Benchmarking MLLMs via Cognitive Expected Scene Graph for Safety-Critical Visual Negation Understanding
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Abstract (arXiv)
True machine intelligence requires transcending passive pixel registration to master top-down functional reasoning over absent information via visual negation understanding. However, unconstrained visual negation paradigms remain overly open-ended, and pervasive affirmation bias causes both existing Multi-Modal Large Language Models (MLLMs) and evaluation metrics to fail under negative semantics. To solve these intertwined challenges systematically, we first anchor the boundaries of negation reasoning within specific cognitive goals. Specifically, by focusing on safety as a highly pragmatic and critical cognitive dimension, we define the task of Scene Negation Understanding under Safety Cognition (SNUS). Under this framework, we construct a high-fidelity negative caption dataset mapping dense assertions of localized hazards. Concurrently, we propose the Cognitive Expected Scene Graph (CESG) Score, a structure-grounded, polarity-aware evaluation metric. Extensive experiments demonstrate that while current models struggle on the task, traditional metrics completely collapse under semantic reversals. Conversely, our framework delivers a solid benchmark for SNUS, providing a rigorous foundation to advance risk-aware situational comprehension and counterfactual cognition.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 24 of its 36 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 Sep 2026.
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References · 24
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- 2025Vision-Language Models Do Not Understand Negationcited by 72
- 2023FACTUAL: A Benchmark for Faithful and Consistent Textual Scene Graph Parsingcited by 50
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