From Parameters to Answers: How LLMs Retrieve and Use Their Internal Knowledge
How does a language model's dependence on query-routing information and target knowledge change as it answers a question? We study this question through layerwise interventions on the hidden state at the end of the question. Across Qwen, Llama, and Gemma, we compare country-continent questions with noun, adjective, and code answers while keeping several fitted measurements distinct. A pair-conditioned request direction describes which country is queried in natural single-country questions; a global request direction describes first- versus second-country requests in paired questions; separate selection candidates test control among contents already available in the hidden state. A diagnos...
| Authors | Wenkang Wei, Yuan Fang, Renhe Jiang et al. |
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| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 10 September 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 10 September 2026 |
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