Abstract
We introduce LoopVL to study whether Loop Transformers can be effectively extended to vision- language models. LoopVL combines Module-Loop and Model-Loop computation to iteratively update a unified vision-language state through shared modules. We train LoopVL from scratch through language pre-training, multimodal training, and post-training. LoopVL outperforms a range of similarly sized and larger non-recurrent models on multimodal understanding and visual reasoning benchmarks. We also observe Visual Aha Moments in LoopVL, characterized by pronounced shifts in visual attention across loops. LoopVL provides practical evidence for recurrent vision-language modeling and offers an intuitive perspective on how shared parameters can support deeper multimodal computation over continuously evolving visual-language states.
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Cite this article
APA 7
Qian, Z., Gong, Z., Xu, Z., Li, H., Wang, Z., Luo, F., Wang, M., Yang, X., Liu, S., Ma, Y., Yan, J., & Han, J. (2026). LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence
MLA 9
Qian, Zhe, et al. "LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence.
Chicago (author–date)
Qian, Zhe, Ziyang Gong, Zhongxing Xu, Hehan Li, Zhonghua Wang, Fei Luo, Mingxuan Wang, Xue Yang, Shiwei Liu, Yanbiao Ma, Junchi Yan, and Jungong Han. 2026. "LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence.
Harvard
Qian, Z., Gong, Z., Xu, Z., Li, H., Wang, Z., Luo, F., Wang, M., Yang, X., Liu, S., Ma, Y., Yan, J. and Han, J. (2026) 'LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence.
Vancouver
Qian Z, Gong Z, Xu Z, Li H, Wang Z, Luo F, et al. LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence
IEEE
Z. Qian, Z. Gong, Z. Xu, H. Li, Z. Wang, F. Luo, M. Wang, X. Yang, S. Liu, Y. Ma, J. Yan, and J. Han, "LoopVL: Recurrent Visual Intelligence," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/loopvl-recurrent-visual-intelligence.