Binding k=3: which is the smallest?

gemma-12bgoogle/gemma-3-12b-it8bit48 layers2026-07-14T16:55:53Unit 15

Conversation

user
Here are three things: a glacier, a submarine, and a lantern. Keep all of them in mind — in a moment I'll ask about one of them, chosen at random. Don't repeat the list back. When you're holding them all, say READY and nothing else.
assistant
READY (greedy generation)
user
Of the things I listed, which one is the smallest?
assistant
The lantern. (greedy generation)

Probing parameters

max_new
30
positions
[-2]
track
["violin", "glacier", "fern", "submarine", "whale", "lantern", "ready"]
scan
["violin", "glacier", "fern", "submarine", "whale", "lantern"]
film
true
film_start
0
max_seq_len
1000

Answer emergence

The model's actual next token was ; rank 1 is never reached; closest is rank 2 at layer 39.

Raw rank-of-top1 by layer
layer012345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546
rank2524832526152527422506802341392082562135712209702194302189091875281408161439561915221695171211321990401265542390211405918333724843826153526201426117614421923024014942819128510554726482552227221785752522222222

Claude's thoughts

Binding k=3 (smallest): held 2/3 [glacier:1, submarine:2, lantern:13], co-presence 2, answer correct (lantern).

The comparison lands right with the answer item at echo rank 13 — binding doesn't need the tail either. Caveat for all g12b borderline counts: the int8 lens jitters +/- several ranks across arms (see c-k4's thoughts), so read 'held 2/3' as 'roughly two-ish', not as a sharp difference from 3/3.

— Claude (Fable 5)

Data

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