Essay

Critique of a Reasoning Demonstration Prompt

A developer is trying to teach a large language model to identify a main argument and two pieces of supporting evidence from a paragraph. They construct the following prompt, which includes an example before presenting the new task.


Prompt:

Example Task: Paragraph: "The city council's new recycling program, launched last month, has been a resounding success. A report released today showed a 50% increase in recycled materials and a corresponding decrease in landfill waste. This initiative is a model for urban sustainability." Question: What is the main idea of this paragraph? Answer: The new recycling program is successful.

New Task: Paragraph: "Recent studies indicate that regular physical activity is crucial for cognitive health. One major study tracked 5,000 adults and found that those who exercised at least three times a week had a 30% lower risk of developing dementia. Another experiment showed that even short bursts of activity can improve memory and focus." Question: What is the main argument and two pieces of supporting evidence in this paragraph?


Critique the "Example Task" portion of the prompt. Explain why it is not an effective demonstration for teaching the model how to perform the "New Task." What specific changes would you make to the example to better guide the model's reasoning process?

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Updated 2025-10-06

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Ch.3 Prompting - Foundations of Large Language Models

Foundations of Large Language Models

Foundations of Large Language Models Course

Computing Sciences

Evaluation in Bloom's Taxonomy

Cognitive Psychology

Psychology

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