THE ROLE OF QUESTIONING IN KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING AND THE INTERFACE OF EXPERT SYSTEMS

This article discusses the role of questioning in two important parts of expert system design: knowledge elicitation and the interface of expert system shells. We discuss these in the context of an expert system for scriptwriting which assists in plot construction. Concerning knowledge elicitation, we propose a 6-stage method which is based on a model of question answering. The six stages in this method are: (1) becoming familiar with the topic, (2) free generation of key concepts, (3) question answering on information from the free generation task, (4) problem solving in the context of a particular exemplar, (5) exemplar generation, and (6) modifying and critiquing the prototype. Regarding the interfaces of expert system shells, we discuss the question-answering facilities on current expert systems. We discuss the inadequacies of current question-answering facilities and propose some suggestions that incorporate theories of question answering in cognitive science. © 1990.