@inproceedings{zhao-etal-2026-neural,
title = "Neural Procedural Memory: Empowering {LLM} Agents with Implicit Activation Steering",
author = "Zhao, Chengfeng and
Tan, Yuqiao and
He, Shizhu and
Wang, Yequan and
Zhao, Jun and
Liu, Kang",
editor = "Lee, Hung-Yi and
Dev, Sunipa and
Li, Jessy and
Elliott, Desmond",
booktitle = "Findings of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics: {EMNLP} 2026",
month = oct,
year = "2026",
address = "Budapest, Hungary",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.856/",
pages = "18107--18128",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-462-0",
abstract = "While Large Language Models (LLMs) excel as static solvers, transforming them into autonomous agents remains challenging. This transition requires continuous environmental interaction, yet current agents lack the necessary persistent procedural memory. Existing approaches predominantly employ Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to inject explicit textual guidelines into model contexts. However, relying solely on symbolic instructions can introduce a text-action disconnect, frequently failing to activate the internal representations necessary for correct task execution. To address this, the paper introduces Neural Procedural Memory (NPM), a training-free framework that represents agent memory through implicit activation steering rather than explicit instructions. By distilling procedural skills from historical contrastive experiences into steering vectors in the activation space, NPM directly activates the task-relevant neural mechanisms to guide task execution. Evaluations across four agent benchmarks show that NPM performs comparably to baselines using explicit textual instructions. Furthermore, the results show that combining implicit steering with explicit workflows provides complementary advantages, leading to more robust task execution. Representational analyses indicate that these steering vectors encode consistent task logic, forming organized structures within the activation space. These findings suggest that implicit activation steering provides a promising approach for managing agent memory."
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<abstract>While Large Language Models (LLMs) excel as static solvers, transforming them into autonomous agents remains challenging. This transition requires continuous environmental interaction, yet current agents lack the necessary persistent procedural memory. Existing approaches predominantly employ Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to inject explicit textual guidelines into model contexts. However, relying solely on symbolic instructions can introduce a text-action disconnect, frequently failing to activate the internal representations necessary for correct task execution. To address this, the paper introduces Neural Procedural Memory (NPM), a training-free framework that represents agent memory through implicit activation steering rather than explicit instructions. By distilling procedural skills from historical contrastive experiences into steering vectors in the activation space, NPM directly activates the task-relevant neural mechanisms to guide task execution. Evaluations across four agent benchmarks show that NPM performs comparably to baselines using explicit textual instructions. Furthermore, the results show that combining implicit steering with explicit workflows provides complementary advantages, leading to more robust task execution. Representational analyses indicate that these steering vectors encode consistent task logic, forming organized structures within the activation space. These findings suggest that implicit activation steering provides a promising approach for managing agent memory.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Neural Procedural Memory: Empowering LLM Agents with Implicit Activation Steering
%A Zhao, Chengfeng
%A Tan, Yuqiao
%A He, Shizhu
%A Wang, Yequan
%A Zhao, Jun
%A Liu, Kang
%Y Lee, Hung-Yi
%Y Dev, Sunipa
%Y Li, Jessy
%Y Elliott, Desmond
%S Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2026
%D 2026
%8 October
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Budapest, Hungary
%@ 979-8-89176-462-0
%F zhao-etal-2026-neural
%X While Large Language Models (LLMs) excel as static solvers, transforming them into autonomous agents remains challenging. This transition requires continuous environmental interaction, yet current agents lack the necessary persistent procedural memory. Existing approaches predominantly employ Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to inject explicit textual guidelines into model contexts. However, relying solely on symbolic instructions can introduce a text-action disconnect, frequently failing to activate the internal representations necessary for correct task execution. To address this, the paper introduces Neural Procedural Memory (NPM), a training-free framework that represents agent memory through implicit activation steering rather than explicit instructions. By distilling procedural skills from historical contrastive experiences into steering vectors in the activation space, NPM directly activates the task-relevant neural mechanisms to guide task execution. Evaluations across four agent benchmarks show that NPM performs comparably to baselines using explicit textual instructions. Furthermore, the results show that combining implicit steering with explicit workflows provides complementary advantages, leading to more robust task execution. Representational analyses indicate that these steering vectors encode consistent task logic, forming organized structures within the activation space. These findings suggest that implicit activation steering provides a promising approach for managing agent memory.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.856/
%P 18107-18128
Markdown (Informal)
[Neural Procedural Memory: Empowering LLM Agents with Implicit Activation Steering](https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.856/) (Zhao et al., Findings 2026)
ACL