{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4399838049","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209","title":"From RAGs to rich parameters: Probing how language models utilize external knowledge over parametric information for factual queries","display_name":"From RAGs to rich parameters: Probing how language models utilize external knowledge over parametric information for factual queries","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-02-22","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4399838049","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3779211.3793209","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Nineteenth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"preprint","indexed_in":["arxiv","crossref","datacite"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209","any_repository_has_fulltext":true},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5099282601","display_name":"Hitesh Wadhwa","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":true,"raw_author_name":"Hitesh Wadhwa","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3935-3384","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5104019728","display_name":"Rahul Seetharaman","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Rahul Seetharaman","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3719-4892","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5111234400","display_name":"Somyaa Aggarwal","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Somyaa Aggarwal","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6237-6750","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5019507987","display_name":"Reshmi Ghosh","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1814-2133"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1290206253","display_name":"Microsoft (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/00d0nc645","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1290206253"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I4210164937","display_name":"Microsoft Research (United Kingdom)","ror":"https://ror.org/05k87vq12","country_code":"GB","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1290206253","https://openalex.org/I4210164937"]}],"countries":["GB","US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Reshmi Ghosh","raw_affiliation_strings":["Microsoft, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3070-2532","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Microsoft, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I4210164937","https://openalex.org/I1290206253"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5085795724","display_name":"Samyadeep Basu","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I16269868","display_name":"Santa Clara University","ror":"https://ror.org/03ypqe447","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I16269868"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I863488634","display_name":"Coherent (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/031tysd23","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I863488634"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Samyadeep Basu","raw_affiliation_strings":["Independent, Santa Clara, CA, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4021-0239","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Independent, Santa Clara, CA, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I16269868","https://openalex.org/I863488634"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5102163048","display_name":"Soundararajan Srinivasan","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1290206253","display_name":"Microsoft (United States)","ror":"https://ror.org/00d0nc645","country_code":"US","type":"company","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1290206253"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Soundararajan Srinivasan","raw_affiliation_strings":["Microsoft, Cambridge, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0842-7743","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"Microsoft, Cambridge, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1290206253"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5102691719","display_name":"Wenlong Zhao","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Wenlong Zhao","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6153-1396","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5113258513","display_name":"Shreyas Chaudhari","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Shreyas Chaudhari","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8826-2253","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5099282602","display_name":"Ehsan Aghazadeh","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I24603500","display_name":"University of Massachusetts Amherst","ror":"https://ror.org/0072zz521","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Ehsan Aghazedeh","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA"],"raw_orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0007-3100-4409","affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":2,"institutions_distinct_count":9,"corresponding_author_ids":["https://openalex.org/A5099282601"],"corresponding_institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I24603500"],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":2,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.00197624,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":90,"max":95},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"132","last_page":"139"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10181","display_name":"Natural Language Processing Techniques","score":0.9825000166893005,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10181","display_name":"Natural Language Processing Techniques","score":0.9825000166893005,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10028","display_name":"Topic Modeling","score":0.972000002861023,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10215","display_name":"Semantic Web and Ontologies","score":0.9329000115394592,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/parametric-statistics","display_name":"Parametric statistics","score":0.6831014156341553},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/computer-science","display_name":"Computer science","score":0.6414912343025208},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/parametric-model","display_name":"Parametric model","score":0.49291324615478516},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/mathematics","display_name":"Mathematics","score":0.16614916920661926},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/statistics","display_name":"Statistics","score":0.15860885381698608}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C117251300","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1849855","display_name":"Parametric statistics","level":2,"score":0.6831014156341553},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.6414912343025208},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C24574437","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7135228","display_name":"Parametric model","level":3,"score":0.49291324615478516},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C33923547","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q395","display_name":"Mathematics","level":0,"score":0.16614916920661926},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C105795698","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q12483","display_name":"Statistics","level":1,"score":0.15860885381698608}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":3,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1145/3779211.3793209","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Nineteenth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:arXiv.org:2406.12824","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"http://arxiv.org/abs/2406.12824","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.12824","source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":"","raw_type":"text"},{"id":"doi:10.48550/arxiv.2406.12824","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2406.12824","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4306400194","display_name":"arXiv (Cornell University)","issn_l":null,"issn":null,"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/I205783295","host_organization_name":"Cornell University","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/I205783295"],"host_organization_lineage_names":[],"type":"repository"},"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":null,"is_accepted":false,"is_published":null,"raw_source_name":null,"raw_type":"article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1145/3779211.3793209","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3779211.3793209","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the Nineteenth ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[],"has_content":{"pdf":false,"grobid_xml":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":["https://openalex.org/W2289718384","https://openalex.org/W1995675544","https://openalex.org/W2509524819","https://openalex.org/W2012121796","https://openalex.org/W2068427817","https://openalex.org/W2952090425","https://openalex.org/W2538333368","https://openalex.org/W3127866798","https://openalex.org/W4294845631","https://openalex.org/W1518153952"],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Retrieval":[0],"Augmented":[1],"Generation":[2],"(RAG)":[3],"enriches":[4],"the":[5,45,62,80,85,110,129,139,143,153],"ability":[6],"of":[7,36,48,168],"language":[8,37,68,100],"models":[9,38,69,101],"to":[10,15,30,65,83,107,126],"reason":[11],"using":[12],"external":[13],"context":[14,81],"augment":[16],"responses":[17],"for":[18],"a":[19,74,118],"given":[20],"user":[21],"prompt.":[22],"This":[23],"approach":[24,51],"has":[25],"risen":[26],"in":[27,33,39,99,142,152],"popularity":[28],"due":[29],"practical":[31],"applications":[32,35],"various":[34],"search,":[40],"question/answering,":[41],"and":[42,72,120,124,165],"chat-bots.":[43],"However,":[44],"exact":[46],"nature":[47],"how":[49],"this":[50,57,96,157],"works":[52],"isn't":[53],"clearly":[54],"understood.":[55],"In":[56],"paper,":[58],"we":[59],"mechanistically":[60],"examine":[61],"RAG":[63],"pipeline":[64],"highlight":[66],"that":[67,109,128],"take":[70],"\"shortcut\"":[71,159],"have":[73],"strong":[75],"bias":[76],"towards":[77],"utilizing":[78],"only":[79],"information":[82],"answer":[84],"question,":[86,144],"while":[87],"relying":[88],"minimally":[89,114],"on":[90],"their":[91],"parametric":[92,111],"memory.":[93],"We":[94,155],"probe":[95],"mechanistic":[97],"behavior":[98],"with:":[102],"(i)":[103],"Causal":[104],"Mediation":[105],"Analysis":[106],"show":[108,127],"memory":[112],"is":[113],"utilized":[115],"when":[116],"answering":[117],"question":[119],"(ii)":[121],"Attention":[122],"Contributions":[123],"Knockouts":[125],"last":[130],"token":[131,141],"residual":[132],"stream":[133],"do":[134],"not":[135],"get":[136],"enriched":[137,147],"from":[138,148],"subject":[140],"but":[145],"gets":[146],"other":[149],"informative":[150],"tokens":[151],"context.":[154],"find":[156],"pronounced":[158],"behaviour":[160],"true":[161],"across":[162],"both":[163],"LLaMa":[164],"Phi":[166],"family":[167],"models.":[169]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":1},{"year":2024,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-05-07T06:04:25.777469","created_date":"2025-10-10T00:00:00"}