When Reasoning Traces Conflict with Evidence: How Answer Configuration Shapes Evidence Following
A reasoning trace retained at answer time plays two roles: it can raise accuracy, and it can compete with the current evidence when the two disagree. We disentangle these roles by crossing verified evidence versions with the traces generated from each and answering from the same traces and evidence under two configurations: continuation of the model's own thinking and a separate answer call. Across three model families (gpt-oss, Gemma4, Qwen3) on HotpotQA and MuSiQue, the separate call raises evidence-following over continuation by 29.9 to 60.6 points. On the same pairs, removing the trace lowers accuracy by similar amounts under both configurations. Yet continuation repeats the stale con...
| Authors | Shaoang Li, Yanhang Shi, Jian Li |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.AI |
| Published | 14 October 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 14 October 2026 |
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