RENDER: Controlling Reader-Facing Evidence in LLM Memory Evaluation
arXiv:2608.23568v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Memory and RAG evaluations often treat the answering model's input as an implementation detail, even though systems may render the same history as a memory entry, summary, typed record, or raw excerpt. We introduce RENDER, a benchmark control that fixes the conversation while varying the reader-facing artifact. RENDER combines a five-level packet ladder, localizing when answer-bearing content enters the input, with deterministic templates approximating ChatGPT-style entries, LangChain summaries, MemGPT-style typed records, and raw conversation. On 500 LongMemEval questions and nine models, matched-budget resolved packets beat recency-truncated raw dialogue by 42.4-72.6 points. In deployed-style templates, best-worst spread is 24.6-48.8 points per model; under the primary scorer, ChatGPT-style entries have higher point estimates than raw conversation on 7 of 9 models. Judge rescoring preserves the positive aggregate effect, but model-specific significance is mixed. Three models scoring 0 percent on formal ledger packets answer the same facts from natural-language entries at 45.4-53.4 percent. The effect persists under retrieval noise and transfers to HotpotQA, suggesting that memory/RAG evaluations should report or control the reader-facing artifact.
-->
[Submitted on 5 Jun 2026]
Title:RENDER: Controlling Reader-Facing Evidence in LLM Memory Evaluation
View a PDF of the paper titled RENDER: Controlling Reader-Facing Evidence in LLM Memory Evaluation, by Yuan Si and 3 other authors
View PDF HTML (experimental)
Abstract:Memory and RAG evaluations often treat the answering model's input as an implementation detail, even though systems may render the same history as a memory entry, summary, typed record, or raw excerpt. We introduce RENDER, a benchmark control that fixes the conversation while varying the reader-facing artifact. RENDER combines a five-level packet ladder, localizing when answer-bearing content enters the input, with deterministic templates approximating ChatGPT-style entries, LangChain summaries, MemGPT-style typed records, and raw conversation. On 500 LongMemEval questions and nine models, matched-budget resolved packets beat recency-truncated raw dialogue by 42.4-72.6 points. In deployed-style templates, best-worst spread is 24.6-48.8 points per model; under the primary scorer, ChatGPT-style entries have higher point estimates than raw conversation on 7 of 9 models. Judge rescoring preserves the positive aggregate effect, but model-specific significance is mixed. Three models scoring 0 percent on formal ledger packets answer the same facts from natural-language entries at 45.4-53.4 percent. The effect persists under retrieval noise and transfers to HotpotQA, suggesting that memory/RAG evaluations should report or control the reader-facing artifact.
Subjects:
Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
Cite as: arXiv:2608.23568 [cs.AI]
(or arXiv:2608.23568v1 [cs.AI] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.23568
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite
Submission history
From: Yuan Si [view email] [v1] Fri, 5 Jun 2026 07:45:12 UTC (393 KB)
Full-text links:
Access Paper:
View a PDF of the paper titled RENDER: Controlling Reader-Facing Evidence in LLM Memory Evaluation, by Yuan Si and 3 other authors
View PDF
HTML (experimental)
TeX Source
view license
Current browse context:
cs.AI
new | recent | 2026-08
Change to browse by:
cs
References & Citations
NASA ADS
Google Scholar
Semantic Scholar
Loading...
Data provided by:
Bibliographic Tools
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer Toggle
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers Toggle
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps Toggle
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite.ai Toggle
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data, Media
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv Toggle
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
Links to Code Toggle
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub Toggle
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
GotitPub Toggle
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Huggingface Toggle
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
ScienceCast Toggle
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Demos
Replicate Toggle
Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Spaces Toggle
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
Spaces Toggle
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)
Related Papers
Recommenders and Search Tools
Link to Influence Flower
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Core recommender toggle
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
Author
Venue
Institution
Topic
About arXivLabs
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)