VideoMemBench: How Well Do MLLMs Remember in Video Conversations?

Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) can now process hour-long videos, making extended multi-turn dialogue over a single video a natural mode of use. Sustaining such a dialogue requires more than answering each question in isolation: the model must retrieve and reuse information established earlier in the conversation, both what it has seen and what it has said, an ability we term in-context video memory. Existing video QA benchmarks leave this ability unmeasured: their questions are mutually independent, never reference one another, and each is answerable from the video alone, so nothing ever requires carrying information across turns. We introduce VideoMemBench, in which each sample pairs a single video with a long multi-turn dialogue, whose turns are connected by typed cross-turn dependencies: an Episodic Dependency refers back to a visual episode described in an earlier turn, probing memory of what the model has seen, while an Answer Dependency builds on the model's own earlier answer, probing memory of what the model has said. Every dependency is verified considering two properties: 1) necessity, meaning the question cannot be answered without its earlier turns, and 2) non-leakage, meaning the question does not restate the information from its earlier turns. To enforce these properties, we design a construction pipeline with three LLM roles: a planner, a generator, and a judger, with each dialogue reviewed by human experts. VideoMemBench comprises 326 videos with 2,476 turns, of which 1,387 depend on earlier turns, including multi-parent dependencies and long-range call-back. Among over 20 evaluated open- and closed-source MLLMs, Claude Opus 5 performs the best with an overall score of only 45.7\%, highlighting the challenge of in-context video memory. Our dataset and evaluation are released.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
arXiv (Cornell University)
Published
2026-10-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.40131
Primary Topic
Multimodal Machine Learning Applications
Type
preprint
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
preprint

VideoMemBench: How Well Do MLLMs Remember in Video Conversations?

Kaituo Feng, Zhengdong Hu, Chao Wang, Hehe Fan et al.
arXiv (Cornell University)
Multimodal Machine Learning Applications
preprint

VideoMemBench: How Well Do MLLMs Remember in Video Conversations?

Kaituo Feng, Zhengdong Hu, Chao Wang, Hehe Fan, Mingfei Lu, Yi Yang, Huanjin Yao
preprint en

Abstract

Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) can now process hour-long videos, making extended multi-turn dialogue over a single video a natural mode of use. Sustaining such a dialogue requires more than answering each question in isolation: the model must retrieve and reuse information established earlier in the conversation, both what it has seen and what it has said, an ability we term in-context video memory. Existing video QA benchmarks leave this ability unmeasured: their questions are mutually independent, never reference one another, and each is answerable from the video alone, so nothing ever requires carrying information across turns. We introduce VideoMemBench, in which each sample pairs a single video with a long multi-turn dialogue, whose turns are connected by typed cross-turn dependencies: an Episodic Dependency refers back to a visual episode described in an earlier turn, probing memory of what the model has seen, while an Answer Dependency builds on the model's own earlier answer, probing memory of what the model has said. Every dependency is verified considering two properties: 1) necessity, meaning the question cannot be answered without its earlier turns, and 2) non-leakage, meaning the question does not restate the information from its earlier turns. To enforce these properties, we design a construction pipeline with three LLM roles: a planner, a generator, and a judger, with each dialogue reviewed by human experts. VideoMemBench comprises 326 videos with 2,476 turns, of which 1,387 depend on earlier turns, including multi-parent dependencies and long-range call-back. Among over 20 evaluated open- and closed-source MLLMs, Claude Opus 5 performs the best with an overall score of only 45.7\%, highlighting the challenge of in-context video memory. Our dataset and evaluation are released.

arXiv (Cornell University)
Multimodal Machine Learning Applications
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.

Laika access coming soon
VideoMemBench: How Well Do MLLMs Remember in Video Conversations? — Kaituo Feng, Zhengdong Hu, et al. · arXiv (Cornell University) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS