Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses

Alona Strugatski; Licol Zeinfeld; Jason Cooper; Shelley Rap; Gil Schwarts; Giora Alexandron

Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses

Alona Strugatski, Licol Zeinfeld, Jason Cooper, Shelley Rap, Gil Schwarts, Giora Alexandron

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Abstract

Applying Exploratory Factor Analysis to human and LLM responses on chemistry and quantitative reasoning assessments, we asked domain experts to blindly interpret emergent factors. Experts decoded human factors successfully but could not interpret most LLM factors, suggesting LLMs rely on statistically opaque mechanisms distinct from human cognitive constructs.

Anthology ID:: 2026.aimecon-main.34
Volume:: Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers
Month:: October
Year:: 2026
Address:: Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Editors:: Joshua Wilson, Christopher Ormerod, Magdalen Beiting-Parrish
Venue:: AIME-Con
SIG:
Publisher:: National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
Note:
Pages:: 303–313
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-main.34/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Alona Strugatski, Licol Zeinfeld, Jason Cooper, Shelley Rap, Gil Schwarts, and Giora Alexandron. 2026. Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses. In Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers, pages 303–313, Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME).
Cite (Informal):: Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses (Strugatski et al., AIME-Con 2026)
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PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-main.34.pdf

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@inproceedings{strugatski-etal-2026-interpretable,
    title = "Interpretable Humans, Alien {LLM}s: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses",
    author = "Strugatski, Alona  and
      Zeinfeld, Licol  and
      Cooper, Jason  and
      Rap, Shelley  and
      Schwarts, Gil  and
      Alexandron, Giora",
    editor = "Wilson, Joshua  and
      Ormerod, Christopher  and
      Beiting-Parrish, Magdalen",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference ({AIME}-Con): Full Papers",
    month = oct,
    year = "2026",
    address = "Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States",
    publisher = "National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-main.34/",
    pages = "303--313",
    ISBN = "979-8-9983004-0-0",
    abstract = "Applying Exploratory Factor Analysis to human and LLM responses on chemistry and quantitative reasoning assessments, we asked domain experts to blindly interpret emergent factors. Experts decoded human factors successfully but could not interpret most LLM factors, suggesting LLMs rely on statistically opaque mechanisms distinct from human cognitive constructs."
}

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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses
%A Strugatski, Alona
%A Zeinfeld, Licol
%A Cooper, Jason
%A Rap, Shelley
%A Schwarts, Gil
%A Alexandron, Giora
%Y Wilson, Joshua
%Y Ormerod, Christopher
%Y Beiting-Parrish, Magdalen
%S Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers
%D 2026
%8 October
%I National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
%C Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
%@ 979-8-9983004-0-0
%F strugatski-etal-2026-interpretable
%X Applying Exploratory Factor Analysis to human and LLM responses on chemistry and quantitative reasoning assessments, we asked domain experts to blindly interpret emergent factors. Experts decoded human factors successfully but could not interpret most LLM factors, suggesting LLMs rely on statistically opaque mechanisms distinct from human cognitive constructs.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-main.34/
%P 303-313

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Markdown (Informal)

[Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses](https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-main.34/) (Strugatski et al., AIME-Con 2026)

Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses (Strugatski et al., AIME-Con 2026)

ACL

Alona Strugatski, Licol Zeinfeld, Jason Cooper, Shelley Rap, Gil Schwarts, and Giora Alexandron. 2026. Interpretable Humans, Alien LLMs: Expert Analysis of Latent Structures in Assessment Responses. In Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Full Papers, pages 303–313, Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME).