Skip to main content

A Study into Preferred Explanations of Virtual Agent Behavior

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 5773))

Abstract

Virtual training systems provide an effective means to train people for complex, dynamic tasks such as crisis management or firefighting. Intelligent agents are often used to play the characters with whom a trainee interacts. To increase the trainee’s understanding of played scenarios, several accounts of agents that can explain the reasons for their actions have been proposed. This paper describes an empirical study of what instructors consider useful agent explanations for trainees. It was found that different explanations types were preferred for different actions, e.g. conditions enabling action execution, goals underlying an action, or goals that become achievable after action execution. When an action has important consequences for other agents, instructors suggest that the others’ perspectives should be part of the explanation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Core, M., Traum, T., Lane, H., Swartout, W., Gratch, J., van Lent, M.: Teaching negotiation skills through practice and reflection with virtual humans. Simulation 82(11), 685–701 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Dastani, M.: 2APL: a practical agent programming language. Autonomous Agents and Multi-agent Systems 16(3), 214–248 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dennett, D.: The Intentional Stance. MIT Press, Cambridge (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gomboc, D., Solomon, S., Core, M.G., Lane, H.C., van Lent, M.: Design recommendations to support automated explanation and tutoring. In: Proc. of the 14th Conf. on Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation, Universal City, CA (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Harbers, M., Van den Bosch, K., Meyer, J.: A methodology for developing self-explaining agents for virtual training. In: Decker, Sichman, Sierra, Castelfranchi (eds.) Proc. of 8th Int. Conf. on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS 2009), Budapest, Hungary, pp. 1129–1130 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Keil, F.: Explanation and understanding. Annual Reviews Psychology 57, 227–254 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Johnson, W.L.: Agents that learn to explain themselves. In: Proc. of the 12th Nat. Conf. on Artificial Intelligence, pp. 1257–1263 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Randolph, J.: Online kappa calculator (2008), http://justus.randolph.name/kappa (retrieved March 6, 2009)

  9. Sardina, S., De Silva, L., Padgham, L.: Hierarchical planning in bdi agent programming languages: A formal approach. In: Proceedings of AAMAS 2006. ACM Press, New York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Van den Bosch, K., Harbers, M., Heuvelink, A., Van Doesburg, W.: Intelligent agents for training on-board fire fighting (to appear, 2009)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Van Lent, M., Fisher, W., Mancuso, M.: An explainable artificial intelligence system for small-unit tactical behavior. In: Proc. of IAAA 2004. AAAI Press, Menlo Park (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Ye, R., Johnson, P.: The impact of explanation facilities on user acceptance of expert systems advice. Mis Quarterly 19(2), 157–172 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Harbers, M., van den Bosch, K., Meyer, JJ.C. (2009). A Study into Preferred Explanations of Virtual Agent Behavior. In: Ruttkay, Z., Kipp, M., Nijholt, A., Vilhjálmsson, H.H. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5773. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04380-2_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04380-2_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-04379-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-04380-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics