A. Bouwer and B. Bredeweg. 1999.
Explanation and Qualitative Reasoning
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International workshop on Qualitative Reasoning,
QR'99, pages 27-31. C. Price (ed.), Loch Awe, Scotland, UK.
(PDF)
Abstract
Qualitative Reasoning is often seen as a powerful basis for generating
explanations, because the behaviour of interest is explicitly modelled
in terms of relevant components, processes, causality relations,
quantity spaces, assumptions, states and transitions, while neglecting
unnecessary details like quantitative values. However, the link
between qualitative reasoning and explanation is often seen as a
direct one-to-one mapping, whereas studies of human explanation
indicate that this is a simplification. Explanation is an interactive
process in which the context plays an important role. This position
paper takes a closer look at the relation between qualitative
reasoning, explanation generation and contextual factors such as the
tasks and goals of the user, and the dialogue history.