这篇论文用严格安慰剂对照方法戳穿了代码模型自修复的假设，在0.5-1.5B模型上实测发现错误内容并没带来明显改善，想了解模型能力边界可以看看。
PoPE（Popperian Placebo-Controlled Evaluation）是一种用于测量代码模型能否利用错误证据进行自修复的评估方法。在0.5-1.5B参数的冻结小型代码模型上，通过提示通道和权重通道（小数据适配器训练）进行测试。提示通道中，内容消融安慰剂组解锁12单元，真实错误模式组解锁10单元（40单元抗性带），未发现机制差异。权重通道中，错误内容适配器与无干预基线打成8-8平局（p=1.0），而SHA扰乱安慰剂适配器以10个解锁领先。结果未证实错误内容可带来显著优势。
Form, Not Content? A Preregistered, Placebo-Controlled Evaluation of Learned Error-Conditioned Self-Repair Through Prompts and Weights in Frozen Small Code Models
Frozen small code LLMs are deployed locally, yet the information guiding a retry after a failed attempt is still measured without placebo controls in the self-repair literature. We treat a failed program as a conjecture and an execution counterexample as an oracle-relative refutation, and introduce PoPE (Popperian Placebo-controlled Evaluation): a methodology for measuring whether evidence that falsifies LLM-generated code can be used operationally by that same model. In PoPE, error content is paired with channel-specific placebos that keep the predeclared scaffold while ablating task-relevant content or deranging the task-error assignment. Frozen small code models (0.5-1.5B) are evaluated under preregistered rules through a prompt channel and a weight channel (small-data adapter training), with four generations per arm-unit pair. In the prompt channel, public-tier screening unlocked 12 units under the content-ablated form placebo versus 10 under the live error-pattern arm on a 40-unit resistant band; the result was recorded as mechanism-null. In the weight channel, an 8-8 tie was observed between the error-content adapter and the intervention-free baseline (p=1.0), while the SHA-deranged placebo adapter stayed ahead with 10 unlocks; content-attributable superiority was not confirmed. These results do not constitute evidence of equivalence or non-inferiority. Equivalence was not tested separately. Findings are restricted to the public-tier screening endpoint; hidden-tier confirmation was deferred by design. We read this not as compiled criticism disappearing as information, but as the loss of its external role in testing a new conjecture: when a representation learned from the oracle is written back into the generation state, testing is replaced by conditioning. No working JEPA-RL controller is claimed. PoPE is presented as a placebo-controlled, retestable measurement standard.