README.md

---
license: cc-by-4.0
---
# 🧩 NYT-Connections
This repository contains the `NYT-Connections` dataset proposed in the work [*NYT-Connections: A Deceptively Simple Text Classification Task that Stumps System-1 Thinkers*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.01621). This work was **published at the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics (COLING 2025)** and was honored with the *Best Dataset Paper* award.

Authors: Angel Yahir Loredo Lopez, Tyler McDonald, Ali Emami
## 📜 Paper Abstract
Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown impressive performance on various benchmarks, yet their ability to engage in deliberate reasoning remains questionable. We present NYT-Connections, a collection of 358 simple word classification puzzles derived from the New York Times Connections game. This benchmark is designed to penalize quick, intuitive ``System 1'' thinking, isolating fundamental reasoning skills. We evaluated six recent LLMs, a simple machine learning heuristic, and humans across three configurations: single-attempt, multiple attempts without hints, and multiple attempts with contextual hints. Our findings reveal a significant performance gap: even top-performing LLMs like GPT-4 fall short of human performance by nearly 30\%. Notably, advanced prompting techniques such as Chain-of-Thought and Self-Consistency show diminishing returns as task difficulty increases. NYT-Connections uniquely combines linguistic isolation, resistance to intuitive shortcuts, and regular updates to mitigate data leakage, offering a novel tool for assessing LLM reasoning capabilities.


## 🎯 Puzzle Description  
NYT-Connections puzzles are based on the **New York Times' daily Connections game**.  

Each puzzle consists of 16 words, and the goal is to **group them into 4 correct categories**.  

💡 **How does it work?**  
✅ You can receive hints when only **one word is misplaced** in a group.  
❌ You can make **up to 4 mistakes** before failing.  
🏆 The objective is to correctly classify all 4 groups.  


### 🧩 **Example**  
Let’s take a look at an example puzzle. Below, you’ll see **16 words** that need to be grouped:  

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/39/cd/Rb0FypjS_o.png" alt="Three Setups Explanation" width="500">
</p>  

Each color represents a different correct group, but the relationships between words are not always obvious. This is where **System 1 vs. System 2 thinking** comes into play—solvers must go beyond intuition and **apply logical reasoning**.  

A completed match typically follows this structure:  

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/67/87/oQ3sLnVs_o.png" alt="Ground Truth Example" width="700">
</p>  

The three configurations (**full-hints, no-hints, one-try**) in our paper differ based on how much of the original game mechanics we retain. The **full-hints** configuration is the closest to the official *New York Times* version.  

---

## 📂 Data Description
`date` - the original date the contest was offered.

`contest` - the title string for the contest.

`words` - the collection of 16 words available for use in puzzle solving.

`answers` - an array of objects, where each object is a correct group and contains:

- `answerDescription` - the group name
- `words` - the 4 words that classify into this group

`difficulty` - the difficulty of the puzzle as rated by community contributors (should such a rating be obtained, otherwise `null`).

## 📖 Citation
```
@inproceedings{loredo-lopez-etal-2025-nyt,
    title = "{NYT}-Connections: A Deceptively Simple Text Classification Task that Stumps System-1 Thinkers",
    author = "Loredo Lopez, Angel Yahir  and
      McDonald, Tyler  and
      Emami, Ali",
    editor = "Rambow, Owen  and
      Wanner, Leo  and
      Apidianaki, Marianna  and
      Al-Khalifa, Hend  and
      Eugenio, Barbara Di  and
      Schockaert, Steven",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics",
    month = jan,
    year = "2025",
    address = "Abu Dhabi, UAE",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.134/",
    pages = "1952--1963",
    abstract = "Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown impressive performance on various benchmarks, yet their ability to engage in deliberate reasoning remains questionable. We present NYT-Connections, a collection of 358 simple word classification puzzles derived from the New York Times Connections game. This benchmark is designed to penalize quick, intuitive {\textquotedblleft}System 1{\textquotedblright} thinking, isolating fundamental reasoning skills. We evaluated six recent LLMs, a simple machine learning heuristic, and humans across three configurations: single-attempt, multiple attempts without hints, and multiple attempts with contextual hints. Our findings reveal a significant performance gap: even top-performing LLMs like GPT-4 fall short of human performance by nearly 30{\%}. Notably, advanced prompting techniques such as Chain-of-Thought and Self-Consistency show diminishing returns as task difficulty increases. NYT-Connections uniquely combines linguistic isolation, resistance to intuitive shortcuts, and regular updates to mitigate data leakage, offering a novel tool for assessing LLM reasoning capabilities."
}
```