Sensitivity or Criterion? Measuring and Moving When Language Models Act
Before an agent acts, it must decide whether action is warranted. A single accuracy cannot distinguish failure to recognize a warranted action from reluctance to act. Signal-detection theory separates sensitivity from criterion, but criteria estimated from authored binary labels depend on each benchmark's example mix. We introduce FlipAct, a diagnostic of tool use in physical states. A rule over annotated tool properties computes each answer and a graded evidence score, fixing the Yes/No boundary at zero across models. Questions form 2-by-2 quads that hold required knowledge fixed while the state flips. The slope of the fitted Yes-rate curve measures sensitivity; its crossing at one half ...
| Authors | Sixun Dong, Yebowen Hu, Ming Yin et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 11 October 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 11 October 2026 |
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