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ViTaB-A: Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models on Visual Table Attribution

Yahia Alqurnawi, Preetom Biswas, Anmol Rao, Tejas Anvekar, Chitta Baral, Vivek Gupta · Feb 17, 2026 · Citations: 0

How to use this page

Low trust

Use this as background context only. Do not make protocol decisions from this page alone.

Best use

Background context only

What to verify

Validate the evaluation procedure and quality controls in the full paper before operational use.

Evidence quality

Low

Derived from extracted protocol signals and abstract evidence.

Abstract

Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images. While these models can often give correct answers, users also need to know where those answers come from. In this work, we study structured data attribution/citation, which is the ability of the models to point to the specific rows and columns that support an answer. We evaluate several mLLMs across different table formats and prompting strategies. Our results show a clear gap between question answering and evidence attribution. Although question answering accuracy remains moderate, attribution accuracy is much lower, near random for JSON inputs, across all models. We also find that models are more reliable at citing rows than columns, and struggle more with textual formats than images. Finally, we observe notable differences across model families. Overall, our findings show that current mLLMs are unreliable at providing fine-grained, trustworthy attribution for structured data, which limits their usage in applications requiring transparency and traceability.

Abstract-only analysis — low confidence

All signals on this page are inferred from the abstract only and may be inaccurate. Do not use this page as a primary protocol reference.

  • This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.
  • The available metadata is too thin to trust this as a primary source.

Should You Rely On This Paper?

This paper is adjacent to HFEPX scope and is best used for background context, not as a primary protocol reference.

Best use

Background context only

Use if you need

A secondary eval reference to pair with stronger protocol papers.

Main weakness

This paper looks adjacent to evaluation work, but not like a strong protocol reference.

Trust level

Low

Usefulness score

0/100 • Low

Treat as adjacent context, not a core eval-method reference.

Human Feedback Signal

Not explicit in abstract metadata

Evaluation Signal

Detected

Usefulness for eval research

Adjacent candidate

Extraction confidence 35%

What We Could Verify

These are the protocol signals we could actually recover from the available paper metadata. Use them to decide whether this paper is worth deeper reading.

Human Feedback Types

missing

None explicit

No explicit feedback protocol extracted.

"Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images."

Evaluation Modes

partial

Automatic Metrics

Includes extracted eval setup.

"Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images."

Quality Controls

missing

Not reported

No explicit QC controls found.

"Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images."

Benchmarks / Datasets

missing

Not extracted

No benchmark anchors detected.

"Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images."

Reported Metrics

partial

Accuracy

Useful for evaluation criteria comparison.

"Although question answering accuracy remains moderate, attribution accuracy is much lower, near random for JSON inputs, across all models."

Human Feedback Details

  • Uses human feedback: No
  • Feedback types: None
  • Rater population: Not reported
  • Expertise required: General

Evaluation Details

  • Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
  • Agentic eval: None
  • Quality controls: Not reported
  • Evidence quality: Low
  • Use this page as: Background context only

Protocol And Measurement Signals

Benchmarks / Datasets

No benchmark or dataset names were extracted from the available abstract.

Reported Metrics

accuracy

Research Brief

Metadata summary

Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images.

Based on abstract + metadata only. Check the source paper before making high-confidence protocol decisions.

Key Takeaways

  • Multimodal Large Language Models (mLLMs) are often used to answer questions in structured data such as tables in Markdown, JSON, and images.
  • While these models can often give correct answers, users also need to know where those answers come from.
  • In this work, we study structured data attribution/citation, which is the ability of the models to point to the specific rows and columns that support an answer.

Researcher Actions

  • Compare this paper against nearby papers in the same arXiv category before using it for protocol decisions.
  • Validate inferred eval signals (Automatic metrics) against the full paper.
  • Use related-paper links to find stronger protocol-specific references.

Caveats

  • Generated from abstract + metadata only; no PDF parsing.
  • Signals below are heuristic and may miss details reported outside the abstract.

Recommended Queries

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

  • We evaluate several mLLMs across different table formats and prompting strategies.
  • Although question answering accuracy remains moderate, attribution accuracy is much lower, near random for JSON inputs, across all models.

Why It Matters For Eval

  • Abstract shows limited direct human-feedback or evaluation-protocol detail; use as adjacent methodological context.

Researcher Checklist

  • Gap: Human feedback protocol is explicit

    No explicit human feedback protocol detected.

  • Pass: Evaluation mode is explicit

    Detected: Automatic Metrics

  • Gap: Quality control reporting appears

    No calibration/adjudication/IAA control explicitly detected.

  • Gap: Benchmark or dataset anchors are present

    No benchmark/dataset anchor extracted from abstract.

  • Pass: Metric reporting is present

    Detected: accuracy

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Papers are ranked by protocol overlap, extraction signal alignment, and semantic proximity.

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