Efficient Reasoning with Balanced Thinking
Summary
This paper introduces ReBalance, a training-free, plug-and-play method that dynamically balances overthinking and underthinking in large reasoning models, improving efficiency and accuracy across multiple benchmarks.
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Paper page - Efficient Reasoning with Balanced Thinking
Source: https://huggingface.co/papers/2603.12372
https://huggingface.co/papers/2603.12372#%E2%9A%96%EF%B8%8F-balanced-thinking-mitigating-overthinking-without-inducing-underthinking-in-large-reasoning-modelsβοΈBalanced Thinking: Mitigating Overthinking without Inducing Underthinking in Large Reasoning Models
Ever noticed how large reasoning models (LRMs) sometimes get lost in their thoughts, allocating redundant reasoning steps to simple problems? π€ This phenomenon, known asoverthinking, has prompted recent efforts to shorten reasoning chains. However, we empirically reveal that many of them inadvertently give rise to another issue ofunderthinking, where models fail to sufficiently explore valid reasoning paths despite possessing the inherent capability to solve the problem. π±
In this work, we introduce a fresh and interesting perspective calledbalanced thinking. By closely monitoring model confidence, we discovered a way to dynamically balance LRMs between overthinking and underthinking. Imagine a reasoning βGPSβ that senses when the model drifts into redundant thoughts or rushes past critical details, smoothly guiding it back to optimal reasoning paths! ππ‘
Our method,ReBalance, effectively reduces output redundancy while improving accuracy, as demonstrated on four models (0.5Bβ32B) across nine benchmarks spanning math reasoning, general QA, and coding tasks, offering a general, training-free, and plug-and-play strategy for efficient and robust LRM deployment.
Dive into our findings and see how balanced thinking is shaping smarter, faster, and more efficient AI reasoning! ππ
Excited to discuss, hear your thoughts, and answer questions! π
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