Generating explanations from question paths

The nature of explanation dialogues is examined and an expert system that provides acceptable and appropriate answers and explanations to the questions posed by different kinds of users is designed. An empirical study and analysis of natural dialogues between experts, novices and partial experts is described. From this analysis a theory of explanation dialogues (extended schema-based theory, or EST) is developed. In EST questions are interpreted by combining information from different, semantically related question types that together best capture the essence and meaning of the question. This theory is applied to the design of an architecture and computational model for interpreting questions and generating explanations. The expert system, EXPLAIN, understands the nature of the question and is able to take account of the previous dialogue. The system can tailor its responses to an individual user´s characteristics, including level of expertise and depth of knowledge in the domain