Unleashing Cognitive Synergy in Large Language Models: A Task-Solving
  Agent through Multi-Persona Self-Collaboration
Authors: name: Zhenhailong Wang; name: Shaoguang Mao; name: Wenshan Wu; name: Tao Ge; name: Furu Wei; name: Heng Ji
Published: 2023-07-11 14:45:19

Abstract: Human intelligence thrives on the concept of cognitive synergy, where
collaboration and information integration among different cognitive processes
yield superior outcomes compared to individual cognitive processes in
isolation. Although Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated promising
performance as general task-solving agents, they still struggle with tasks that
require intensive domain knowledge and complex reasoning. In this work, we
propose Solo Performance Prompting (SPP), which transforms a single LLM into a
cognitive synergist by engaging in multi-turn self-collaboration with multiple
personas. A cognitive synergist refers to an intelligent agent that
collaborates with multiple minds, combining their individual strengths and
knowledge, to enhance problem-solving and overall performance in complex tasks.
By dynamically identifying and simulating different personas based on task
inputs, SPP unleashes the potential of cognitive synergy in LLMs. We have
discovered that assigning multiple, fine-grained personas in LLMs elicits
better problem-solving abilities compared to using a single or fixed number of
personas. We evaluate SPP on three challenging tasks: Trivia Creative Writing,
Codenames Collaborative, and Logic Grid Puzzle, encompassing both
knowledge-intensive and reasoning-intensive types. Unlike previous works, such
as Chain-of-Thought, that solely enhance the reasoning abilities in LLMs, SPP
effectively elicits internal knowledge acquisition abilities, reduces
hallucination, and maintains strong reasoning capabilities. Code, data, and
prompts can be found at:
https://github.com/MikeWangWZHL/Solo-Performance-Prompting.git.