Paper · arXiv 2504.10368
S1-Bench: A Simple Benchmark for Evaluating System 1 Thinking Capability of Large Reasoning Models
Wenyuan Zhang, Shuaiyi Nie, Xinghua Zhang, Zefeng Zhang, Tingwen Liu
S1-Bench evaluates the efficiency of Large Reasoning Models in simple tasks requiring intuitive thinking, revealing significant inefficiencies and a tendency for unnecessary deliberation.
Abstract
We introduce S1-Bench, a novel benchmark designed to evaluate Large Reasoning Models' (LRMs) performance on simple tasks that favor intuitive system 1 thinking rather than deliberative system 2 reasoning. While LRMs have achieved significant breakthroughs in complex reasoning tasks through explicit chains of thought, their reliance on deep analytical thinking may limit their system 1 thinking capabilities. Moreover, a lack of benchmark currently exists to evaluate LRMs' performance in tasks that require such capabilities. To fill this gap, S1-Bench presents a set of simple, diverse, and naturally clear questions across multiple domains and languages, specifically designed to assess LRMs' performance in such tasks. Our comprehensive evaluation of 22 LRMs reveals significant lower efficiency tendencies, with outputs averaging 15.5 times longer than those of traditional small LLMs. Additionally, LRMs often identify correct answers early but continue unnecessary deliberation, with some models even producing numerous errors. These findings highlight the rigid reasoning patterns of current LRMs and underscore the substantial development needed to achieve balanced dual-system thinking capabilities that can adapt appropriately to task complexity.