Revisiting the Self-Consistency Challenges in Multi-Choice Question Formats for Large Language Model Evaluation

Wenjie Zhou, Qiang Wang, Mingzhou Xu, Ming Chen, Xiangyu Duan


Abstract
Multi-choice questions (MCQ) are a common method for assessing the world knowledge of large language models (LLMs), demonstrated by benchmarks such as MMLU and C-Eval. However, recent findings indicate that even top-tier LLMs, such as ChatGPT and GPT4, might display inconsistencies when faced with slightly varied inputs. This raises concerns about the credibility of MCQ-based evaluations. To address this issue, we introduced three knowledge-equivalent question variants: option position shuffle, option label replacement, and conversion to a True/False format. We rigorously tested a range of LLMs, varying in model size (from 6B to 70B) and types—pretrained language model (PLM), supervised fine-tuning (SFT), and reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). Our findings from MMLU and C-Eval revealed that accuracy for individual questions lacks robustness, particularly in smaller models (<30B) and PLMs. Consequently, we advocate that consistent accuracy may serve as a more reliable metric for evaluating and ranking LLMs.
Anthology ID:
2024.lrec-main.1229
Volume:
Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024)
Month:
May
Year:
2024
Address:
Torino, Italia
Editors:
Nicoletta Calzolari, Min-Yen Kan, Veronique Hoste, Alessandro Lenci, Sakriani Sakti, Nianwen Xue
Venues:
LREC | COLING
SIG:
Publisher:
ELRA and ICCL
Note:
Pages:
14103–14110
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.1229
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Wenjie Zhou, Qiang Wang, Mingzhou Xu, Ming Chen, and Xiangyu Duan. 2024. Revisiting the Self-Consistency Challenges in Multi-Choice Question Formats for Large Language Model Evaluation. In Proceedings of the 2024 Joint International Conference on Computational Linguistics, Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-COLING 2024), pages 14103–14110, Torino, Italia. ELRA and ICCL.
Cite (Informal):
Revisiting the Self-Consistency Challenges in Multi-Choice Question Formats for Large Language Model Evaluation (Zhou et al., LREC-COLING 2024)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2024.lrec-main.1229.pdf