arxivcs.CLcs.LG2026-07-11
Belief-reality separation lives in routing over a shared value slot in language models
Oliver Steele, Jiangtao Wen, Yuxing Han
Capable language models hold what a character believes apart from what is true: told "Anna believes the cup is blue; in reality it is red," they answer blue about Anna and red about the world. Where in the computation does that separation live? We show it rests on two separable m…