Deciphering Trajectory-Aided LLM Reasoning: An Optimization Perspective

🤗 Upvotes: 33 | cs.CL, cs.AI

Authors:
Junnan Liu, Hongwei Liu, Linchen Xiao, Shudong Liu, Taolin Zhang, Zihan Ma, Songyang Zhang, Kai Chen

Title:
Deciphering Trajectory-Aided LLM Reasoning: An Optimization Perspective

Arxiv:
http://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19815v1

Abstract:
We propose a novel framework for comprehending the reasoning capabilities of large language models (LLMs) through the perspective of meta-learning. By conceptualizing reasoning trajectories as pseudo-gradient descent updates to the LLM's parameters, we identify parallels between LLM reasoning and various meta-learning paradigms. We formalize the training process for reasoning tasks as a meta-learning setup, with each question treated as an individual task, and reasoning trajectories serving as the inner loop optimization for adapting model parameters. Once trained on a diverse set of questions, the LLM develops fundamental reasoning capabilities that can generalize to previously unseen questions. Extensive empirical evaluations substantiate the strong connection between LLM reasoning and meta-learning, exploring several issues of significant interest from a meta-learning standpoint. Our work not only enhances the understanding of LLM reasoning but also provides practical insights for improving these models through established meta-learning techniques.