Zhangqi Wang

Jian Zhang, Zhangqi Wang, Haiping Zhu et al.

Large language models (LLMs) typically operate in a question-answering paradigm, where the quality of the input prompt critically affects the response. Automated Prompt Optimization (APO) aims to overcome the cognitive biases of manually crafted prompts and explore a broader prompt design space. However, existing APO methods often suffer from rigid template structures and inefficient exploration in the prompt space. To this end, we propose a Multi-Agent Adaptive Reasoning with Socratic guidance framework (MARS) for APO. MARS consists of five complementary agents and formulates the optimization process as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP), enabling adaptive prompt refinement through explicit state modeling and interactive feedback. Specifically, a Planner agent generates flexible optimization trajectories, a Teacher-Critic-Student triad engages in Socratic-style dialogue to iteratively optimize the prompt based on pseudo-gradient signals in the text space, and a Target agent executes the prompt in downstream tasks to provide performance feedback. MARS integrates reasoning, feedback, and state transition into a unified hidden-state evolution process, improving both the effectiveness and interpretability of optimization. Extensive experiments on multiple datasets demonstrate that MARS outperforms existing APO methods in terms of optimization performance, search efficiency, and interpretability.

Jian Zhang, Zhiyuan Wang, Zhangqi Wang et al.

Collaborative reasoning with multiple agents offers the potential for more robust and diverse problem-solving. However, existing approaches often suffer from homogeneous agent behaviors and lack of reflective and rethinking capabilities. We propose Multi-Agent Personality Shaping (MAPS), a novel framework that enhances reasoning through agent diversity and internal critique. Inspired by the Big Five personality theory, MAPS assigns distinct personality traits to individual agents, shaping their reasoning styles and promoting heterogeneous collaboration. To enable deeper and more adaptive reasoning, MAPS introduces a Critic agent that reflects on intermediate outputs, revisits flawed steps, and guides iterative refinement. This integration of personality-driven agent design and structured collaboration improves both reasoning depth and flexibility. Empirical evaluations across three benchmarks demonstrate the strong performance of MAPS, with further analysis confirming its generalizability across different large language models and validating the benefits of multi-agent collaboration.