM: A Survey on RL-Based Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models30 Apr
- 2025VisuLogic: A Benchmark for Evaluating Visual Reasoning in Multi-modal Large Language Models21 Apr
- 2025VisualPuzzles: Decoupling Multimodal Reasoning Evaluation from Domain Knowledge14 Apr
- 2025VGRP-Bench: Visual Grid Reasoning Puzzle Benchmark for Large Vision-Language Models29 Mar
- 2025R1-Onevision: Advancing Generalized Multimodal Reasoning through Cross-Modal Formalization13 Mar
- 2025MM-Eureka: Exploring the Frontiers of Multimodal Reasoning with Rule-based Reinforcement Learning10 Mar
- 2024Multimodal Self-Instruct: Synthetic Abstract Image and Visual Reasoning Instruction Using Language Model9 Jul
- 2023MathVista: Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning of Foundation Models in Visual Contexts3 Oct
Other references · 24
- 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,456
- 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 9,743
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
- 2021Evaluating Large Language Models Trained on Codecited by 8,053
- 2023Visual Instruction Tuningcited by 7,792
- 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
- 2023Sigmoid Loss for Language Image Pre-Trainingcited by 3,048
- 2022Self-Instruct: Aligning Language Models with Self-Generated Instructionscited by 2,674
- 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 1,980
- 2023ShareGPT4V: Improving Large Multi-Modal Models with Better Captionscited by 1,000
- 2025Towards Reasoning Era: A Survey of Long Chain-of-Thought for Reasoning Large Language Modelscited by 381
- 2024Magpie: Alignment Data Synthesis from Scratch by Prompting Aligned LLMs with Nothingcited by 341
12 more
- 2020Retrieve, Program, Repeat: Complex Knowledge Base Question Answering via Alternate Meta-learningcited by 216
- 2024ALLaVA: Harnessing GPT4V-Synthesized Data for Lite Vision-Language Modelscited by 204
- 2023UReader: Universal OCR-free Visually-situated Language Understanding with Multimodal Large Language Modelcited by 143
- 2025MM-RLHF: The Next Step Forward in Multimodal LLM Alignmentcited by 79
- 2023ChessGPT: Bridging Policy Learning and Language Modelingcited by 73
- 2021RiddleSense: Reasoning about Riddle Questions Featuring Linguistic Creativity and Commonsense Knowledgecited by 60
- 2023Towards End-to-End Embodied Decision Making via Multi-modal Large Language Model: Explorations with GPT4-Vision and Beyondcited by 50
- 2024MMEvol: Empowering Multimodal Large Language Models with Evol-Instructcited by 42
- 2021Programming Puzzlescited by 25
- 2024VILA2: VILA Augmented VILAcited by 25
- 2021Decrypting Cryptic Crosswords: Semantically Complex Wordplay Puzzles as a Target for NLPcited by 16
- 2025PuzzleBench: A Fully Dynamic Evaluation Framework for Large Multimodal Models on Puzzle Solvingcited by 15
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 6; 2026: 5.
11 papers.
- 2025Does Math Reasoning Improve General LLM Capabilities? Understanding Transferability of LLM Reasoningcited by 101
- 2026MMFineReason: Closing the Multimodal Reasoning Gap via Open Data-Centric Methodscited by 27
- 2025Generative Universal Verifier as Multimodal Meta-Reasonercited by 17
- 2025Revisiting the Necessity of Lengthy Chain-of-Thought in Vision-centric Reasoning Generalizationcited by 8
- 2025VisuRiddles: Fine-grained Perception is a Primary Bottleneck for Multimodal Large Language Models in Abstract Visual Reasoningcited by 7
- 2025What MLLMs Learn about When they Learn about Multimodal Reasoningcited by 6
- 2025PuzzleCraft: Exploration-Aware Curriculum Learning for Puzzle-Based RLVR in VLMscited by 4
- 2026Reasoning or Pattern Matching? Probing Large Vision-Language Models with Visual Puzzlescited by 2
- 2026Trace: A Taxonomy-Guided Environment for Multidomain Visual Reasoningcited by 1
- 2026Think 360deg: Evaluating the Width-centric Reasoning Capability of MLLMs Beyond Depthcited by 0
- 2026MMVistaReason: Toward Open-Data and Post-Training Recipes for Multimodal Reasoningcited by 0
- 2026MMVistaReason: Toward Open-Data and Post-Training Recipes for Multimodal Reasoning1 Oct 2026
- 2026Trace: A Taxonomy-Guided Environment for Multidomain Visual Reasoning22 Jul 2026
- 2026Think 360deg: Evaluating the Width-centric Reasoning Capability of MLLMs Beyond Depth24 Mar 2026
- 2026MMFineReason: Closing the Multimodal Reasoning Gap via Open Data-Centric Methods29 Jan 2026
- 2026Reasoning or Pattern Matching? Probing Large Vision-Language Models with Visual Puzzles20 Jan 2026
- 2025PuzzleCraft: Exploration-Aware Curriculum Learning for Puzzle-Based RLVR in VLMs16 Dec 2025
- 2025Revisiting the Necessity of Lengthy Chain-of-Thought in Vision-centric Reasoning Generalization27 Nov 2025
- 2025Generative Universal Verifier as Multimodal Meta-Reasoner15 Oct 2025
- 2025What MLLMs Learn about When they Learn about Multimodal Reasoning2 Oct 2025
- 2025Does Math Reasoning Improve General LLM Capabilities? Understanding Transferability of LLM Reasoning1 Jul 2025
- 2025VisuRiddles: Fine-grained Perception is a Primary Bottleneck for Multimodal Large Language Models in Abstract Visual Reasoning3 Jun 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2024From the Least to the Most: Building a Plug-and-Play Visual Reasoner via Data Synthesis
- 2025Long Grounded Thoughts: Synthesizing Visual Problems and Reasoning Chains at Scale
- 2025SynthRL: Scaling Visual Reasoning with Verifiable Data Synthesis
- 2025ImageNet-Think-250K: A Large-Scale Synthetic Dataset for Multimodal Reasoning for Vision Language Models
- 2025Zebra-CoT: A Dataset for Interleaved Vision Language Reasoning
- 2025VGR: Visual Grounded Reasoning
- 2025Vision-G1: Towards General Vision Language Reasoning with Multi-Domain Data Curation
- 2026VRIQ: Benchmarking and Analyzing Visual-Reasoning IQ of VLMs