The Necessity of Imperfection:Reversing Model Collapse via Simulating Cognitive Boundedness
On the map: Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs → Model collapse from synthetic data
Abstract (arXiv)
Although synthetic data is widely promoted as a remedy, its prevailing production paradigm -- one optimizing for statistical smoothness -- systematically removes the long-tail, cognitively grounded irregularities that characterize human text. Prolonged training on such statistically optimal but cognitively impoverished data accelerates model collapse. This paper proposes a paradigm shift: instead of imitating the surface properties of data, we simulate the cognitive processes that generate human text. We introduce the Prompt-driven Cognitive Computing Framework (PMCSF), whose core consists of a Cognitive State Decoder (CSD) that reverse-engineers unstructured text into structured cognitive vectors, and a Cognitive Text Encoder (CTE) that re-materializes these states into text enriched with human-typical imperfections via mathematically defined Cognitive Perturbation Operators. The framework is validated through a two-stage objective evaluation pipeline. First, in cognitive codec verification, CTE text yields a Jensen-Shannon divergence of 0.0614 from human text (vs. 0.4431 for standard LLM output), passes double-blind professional media review, and achieves an intraclass correlation coefficient ICC > 0.9 for cognitive profile alignment across heterogeneous models. Second, in functional gain evaluation, isomorphic stress tests in the A-share market show that strategies incorporating CTE-generated data reduce maximum drawdown by 47.4% during the 2015 crash and deliver 8.6% Defensive Alpha, exceeding transaction costs by a factor of 33. Our findings demonstrate that modelling human cognitive limitations -- not copying surface data -- enables synthetic data with genuine functional gain, offering a viable technical pathway toward resolving the AI data-collapse crisis.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Model collapse from synthetic data, one of 13 directions in Synthetic data and self-improvement for LLMs. Builds on 6 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Dec 2025.
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- 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behaviorcited by 3,568
- 2022Out of One, Many: Using Language Models to Simulate Human Samplescited by 752
- 2023Self-Consuming Generative Models Go MADcited by 250
- 2022Human heuristics for AI-generated language are flawedcited by 105
- 2025Distinguishing AI-Generated and Human-Written Text Through Psycholinguistic Analysiscited by 3
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- 2026CogBlender: Towards Continuous Cognitive Intervention in Text-to-Image Generation
- 2025Towards Synthesizing Normative Data for Cognitive Assessments Using Generative Multimodal Large Language Models
- 2021MAUVE: Measuring the Gap Between Neural Text and Human Text using Divergence Frontiers
- 2026Preventing Model Collapse: A Fisher-Rao Perspective on the Dynamics of Training with Synthetic Data