CogToM: A Comprehensive Theory of Mind Benchmark inspired by Human Cognition for Large Language Models
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Abstract (arXiv)
Whether Large Language Models (LLMs) truly possess human-like Theory of Mind (ToM) capabilities has garnered increasing attention. However, existing benchmarks remain largely restricted to narrow paradigms like false belief tasks, failing to capture the full spectrum of human cognitive mechanisms. We introduce CogToM, a comprehensive, theoretically grounded benchmark comprising over 8000 bilingual instances across 46 paradigms, validated by 49 human annotator.A systematic evaluation of 22 representative models, including frontier models like GPT-5.1 and Qwen3-Max, reveals significant performance heterogeneities and highlights persistent bottlenecks in specific dimensions. Further analysis based on human cognitive patterns suggests potential divergences between LLM and human cognitive structures. CogToM offers a robust instrument and perspective for investigating the evolving cognitive boundaries of LLMs.
Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 11 of its 66 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 22 Jan 2026.
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11 of 66 references.
References · 11
- 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,712
- 2020Scaling Laws for Neural Language Modelscited by 6,411
- 2023Large Language Models Fail on Trivial Alterations to Theory-of-Mind Taskscited by 288
- 2023Evaluating Large Language Models in Theory of Mind Taskscited by 217
- 2023Understanding Social Reasoning in Language Models with Language Modelscited by 166
- 2023FANToM: A Benchmark for Stress-testing Machine Theory of Mind in Interactionscited by 162
- 2023Clever Hans or Neural Theory of Mind? Stress Testing Social Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 161
- 2024SimpleToM: Exposing the Gap between Explicit ToM Inference and Implicit ToM Application in LLMscited by 51
- 2024NegotiationToM: A Benchmark for Stress-testing Machine Theory of Mind on Negotiation Surroundingcited by 49
- 2023ToMChallenges: A Principle-Guided Dataset and Diverse Evaluation Tasks for Exploring Theory of Mindcited by 28
- 2023MindGames: Targeting Theory of Mind in Large Language Models with Dynamic Epistemic Modal Logiccited by 18
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