Boolean-aware Attention for Dense Retrieval

Abstract

We present Boolean-aware attention, a novel attention mechanism that dynamically adjusts token focus based on Boolean operators (e.g., and, or, not). Our model employs specialized Boolean experts, each tailored to amplify or suppress attention for operator-specific contexts. A predefined gating mechanism activates the corresponding experts based on the detected Boolean type. Experiments on Boolean retrieval datasets demonstrate that integrating BoolAttn with BERT greatly enhances the model's capability to process Boolean queries.