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arXiv · 2506.11807

Are Multimodal Large Language Models Pragmatically Competent Listeners in Simple Reference Resolution Tasks?

Simeon Junker·Manar Ali·Larissa Koch·Sina Zarrieß·Hendrik Buschmeier
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Abstract

We investigate the linguistic abilities of multimodal large language models in reference resolution tasks featuring simple yet abstract visual stimuli, such as color patches and color grids. Although the task may not seem challenging for today's language models, being straightforward for human dyads, we consider it to be a highly relevant probe of the pragmatic capabilities of MLLMs. Our results and analyses indeed suggest that basic pragmatic capabilities, such as context-dependent interpretation of color descriptions, still constitute major challenges for state-of-the-art MLLMs.

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Simeon Junker, Manar Ali, Larissa Koch, Sina Zarrieß, Hendrik Buschmeier. 2025-06-13. Are Multimodal Large Language Models Pragmatically Competent Listeners in Simple Reference Resolution Tasks?. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-acl.1236

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