mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Endogenous Reprompting: Self-Evolving Cognitive Alignment for Unified Multimodal Models

arXiv 2601.20305 ↗First posted 28 Jan 2026cs.AIcited by 7

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Abstract (arXiv)

Unified Multimodal Models (UMMs) exhibit strong understanding, yet this capability often fails to effectively guide generation. We identify this as a Cognitive Gap: the model lacks the understanding of how to enhance its own generation process. To bridge this gap, we propose Endogenous Reprompting, a mechanism that transforms the model's understanding from a passive encoding process into an explicit generative reasoning step by generating self-aligned descriptors during generation. To achieve this, we introduce SEER (Self-Evolving Evaluator and Reprompter), a training framework that establishes a two-stage endogenous loop using only 300 samples from a compact proxy task, Visual Instruction Elaboration. First, Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) activates the model's latent evaluation ability via curriculum learning, producing a high-fidelity endogenous reward signal. Second, Reinforcement Learning with Model-rewarded Thinking (RLMT) leverages this signal to optimize the generative reasoning policy. Experiments show that SEER consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in evaluation accuracy, reprompting efficiency, and generation quality, without sacrificing general multimodal capabilities.

Key facts. Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 35 of its 42 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Jan 2026.

Builds on

35 of 42 references.

References · 35

  1. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
  2. 2019Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferencescited by 2,150
  3. 2023MMMU: A Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding and Reasoning Benchmark for Expert AGIcited by 2,080
  4. 2023Evaluating Object Hallucination in Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 1,729
  5. 2023MME: A Comprehensive Evaluation Benchmark for Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 1,652
  6. 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
  7. 2023GenEval: An Object-Focused Framework for Evaluating Text-to-Image Alignmentcited by 972
  8. 2023SEED-Bench: Benchmarking Multimodal LLMs with Generative Comprehensioncited by 940
  9. 2025Emerging Properties in Unified Multimodal Pretrainingcited by 897
  10. 2025Janus-Pro: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generation with Data and Model Scalingcited by 812
  11. 2023Diffusion Model Alignment Using Direct Preference Optimizationcited by 790
  12. 2024Emu3: Next-Token Prediction is All You Needcited by 781
23 more
  1. 2024Show-o: One Single Transformer to Unify Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 752
  2. 2024Diffusion Forcing: Next-token Prediction Meets Full-Sequence Diffusioncited by 681
  3. 2025Flow-GRPO: Training Flow Matching Models via Online RLcited by 661
  4. 2024Autoregressive Image Generation without Vector Quantizationcited by 651
  5. 2024Transfusion: Predict the Next Token and Diffuse Images with One Multi-Modal Modelcited by 483
  6. 2024ELLA: Equip Diffusion Models with LLM for Enhanced Semantic Alignmentcited by 475
  7. 2024Janus: Decoupling Visual Encoding for Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 457
  8. 2025BLIP3-o: A Family of Fully Open Unified Multimodal Models-Architecture, Training and Datasetcited by 376
  9. 2023DreamLLM: Synergistic Multimodal Comprehension and Creationcited by 297
  10. 2025Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards Implicitly Incentivizes Correct Reasoning in Base LLMscited by 289
  11. 2025Show-o2: Improved Native Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 250
  12. 2025Transfer between Modalities with MetaQueriescited by 236
  13. 2024GenArtist: Multimodal LLM as an Agent for Unified Image Generation and Editingcited by 133
  14. 2023Self-correcting LLM-controlled Diffusion Modelscited by 113
  15. 2025Pref-GRPO: Pairwise Preference Reward-based GRPO for Stable Text-to-Image Reinforcement Learningcited by 92
  16. 2025Harmonizing Visual Representations for Unified Multimodal Understanding and Generationcited by 74
  17. 2025RewardDance: Reward Scaling in Visual Generationcited by 68
  18. 2025Reconstruction Alignment Improves Unified Multimodal Modelscited by 49
  19. 2024MonoFormer: One Transformer for Both Diffusion and Autoregressioncited by 46
  20. 2025PromptEnhancer: A Simple Approach to Enhance Text-to-Image Models via Chain-of-Thought Prompt Rewritingcited by 43
  21. 2025Language Models that Think, Chat Bettercited by 24
  22. 2025OneReward: Unified Mask-Guided Image Generation via Multi-Task Human Preference Learningcited by 23
  23. 2023BeautifulPrompt: Towards Automatic Prompt Engineering for Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 18

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 7.

7 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Learning to Generate via Understanding: Understanding-Driven Intrinsic Rewarding for Unified Multimodal Models
  2. 2026Reversing the Flow: Generation-to-Understanding Synergy in Large Multimodal Models
  3. 2026UniRect-CoT: Enhancing Generation in Unified Multimodal Models via Reflective Rectification with Inherent Understanding
  4. 2024Diving into Self-Evolving Training for Multimodal Reasoning
  5. 2026GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoning
  6. 2025RePrompt: Reasoning-Augmented Reprompting for Text-to-Image Generation via Reinforcement Learning
  7. 2025ThinkGen: Generalized Thinking for Visual Generation
  8. 2026Uni-Synergy: Bridging Understanding and Generation for Personalized Reasoning via Co-operative Reinforcement Learning