Exploratory Interaction with a Bayesian Argumentation System

Abstract

We describe an interactive system which supports the exploration of arguments generated from Bayesian networks. In particular, we consider key features which support interactive behaviour: (1) an attentional mechanism which updates the activation of concepts as the interaction progresses; (2) a set of exploratory responses; and (3) a set of probabilistic patterns and an Argument Grammar which support the generation of natural language arguments from Bayesian networks. A preliminary evaluation assesses the effect of our exploratory responses on users' beliefs. 1 Introduction An ideal interactive argumentation system would allow a user to respond to an argument with a full counterargument, and it would allow the argumentation process to go on indefinitely, producing a series of arguments and counterarguments. In this paper, we describe an interactive version of our argumentation system NAG (Nice Argument Generator), which enables a user to explore the impact of different beliefs and pro...