Apparatus and methods for generating and accessing arguments

• US 8,438,054 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2001
• Issued: 05/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Inventors: Lowrance, John D., Harrison, Ian W., Rodriguez, Andres C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dean T
• Application Number:
  US09/839,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20020032574A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,400 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1.1, 705/7.36, 705/7.37, 705/7.29
• US Class Current: 705/7.36
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

In one embodiment, an analytical system for generating and accessing arguments is disclosed. Each argument is associated with a conclusion indicating whether a particular situation will likely have a negative or positive result. One embodiment of the analytical system includes a database for storing a plurality of templates, each template including a plurality of questions which may be answered to generate a particular argument having an associated conclusion that is based on those answers. The analytical system also includes an argument server that includes means for a user to select a template that is most relevant to a particular situation, means for receiving answers to one or more of the selected template'"'"'s questions such that a new argument is generated having a conclusion based on those answers, and means for associating supporting evidence provided by the user with each answer.

Claims

1. A method for accessing or generating an argument supporting a conclusion for a given situation, the method comprising:

using a processor, performing steps comprising;

presenting to a user a plurality of searchable templates, wherein a subset of the plurality of searchable templates is relevant to the given situation;

receiving from said user a selection of one of said plurality of searchable templates from said subset that is relevant to the given situation, said one of said plurality of searchable templates being a relevant template most related to the given situation and including a plurality of queries;

displaying said plurality of queries to said user, wherein each of said plurality of queries has a categorical scale of likelihood regarding whether the given situation will likely have a negative or positive result and a plurality of potential responses corresponding to the categorical scale of likelihood, wherein the plurality of queries is formed in a hierarchical structure such that at least some of the plurality of queries are children queries of one or more parent queries;

receiving from said user one or more user responses to said plurality of queries including at least one user response corresponding to at least one of the children queries, where each of said one or more user responses is selected by the user from the plurality of potential responses such that each of the one or more user responses indicates a likelihood of a negative or positive result for an associated one of the plurality of queries;

receiving from said user supporting evidence in response to said plurality of queries, the supporting evidence being relied on by the user to form at least one of the one or more user responses;

evaluating said one or more user responses, in accordance with the likelihood of a negative or positive result indicated by each of said one or more user responses, such that said one or more user responses collectively support a conclusion indicating whether the given situation will likely have a positive or negative result, wherein the evaluating comprises;

automatically propagating a subset of the at least one user response to form an inferred response to at least one of the one or more parent queries;

forming an argument supporting the conclusion of the evaluating, the argument comprising the relevant template, the one or more user responses, the inferred response, the supporting evidence, and the conclusion; and

publishing said argument, including said relevant template, said one or more user responses, said inferred response, said supporting evidence, and said conclusion, for review.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein input to one or more of the plurality of queries is received from a plurality of users over a computer network.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, the method further comprising allowing one or more of the plurality of users to generate and associate comments to at least a portion of the new argument.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the comments are only accessible by one or more specified users.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of queries is a multiple choice question.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein each multiple choice question asks to what degree of likelihood will a particular factor related to the given situation have a positive or negative result.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein each multiple choice question has a categorical scale of likelihood represented by a set of responses that partition the categorical scale of likelihood.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising receiving more than one response for at least one of the plurality of queries.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the inferred response to the at least one of the one or more parent queries is automatically formed using a response technique selected by the user.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the response technique comprises averaging the subset of the one or more responses to form the inferred response.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the response technique comprises forming the inferred response using a response from the subset of the one or more responses that indicates a most positive outcome.

12. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the response technique comprises forming the inferred response using a response from the subset of the one or more responses that indicates a most negative outcome.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more user responses within a first level of the hierarchical structure has a color selected from a subset of colors, each of the plurality of colors representing a different one of the one or more user responses so that colors of the first level convey a line of reasoning.

14. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of queries is associated with a second level of the hierarchical structure and the first level and the second level together form a set of cascaded arguments.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of searchable templates is associated with a situation descriptor, the method further comprising selecting one of the plurality of searchable templates which is most relevant to the given situation by comparing the given situation to situation descriptors associated with the plurality of searchable templates to thereby find most relevant ones of the plurality of searchable templates having situation descriptors that most closely match the given situation.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, the method further comprising creating a new template, wherein the new template is created by an expert.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising associating a rationale provided by said user to each of said plurality of queries for which a user response has been received.

18. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium containing executable program instructions for accessing or generating an argument supporting a conclusion for a given situation, the instructions causing a processor to perform steps comprising:

presenting to a user a plurality of searchable templates, wherein a subset of the plurality of searchable templates is relevant to the given situation;

receiving from said user a selection of one of said plurality of searchable templates from said subset that is relevant to the given situation, said one of said plurality of searchable templates being a relevant template most related to the given situation and including a plurality of queries;

displaying said plurality of queries to said user, wherein each of said plurality of queries has a categorical scale of likelihood regarding whether the given situation will likely have a negative or positive result and a plurality of potential responses corresponding to the categorical scale of likelihood, wherein the plurality of queries is formed in a hierarchical structure such that at least some of the plurality of queries are children queries of one or more parent queries;

receiving from said user one or more user responses to said plurality of queries including at least one user response corresponding to at least one of the children queries, where each of said one or more user responses is selected by the user from the plurality of potential responses such that each of the one or more user responses indicates a likelihood of a negative or positive result for an associated one of the plurality of queries;

receiving from said user supporting evidence in response to said plurality of queries, the supporting evidence being relied on by the user to form at least one of the one or more user responses;

evaluating said one or more user responses, in accordance with the likelihood of a negative or positive result indicated by each of said one or more user responses, such that said one or more user responses collectively support a conclusion indicating whether the given situation will likely have a positive or negative result, wherein the evaluating comprises;

automatically propagating a subset of the at least one user response to form an inferred response to at least one of the one or more parent queries;

forming an argument supporting the conclusion of the evaluating, the argument comprising the relevant template, the one or more user responses, the inferred response, the supporting evidence, and the conclusion; and

publishing said argument, including said relevant template, said one or more user responses, said inferred response, said supporting evidence, and said conclusion, for review.

19. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

associating a rationale with each of the one or more user responses.

20. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein input to one or more of the plurality of queries is received from a plurality of users over a computer network.

21. The computer readable storage medium system as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

allowing one or more of the plurality of users to generate and associate comments to at least a portion of the argument.

22. The computer readable storage medium system as recited in claim 21, wherein the comments are only accessible by one or more specified users.

23. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of queries is a multiple choice question.

24. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 23, wherein each multiple choice question asks to what degree of likelihood will a particular factor related to the given situation have a positive or negative result.

25. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 24, wherein each multiple choice question has a categorical scale of likelihood represented by a set of responses that partition the categorical scale of likelihood.

26. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

allowing more than one user response for each of the plurality of queries.

27. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein the inferred response to the at least one of the one or more parent queries is automatically formed using a response technique selected by the user.

28. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 27, wherein the response technique comprises averaging the subset of the one or more responses to form the inferred response.

29. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein each of the one or more user responses within a first level of the hierarchical structure has a color selected from a subset of colors, each of the plurality of colors representing a different one of the one or more user responses so that colors of the first level convey a line of reasoning.

30. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein one or more of the plurality of queries is associated with a second level of the hierarchical structure and the first level and the second level together form a set of cascaded arguments.

31. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of templates is associated with a situation descriptor and the argument server selects one of the plurality of templates which is most relevant to the given situation by comparing the given situation to situation descriptors associated with the plurality of templates to thereby find a most relevant one of the plurality of templates having a situation descriptor that most closely matches the given situation.

32. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

allowing a creation of a new template, wherein the new template is created by an expert.