CogniVerse: Revolutionizing Multi-Modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Cognitive Reflection and Geometric Reasoning

Multi-modal Retrieval-Augmented Generation (MMRAG) has emerged as a powerful paradigm for enhancing Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) in knowledge-intensive question answering by integrating external visual, textual, and structural knowledge. However, existing MMRAG frameworks suffer from critical limitations, including noisy and irrelevant retrieval, cross-modal semantic misalignment, lack of adaptive reasoning, and incoherent generation across local and global contexts. We introduce CogniVerse, a novel MMRAG framework that addresses these challenges through a cognitive-inspired, mathematically rigorous approach. Drawing from human-like reasoning, CogniVerse integrates three synergistic components: (1) a Cognitive Reflection Module (CRM) that dynamically assesses retrieval necessity and filters relevant multi-modal content, reducing noise and computational overhead; (2) a Multi-modal Retrieval Module that aligns embeddings in a Riemannian manifold using information geometry and refines knowledge graphs via spectral graph theory, ensuring precise and coherent retrieval; and (3) a Hierarchical Generation Module that employs an optimal transport-based loss to balance token-level accuracy and global semantic coherence. Grounded in advanced theoretical frameworks, including convergence guarantees for geometric alignment and spectral optimization, CogniVerse achieves robust cross-modal integration and adaptive knowledge utilization. Extensive experiments on benchmark multi-modal question answering datasets demonstrate that CogniVerse significantly outperforms state-of-the-art MMRAG systems in both accuracy and coherence, while reducing retrieval latency.