Evaluating the Ability of Large Language Models to Reason about Cardinal Directions, Revisited

Anthony G Cohn; Robert E Blackwell

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arXiv · 2507.12059

Evaluating the Ability of Large Language Models to Reason about Cardinal Directions, Revisited

Anthony G Cohn·Robert E Blackwell

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Abstract

We investigate the abilities of 28 Large language Models (LLMs) to reason about cardinal directions (CDs) using a benchmark generated from a set of templates, extensively testing an LLM's ability to determine the correct CD given a particular scenario. The templates allow for a number of degrees of variation such as means of locomotion of the agent involved, and whether set in the first, second or third person. Even the newer Large Reasoning Models are unable to reliably determine the correct CD for all questions. This paper summarises and extends earlier work presented at COSIT-24.

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Anthony G Cohn, Robert E Blackwell. 2025-07-16. Evaluating the Ability of Large Language Models to Reason about Cardinal Directions, Revisited. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12059

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