{"id":"https://openalex.org/W7138351901","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","title":"Answering the Unanswerable Is to Err Knowingly: Analyzing and Mitigating Abstention Failures in Large Reasoning Models","display_name":"Answering the Unanswerable Is to Err Knowingly: Analyzing and Mitigating Abstention Failures in Large Reasoning Models","publication_year":2026,"publication_date":"2026-03-14","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W7138351901","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496"},"language":"en","primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4210191458","display_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","issn_l":"2159-5399","issn":["2159-5399","2374-3468"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320058","host_organization_name":"Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320058"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence"],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","raw_type":"journal-article"},"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"diamond","oa_url":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","any_repository_has_fulltext":false},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5129735829","display_name":"Yi Liu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yi Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5129698301","display_name":"Xiangyu Liu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xiangyu Liu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5129719962","display_name":"Zequn Sun","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Zequn Sun","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5129731983","display_name":"Wei Hu","orcid":null},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Wei Hu","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":0,"institutions_distinct_count":0,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.0,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":0,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.20978296,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":null,"biblio":{"volume":"40","issue":"38","first_page":"32231","last_page":"32239"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12026","display_name":"Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)","score":0.29490000009536743,"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/T12026","display_name":"Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI)","score":0.29490000009536743,"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/T11714","display_name":"Multimodal Machine Learning Applications","score":0.121799997985363,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1707","display_name":"Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition"},"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":0.08349999785423279,"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/trustworthiness","display_name":"Trustworthiness","score":0.7415000200271606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/cognition","display_name":"Cognition","score":0.6560999751091003},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/analytic-reasoning","display_name":"Analytic reasoning","score":0.3458999991416931},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/cognitive-systems","display_name":"Cognitive systems","score":0.2892000079154968}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C153701036","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q659974","display_name":"Trustworthiness","level":2,"score":0.7415000200271606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C169900460","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2200417","display_name":"Cognition","level":2,"score":0.6560999751091003},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.5874999761581421},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C103057564","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4751139","display_name":"Analytic reasoning","level":3,"score":0.3458999991416931},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C188147891","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q147638","display_name":"Cognitive science","level":1,"score":0.3188000023365021},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C111472728","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9471","display_name":"Epistemology","level":1,"score":0.3174000084400177},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.3100000023841858},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2986342778","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Cognitive systems","level":3,"score":0.2892000079154968},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C112930515","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4389547","display_name":"Risk analysis (engineering)","level":1,"score":0.2818000018596649},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C539667460","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2414942","display_name":"Management science","level":1,"score":0.26440000534057617}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":2,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4210191458","display_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","issn_l":"2159-5399","issn":["2159-5399","2374-3468"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320058","host_organization_name":"Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320058"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence"],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","raw_type":"journal-article"},{"id":"pmh:oai:ojs.aaai.org:article/40496","is_oa":false,"landing_page_url":"https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AAAI/article/view/40496","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"submittedVersion","is_accepted":false,"is_published":false,"raw_source_name":"2159-5399","raw_type":"info:eu-repo/semantics/article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i38.40496","pdf_url":null,"source":{"id":"https://openalex.org/S4210191458","display_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","issn_l":"2159-5399","issn":["2159-5399","2374-3468"],"is_oa":true,"is_in_doaj":false,"is_core":false,"host_organization":"https://openalex.org/P4310320058","host_organization_name":"Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence","host_organization_lineage":["https://openalex.org/P4310320058"],"host_organization_lineage_names":["Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence"],"type":"conference"},"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence","raw_type":"journal-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[{"score":0.7429602146148682,"display_name":"Quality Education","id":"https://metadata.un.org/sdg/4"}],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G3137102087","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"62272219","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G5424620748","display_name":null,"funder_award_id":"62406136","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","funder_display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320321001","display_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","ror":"https://ror.org/01h0zpd94"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":false,"pdf":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Large":[0],"reasoning":[1,10,141],"models":[2],"(LRMs)":[3],"have":[4],"shown":[5],"remarkable":[6],"progress":[7],"on":[8],"complex":[9],"tasks.":[11],"However,":[12,91],"some":[13],"questions":[14],"posed":[15],"to":[16,34,84,94,110],"LRMs":[17,31,70,79],"are":[18],"inherently":[19],"unanswerable,":[20],"such":[21],"as":[22],"math":[23],"problems":[24],"lacking":[25],"sufficient":[26,81],"conditions.":[27],"We":[28,58],"find":[29],"that":[30,78,120,130],"continually":[32],"fail":[33,93],"provide":[35],"appropriate":[36,96],"abstentions":[37],"when":[38,71],"confronted":[39],"with":[40,124],"these":[41,89],"unanswerable":[42,73],"questions.":[43,74,90],"In":[44],"this":[45,53,112],"paper,":[46],"we":[47,76,114],"systematically":[48],"analyze,":[49],"investigate,":[50],"and":[51,106],"resolve":[52,111],"issue":[54],"for":[55],"trustworthy":[56],"AI.":[57],"first":[59],"conduct":[60],"a":[61,100,116],"detailed":[62],"analysis":[63],"of":[64,69],"the":[65,86,135,140],"distinct":[66],"response":[67],"behaviors":[68],"facing":[72],"Then,":[75],"show":[77],"possess":[80],"cognitive":[82,122],"capabilities":[83],"recognize":[85],"flaws":[87],"in":[88],"they":[92],"exhibit":[95],"abstention":[97,136],"behavior,":[98],"revealing":[99],"misalignment":[101],"between":[102],"their":[103],"internal":[104],"cognition":[105],"external":[107],"response.":[108],"Finally,":[109],"issue,":[113],"propose":[115],"lightweight,":[117],"two-stage":[118],"method":[119,132],"combines":[121],"monitoring":[123],"inference-time":[125],"intervention.":[126],"Experimental":[127],"results":[128],"demonstrate":[129],"our":[131],"significantly":[133],"improves":[134],"rate":[137],"while":[138],"maintaining":[139],"performance.":[142]},"counts_by_year":[],"updated_date":"2026-07-29T14:22:42.915294","created_date":"2026-03-18T00:00:00"}