Are Humans Evolved Instruction Followers? An Underlying Inductive Bias Enables Rapid Instructed Task Learning
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Computer Science > Computation and Language
Title:Are Humans Evolved Instruction Followers? An Underlying Inductive Bias Enables Rapid Instructed Task Learning
Abstract:Human adults can often perform a novel task correctly on the first attempt after only receiving verbal or written instructions. This rapid instructed task learning (RITL) is a hallmark of human cognitive flexibility, yet its mechanisms and parallels in artificial systems remain under-explored across disciplines. In this position paper, we argue that humans possess an evolved instruction-following bias -- an inductive bias shaped by evolution to interpret and execute linguistic instructions which critically enables fast generalization of behavior from language. This bias functions analogously to the way large language models (LLMs) leverage instruction tuning to achieve zero-shot task performance. We synthesize evidence from cognitive science, neuroscience, and machine learning research to support this hypothesis. While instruction-following in AI is currently achieved via specialized training protocols, we posit that in humans it arises as an innate cognitive architecture feature. We outline testable predictions and call for more interdisciplinary research to investigate Instruction-Following as a unifying mechanism enabling rapid task learning in both natural and artificial neural networks.
| Comments: | 4 pages, Position Paper, Published at Neurips 2025 Workshop on Interpreting Cognition in Deep Learning Models - this https URL |
| Subjects: | Computation and Language (cs.CL) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2606.29792 [cs.CL] |
| (or arXiv:2606.29792v1 [cs.CL] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.29792
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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