finin@PRC.UNISYS.COM (08/27/88)
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 88 11:16 EDT
From: finin@PRC.Unisys.COM
To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu
Subject: Acquiring a Model of the User's Beliefs ...
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense
Acquiring a Model of the User's Beliefs from
a Cooperative Advisory Dialogue
Robert Kass
The ability of expert systems to explain their own reasoning is often
cited as their most important feature. Unfortunately, the quality of
these explanations is frequently poor. In this talk, I will argue
that for expert systems to produce good explanations, they must have
available a model of the user's beliefs about the system domain.
Obtaining such a model is not easy, however. Traditional approaches
have depended on the explicit hand-coding of a large number of
assumptions about the beliefs of anticipated system users -- a tedious
and error-prone process. In contrast, I will present an implicit
method for acquiring a user model, embodied in a set of implicit user
model acquisition rules. These rules, developed from the study of a
large number of transcripts of people seeking advice from a human
expert, represent likely inferences that can be made about a user's
beliefs -- based on the system-user dialogue and the dialogue
participants' previous beliefs. This implicit acquisition method is
capable of quickly building a substantial model of the user's beliefs;
a model sufficient to support the generation of expert system
explanations tailored to individual users. Furthermore, the
acquisition rules are domain independent, providing a foundation for a
general user modelling facility for a variety of interactive systems.
Committee: Tim Finin (Advisor)
Aravind Joshi (Chairman)
Elaine Rich (MCC)
Bonnie Webber
Date: Monday, August 15, 1988
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: 554 Moore, University of Pennsylvania