On the Application of Rule-Based Techniques to the Design of Advice-Giving Systems

Abstract This article attempts to assess how much is known about building systems whose advice actually benefits users. We review current approaches to the provision of on-line help, and suggest that the most promising are those which represent a user's intentions explicitly. Following this lead, we examine recent work on speech acts, planning and meta-level inference for clues as to how a user's inputs could be interpreted in the context of his current aims and activities. We conclude that the appropriate context of interpretation for an input is supplied by hypotheses concerning the current state of a user's plan. Next we suggest that the techniques developed in rule-based systems could be used to implement an advisor capable of generating and revising plan hypotheses, and outline what we consider to be the outstanding problems of control associated with such an implementation. Finally, we show how such a system might help a user to structure his activity, so that he can iterate towards his goal while avoiding common errors.

[1]  Richard M. Stallman.  EMACS the extensible, customizable self-documenting display editor , 1981 .

[2]  Albert Stevens,et al.  The Use of a Sophisticated Graphics Interface in Computer- Assisted Instruction , 1983, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[3]  Daniel E. Neiman,et al.  Graphical Animation From Knowledge , 1982, AAAI.

[4]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[5]  Robert Wilensky,et al.  Artificial Intelligence and Language Processing Talking to Unix in English: an Overview of Uc , 2022 .

[6]  Timothy O'Shea,et al.  Learning and teaching with computers , 1983 .

[7]  Daniel L. Chester,et al.  The Translation of Formal Proofs into English , 1976, Artif. Intell..

[8]  Myron W. Krueger,et al.  Automated Explanations as a Component of a Computer-Aided Design System , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics.

[9]  T. C. S. Kennedy,et al.  The Design of Interactive Procedures for Man-Machine Communication , 1974, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[10]  A. P. Jagodzinski,et al.  A Theoretical Basis for the Representation of On-Line Computer Systems to Naive Users , 1983, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[11]  Earl D. Sacerdott.  Planning in a hierarchy of abstraction spaces , 1973, IJCAI 1973.

[12]  D. Norman.  Categorization of action slips. , 1981 .

[13]  A. Kitchen,et al.  Knowledge based systems in artificial intelligence , 1985, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[14]  N. S. Sridharan,et al.  The Plan Recognition Problem: An Intersection of Psychology and Artificial Intelligence , 1978, Artif. Intell..

[15]  Robert A. Kowalski,et al.  Logic for problem solving , 1982, The computer science library : Artificial intelligence series.

[16]  C. Morris,et al.  Writings on the General Theory of Signs , 1971 .

[17]  B. N. Lewis,et al.  Toward a theory of telling , 1969 .

[18]  Hozumi Tanaka,et al.  INTELLIGENT MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE , 1982 .

[19]  William J. Clancey,et al.  NEOMYCIN: Reconfiguring a Rule-Based Expert System for Application to Teaching , 1981, IJCAI.

[20]  Barbara Hayes-Roth,et al.  A Cognitive Model of Planning , 1979, Cogn. Sci..

[21]  John C. Thomas,et al.  Human Factors in Communication , 1981, IBM Syst. J..

[22]  Y. Bar-Hillel.  V.—INDEXICAL EXPRESSIONS , 1954 .

[23]  Allen Newell,et al.  Computer science as empirical inquiry: symbols and search , 1976, CACM.

[24]  E. Doerr,et al.  General Semantics. , 1958, Science.

[25]  Marc A. Sullivan,et al.  Human factoring a text editor manual , 1983 .

[26]  Nuel D. Belnap,et al.  The logic of questions and answers , 1976 .

[27]  John Seely Brown,et al.  An Investigation of Computer Coaching for Informal Learning Activities. , 1978 .

[28]  Kathy Lang,et al.  The goals and methods of computer users , 1982 .

[29]  Carl Hewitt,et al.  PLANNER: A Language for Proving Theorems in Robots , 1969, IJCAI.

[30]  William J. Clancey,et al.  Plan Recognition Strategies in Student Modeling: Prediction and Description , 1982, AAAI.

[31]  M. Brady,et al.  Recognizing Intentions From Natural Language Utterances , 1983 .

[32]  David W. Embley,et al.  An Application of File-Comparison Algorithms to the Study of Program Editors , 1980, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[33]  F. SchmidtC.,et al.  The plan recognition problem , 1978 .

[34]  Richard Montague.  Pragmatics and intensional logic , 1970 .

[35]  R. Stallman.  EMACS the extensible, customizable self-documenting display editor , 1981, SIGPLAN SIGOA Symposium on Text Manipulation.

[36]  Timothy W. Finin,et al.  An Expert System That Volunteers Advice , 1982, AAAI.

[37]  Michael R. Genesereth,et al.  An Overview of Meta-Level Architecture , 1983, AAAI.

[38]  Joseph Faletti.  PANDORA: A Program for Doing Commonsense Planning in Complex Situations , 1982, AAAI.

[39]  Renate Bartsch,et al.  Semantical and pragmatical correctness as basic notions of the theory of meaning , 1979 .

[40]  Michael J. Coombs,et al.  Designing for Human-Computer Communication , 1983 .

[41]  Asa Kasher,et al.  What is a Theory of Use , 1977 .

[42]  C. Raymond Perrault,et al.  Elements of a Plan-Based Theory of Speech Acts , 1979, Cogn. Sci..

[43]  Max J. Cresswell,et al.  Logics and languages , 1973 .

[44]  John McCarthy,et al.  SOME PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ARTI CIAL INTELLIGENCE , 1987 .

[45]  William J. Clancey,et al.  Tutoring rules for guiding a case method dialogue , 1979 .

[46]  James L. Alty,et al.  Face-to-face guidance of university computer users—II. Characterizing advisory interactions , 1980 .

[47]  Mark L. Miller.  A structured planning and debugging environment for elementary programming , 1979 .

[48]  Nicholas Rescher.  The Logic Of Commands , 1966 .

[49]  Marek Sergot,et al.  A Query-the-User Facility for Logic Programming , 1984, ECICS.

[50]  Richard Fikes,et al.  STRIPS: A New Approach to the Application of Theorem Proving to Problem Solving , 1971, IJCAI.

[51]  Arthur Naiman,et al.  Introduction to Wordstar , 1982 .