Using Justification Patterns to Advise Novice UNIX Users

Abstract

Novice unix users have many incorrect beliefs about unix commands. An intelligent advisory system for unix should provide explanatory responses that correct these mistaken beliefs. To do so, the system must be able to understand how the user is justifying these beliefs, and it must be able to provide justifications for its own beliefs. These tasks not only require knowledge about specific unix-related plans but also abstract knowledge about how beliefs can be justified. This paper shows how this knowledge can be represented and sketches how it can be used to form justifications for advisor beliefs and to understand justifications given for user beliefs. Knowledge about belief justification is captured by justification patterns, domain-independent knowledge structures that are similar to the abstract knowledge structures used to understand the point behind a story. These justification patterns allow the advisor to understand and formulate novel belief justifications, giving the advisor the ability to recognize and respond to novel misconceptions.