ResearchResearch paperReasoning & Planning1 source · Oct 6, 2026

ThinkFuse: Trajectory-Aware Test-Time Fusion for Small Reasoning Models

We propose ThinkFuse, a training-free test-time fusion framework that selectively intervenes in unreliable reasoning segments.

Key points

  • Small reasoning models (SRMs) have shown strong performance on complex reasoning tasks by generating extended chain-of-thought trajectories, but they often fail to recover once their reasoning enters an erroneous path.
  • Existing test-time fusion methods rely on local fusion signals to determine when to trigger fusion, which can be misled by transient uncertainty fluctuations and may reinforce unstable reasoning trajectories.
  • ThinkFuse compares segment-level uncertainty shifts with trajectory-level uncertainty trends to identify unstable reasoning points and fuse auxiliary reasoning paths into the primary model's trajectory.
  • Our analysis shows that ThinkFuse requires fewer fusion triggers and generates fewer tokens, highlighting the efficiency of selective triggering.

Sources (1)

  • [1]ThinkFuse: Trajectory-Aware Test-Time Fusion for Small Reasoning Models
    arXiv (AI, ML, NLP, CV, robotics, multi-agent) · Oct 6, 05:56 AM
    We propose ThinkFuse, a training-free test-time fusion framework that selectively intervenes in unreliable reasoning segments.
    Small reasoning models (SRMs) have shown strong performance on complex reasoning tasks by generating extended chain-of-thought trajectories, but they often fail to recover once their reasoning enters an erroneous path.

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