{"url":"/method/pointer-sentinel-lstm","slug":"pointer-sentinel-lstm","name":"Pointer Sentinel-LSTM","full_name":"Pointer Sentinel-LSTM","full_name_withheld":false,"description_markdown":"The **Pointer Sentinel-LSTM mixture model** is a type of recurrent neural network that combines the advantages of standard [softmax](https://paperswithcode.com/method/softmax) classifiers with those of a pointer component for effective and efficient language modeling. Rather than relying on the RNN hidden state to decide when to use the pointer, the model allows the pointer component itself to decide when to use the softmax vocabulary through a sentinel.","description_state":"present","introduced_year":null,"introduced_by":{"title":"Pointer Sentinel Mixture Models","paper":"/paper/pointer-sentinel-mixture-models","first_author":"Stephen Merity","n_authors":4,"url_abs":null,"archive_paper_url":"https://paperswithcode.com/paper/pointer-sentinel-mixture-models"},"source":{"url":"http://arxiv.org/abs/1609.07843v1","title":"Pointer Sentinel Mixture Models","url_on_a_paper_host":true},"code_snippet_url":"https://github.com/elanmart/psmm/blob/c414b49e1a49ee9ae7f7feb077db9fec77b2fb45/psmm/model.py#L9","code_snippet_url_on_a_code_host":true,"categories":[{"area":"Sequential","area_id":"sequential","collection":"Recurrent Neural Networks","url":"/methods/category/recurrent-neural-networks","pwc_aliases":[]}],"n_papers_tagged":1,"archive_num_papers":1,"papers_newest_first":[{"paper":"/paper/pointer-sentinel-mixture-models","title":"Pointer Sentinel Mixture Models","date":"2016-09-26","arxiv_id":"1609.07843","n_code_links":10,"syntology":{"ran":2,"of":9,"unverified":7,"pointer_only":1}}],"papers_shown":1,"tasks":[{"task":"/task/language-modeling","name":"Language Modeling","papers":1},{"task":"/task/language-modelling","name":"Language Modelling","papers":1}],"tasks_shown":2,"n_tasks":2,"usage_by_year":[{"year":"2016","papers":1}],"row_source":"methods_table","archive":{"source":"pwc-archive (Hugging Face), CC BY-SA 4.0","snapshot":"2025-07-28","archive_url":"https://paperswithcode.com/method/pointer-sentinel-lstm"},"syntology_read_at":"2026-09-24T18:15:14+00:00"}