Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have achieved remarkable success in open-vocabulary perceptual tasks, yet their ability to solve complex cognitive problems remains limited, especially when visual details are abstract and require visual memory. Current approaches primarily scale Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning in the text space, even when language alone is insufficient for clear and structured reasoning, and largely neglect visual reasoning mechanisms analogous to the human visuospatial sketchpad and visual imagery. To mitigate this deficiency, we introduce Cognitive Supersensing, a novel training paradigm that endows MLLMs with human-like visual imagery capabilities by integrating a Latent Visual Imagery Prediction (LVIP) head that jointly learns sequences of visual cognitive latent embeddings and aligns them with the answer, thereby forming vision-based internal reasoning chains. We further introduce a reinforcement learning stage that optimizes text reasoning paths based on this grounded visual latent. To evaluate the cognitive capabilities of MLLMs, we present CogSense-Bench, a comprehensive visual question answering (VQA) benchmark assessing five cognitive dimensions. Extensive experiments demonstrate that MLLMs trained with Cognitive Supersensing significantly outperform state-of-the-art baselines on CogSense-Bench and exhibit superior generalization on out-of-domain mathematics and science VQA benchmarks, suggesting that internal visual imagery is potentially key to bridging the gap between perceptual recognition and cognitive understanding. We will open-source the CogSense-Bench and our model weights.
PanoWorld: Towards Spatial Supersensing in 360$^\circ$ Panorama World
Zhejiang University(浙江大学);University of California, San Diego(加州大学圣地亚哥分校);University of California, Irvine(加州大学伊维特分校);The University of Hong Kong(香港大学)
Cognitive Mismatch in Multimodal Large Language Models for Discrete Symbol Understanding
Tsinghua University(清华大学);Sun Yat-sen University(中山大学);Independent Researcher(独立研究员);The Hong Kong Polytechnic University(香港理工大学);Guangdong Laboratory of AI and Digital Economy (SZ)(广东省人工智能与数字经济实验室(深圳));University of Illinois Chicago(伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校)
MIRROR: Multimodal Cognitive Reframing Therapy for Rolling with Resistance
KT Corporation, Republic of Korea(韩国KT公司);Graduate School of Artificial Intelligence, POSTECH, Republic of Korea(POSTECH人工智能研究生院);Computer Science and Engineering, POSTECH, Republic of Korea(POSTECH计算机科学与工程系)
Almieyar-Oryx-BloomBench: A Bilingual Multimodal Benchmark for Cognitively Informed Evaluation of Vision-Language Models
University of British Columbia(不列颠哥伦比亚大学);Zuse School(Zuse学校);Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI)(卡塔尔计算研究所);Hamad Bin Khalifa University(哈马德·本·哈利法大学)
Cognitive Chain-of-Thought (CoCoT): Structured Multimodal Reasoning about Social Situations
Seoul National University(首尔国立大学);Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University(人机交互研究所,卡内基梅隆大学);Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University(语言技术研究所,卡内基梅隆大学)
Look on Demand: A Cognitive Scheduling Framework for Visual Evidence Acquisition in Multimodal Reasoning
Key Laboratory of Multimedia Trusted Perception(多媒体可信感知实验室);Efficient Computing, Ministry of Education of China, Xiamen University, 361005, P.R. China(教育部高效计算实验室,厦门大学,361005,中国);Sino-Russian ResearchCenter for Digital Economy(中俄数字经济研究中心);Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Xiamen University, China(人工智能研究院,厦门大学,中国);School of Informatics, Xiamen University, China(信息学院,厦门大学,中国);School of Information Engineering, Xiamen Ocean Vocational College, Xiamen 361102, China(信息工程学院,厦门海洋职业技术学院,厦门361102,中国)
Multimodal Information Fusion for Chart Understanding: A Survey of MLLMs -- Evolution, Limitations, and Cognitive Enhancement
College of Computer Science, Sichuan University(四川大学计算机科学学院);Engineering Research Center of Machine Learning(机器学习工程研究中心);China Telecom Institute of AI(中国电信人工智能研究院)
Cognitive Pivot Points and Visual Anchoring: Unveiling and Rectifying Hallucinations in Multimodal Reasoning Models
Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence, Renmin University of China(中国人民大学 龙城人工智能学院);South China Agricultural University(华南农业大学);South China Normal University(华南师范大学);Monash University(莫纳什大学);Jishou University(吉首大学);Hong Kong University of Science and Technology(香港科技大学);Tsinghua University(清华大学)
CVSearch: Empowering Multimodal LLMs with Cognitive Visual Search for High-Resolution Image Perception
Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China(哈尔滨工业大学(深圳));Peng Cheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China(鹏城实验室);Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, China(深圳先进技术研究院)
11Plus-Bench: Demystifying Multimodal LLM Spatial Reasoning with Cognitive-Inspired Analysis
Microsoft Research(微软研究院);Language Technology Lab, University of Cambridge(语言技术实验室,剑桥大学);Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences(自动化研究所,中国科学院);Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge(癌症部门,剑桥大学);Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge(未来智能中心,剑桥大学);VRAIN, Universitat Politècnica de València(VRAIN,巴塞罗那理工大学)
MedAlign: A Synergistic Framework of Multimodal Preference Optimization and Federated Meta-Cognitive Reasoning
School of Automation, Guangdong University of Technology(广东工业大学自动化学院);College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics(南京航空航天大学计算机科学与技术学院);State Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences(广东省中医药科学院中医证候重点实验室,广州中医药大学第二附属医院,广东省中医院,广东省中医药科学院);College of Computing and Data Science, Nanyang Technological University(南洋理工大学计算机与数据科学学院);Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University(成均馆大学电子与计算机工程系)
M3GIA: A Cognition Inspired Multilingual and Multimodal General Intelligence Ability Benchmark
AutoLab, Westlake University(西湖大学AutoLab);Alibaba Group(阿里巴巴集团);Zhejiang University(浙江大学);Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, CAS(中国科学院心理研究所行为科学重点实验室);Key Laboratory of AI Safety, Institute of Computing Technology, CAS(中国科学院计算技术研究所人工智能安全重点实验室)
StructBreak: Structural Cognitive Overload-Induced Safety Failures in MLLMs
Key Laboratory of Trustworthy Distributed Computing and Service (MoE), Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications(可信分布式计算与服务重点实验室(MoE),北京邮电大学);Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院计算技术研究所)
Is Cognition Consistent with Perception? Assessing and Mitigating Multimodal Knowledge Conflicts in Document Understanding
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Accessible Perception and Intelligent Systems, Zhejiang University(浙江可感知智能系统重点实验室,浙江大学);Alibaba Group(阿里巴巴集团);Hangzhou High-Tech Zone (Binjiang) Institute of Blockchain and DataSecurity(杭州高新技术区(滨江)区块链与数据安全研究院)
LLMCARE: early detection of cognitive impairment via transformer models enhanced by LLM-generated synthetic data
Columbia University Irving Medical Center(哥伦比亚大学欧文医学中心);University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee(威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校);University of Tehran(德黑兰大学);Columbia University(哥伦比亚大学);University of Florida(佛罗里达大学)
Cantor: Inspiring Multimodal Chain-of-Thought of MLLM
Key Laboratory of Multimedia Trusted Perception and Efficient Computing, Ministry of Education of China, Xiamen University(厦门大学 多媒体可信感知与高效计算重点实验室(教育部));Tencent Youtu Lab(腾讯优图实验室)
TAMI: Temporally Aligned, Missingness-Aware, and Interpretable Multimodal Fusion for Mental Health Assessment in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment
Georgia Institute of Technology(佐治亚理工学院);Emory University(埃默里大学);Cairo University(开罗大学)
Frozen Multimodal Embeddings for AI-Assisted Interview Assessment of Personality and Cognitive Ability
Technology Application and Human Resource Development, National Taiwan Normal University(台湾国立台中教育大学技术应用与人力资源发展系);Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Central University(台湾国立中央大学计算机科学与资讯工程系);Institute of Photonic System, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University(台湾阳明交通大学光电系统研究所)
Exploring the dynamic interplay of cognitive load and emotional arousal by using multimodal measurements: Correlation of pupil diameter and emotional arousal in emotionally engaging tasks