Evidence Informatics: An Informatics Perspective on Argumentation

Mining

Jodi Schneider

SICSA Workshop on Argument Mining: Perspectives from Information Extraction, Information Retrieval and Computational LinguisticsDundee, Scotland9-10 July 2014.

Argumentation mining today

• No unified vision of the field. Multiple:– Interrelated problems– Application domains– Tools handling one aspect of annotation

• Few corpora• Need for– Common definition(s) of argumentation– "Challenge problems"– Shared corpora– Applications

Argumentation mining today

• No unified vision of the field. Multiple:– Interrelated problems– Application domains– Tools handling one aspect of annotation

• Few corpora• Need for– Common definition(s) of argumentation– "Challenge problems"– Shared corpora– Applications

Evidence Informatics

• How do we support people in making evidence-based decisions?

• This includes supporting their arguments!

Informatics Perspective

1. Analyze requirements2. Consider which argumentation models to use3. Build a prototype support tool4. Evaluate and iterate

Two examples of evidence informatics

• Evidence about article quality in Wikipedia (PhD)

• Evidence about pharmaceutical drug interactions (ArgDiaP 2014)

http://purl.org/jsphd

Which content belongs in Wikipedia?

Tasks using evidence & arguments

• Convince others of your position, using community norms

• Determine the overall consensus decision

Compare two argumentation theories

• Walton’s Argumentation Schemes (Walton, Reed, and Macagno 2008)

– Informal argumentation (philosophical & computational argumentation)

– Identify & prevent errors in reasoning (fallacies)– 60 patterns

• Factors/Dimensions Analysis (Ashley 1991; Bench-Capon and Rissland, 2001)

– Case-based reasoning– E.g. factors for deciding cases in trade secret law,

favoring either party (the plaintiff or the defendant).

Walton’s Argumentation Schemes

Example Argumentation Scheme: Argument from Rules – “we apply rule X”

Critical Questions1. Does the rule require carrying out this type of action?

2. Are there other established rules that might conflict with or override this one?

3. Are there extenuating circumstances or an excuse for noncompliance?

Walton, Reed, and Macagno 2008

“Rule” Argumentation Scheme

“Arguments about Deletion: How Experience Improves the Acceptability of Arguments in Ad-hoc Online Task Groups” CSCW 2013

“Evidence” Argumentation Scheme

“Arguments about Deletion: How Experience Improves the Acceptability of Arguments in Ad-hoc Online Task Groups” CSCW 2013

Evidence + Rule -> Conclusion

“Arguments about Deletion: How Experience Improves the Acceptability of Arguments in Ad-hoc Online Task Groups” CSCW 2013

Supporting Tasks with Walton

• Convince others of your position, using community norms– To win an argument, use popular schemes:

• Argument from Evidence to Hypothesis (19%)• Argument from Rules (17%)

• Determine the overall consensus decision– Ask critical questions to check others' arguments

Example factors analysis (Aleven 1997)

Aleven 1997

Wikipedia Factors AnalysisFactor Example (used to justify 'keep') Example (used to justify 'delete'Notability Anyone covered by another

encyclopedic reference is considered notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia.

There is simply no coverage in reliable sources to establish notability.

Sources Basic information about this album at a minimum is certainly verifiable, it's a major label release, and a highly notable band.

There are no independent secondary sources (books, magazine articles, documentaries, etc.) about her.

Maintenance …this article is savable but at its current state, needs a lot of improvement.

Too soon for a page likely to be littered with rumour and speculation.

Bias It is by no means spam (it does not promote the products).

The article seems to have been created by her or her agent as a promotional device.

**Other I'm advocating a blanket "hangon" for all articles on newly-drafted players

it appears to be original research by synthesis

Deletion Discussions in Wikipedia: Decision Factors and Outcomes. WikiSym 2012.

Supporting Tasks with Factors

• Convince others of your position, using community norms– To win an argument, talk about the right topics

• Notability, Sources, Maintenance, Bias

• Determine the overall consensus decision– Group messages by factor– summarize prevalence

Factor-based Summarization

Argument Schemes vs. Factors?

• Argument SchemesDetails of how to put together an argument– Could support WRITING detailed arguments– Critical Questioning

• FactorsTopics of discussion– Basic support for writing arguments– Summarization supports decision-making

Modeling Arguments in Scientific Papers to Support Pharmacists

Jodi Schneider, Carol Collins, Lisa E Hines, John R Horn, and Richard Boyce

12th Argumentation, Dialogue, Persuasion conference (ArgDiaP 2014) Warsaw, Poland2014-05-25

Goal: Support evidence-based updates to drug-interaction reference DBs

• Make sense of the EVIDENCE– New clinical trials– Adverse drug event reports– Drug product labels– Updates to regulatory

information (U.S. FDA,…)– …

• Significant discrepancies between different drug-interaction reference DBs

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=183454

Drug Interaction Knowledge Base (DIKB) - Boyce 2007-2009

– Hand-constructed knowledge base– Safety issues when 2 drugs are taken together– Focus is on EVIDENCE

• Evidence

Micropublications

Direct Annotation with Domeo

http://swan.mindinformatics.org/ Paolo N Ciccarese

Textual quotes

Micropublication: Claim + Support (e.g. Attribution)

Micropublications: a Semantic Model for Claims, Evidence, Arguments and Annotations in Biomedical CommunicationsTim Clark, Paolo N. Ciccarese, Carole A. Goblehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3506

Constructs claim-argument network across scientific papers

Micropublications: a Semantic Model for Claims, Evidence, Arguments and Annotations in Biomedical CommunicationsTim Clark, Paolo N. Ciccarese, Carole A. Goblehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3506

Model Data, Methods, Materials, References

Micropublications: a Semantic Model for Claims, Evidence, Arguments and Annotations in Biomedical CommunicationsTim Clark, Paolo N. Ciccarese, Carole A. Goblehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3506

Micropublications Ontology

Micropublications: a Semantic Model for Claims, Evidence, Arguments and Annotations in Biomedical CommunicationsTim Clark, Paolo N. Ciccarese, Carole A. Goblehttp://arxiv.org/abs/1305.3506

Methods

Methods section of challenge graph

"escitalopram does not inhibit CYP2D6"

Support graph Challenge graph

From individual documents to a searchable claim-argument network

• "Pay as you go" annotation of source documents with Domeo & Micropublications

• Generates claim-argument network– Supports & challenges– Materials, methods, data– Quotes linked into the graph– … within & across documents

• Query support

Argumentation Mining papersArguing on Wikipedia • “Arguments about Deletion: How Experience Improves the Acceptability of Arguments in Ad-hoc

Online Task Groups” CSCW 2013.• “Deletion Discussions in Wikipedia: Decision Factors and Outcomes” WikiSym2012.Arguing in Social Media• “Dimensions of Argumentation in Social Media" EKAW 2012• “Why did they post that argument? Communicative intentions of Web 2.0 arguments.” Arguing on

the Web 2.0 at ISSA 2014Arguing in Reviews• “Identifying Consumers' Arguments in Text” SWAIE 2012• “Semi-Automated Argumentative Analysis of Online Product Reviews" COMMA 2012• “Arguing from a Point of View” Agreement Technologies 2012Structuring Arguments on the Social Semantic Web• “A Review of Argumentation for the Social Semantic Web” Semantic Web – Interoperability, Usability,

Applicability, 2013.• “Identifying, Annotating, and Filtering Arguments and Opinions in Open Collaboration Systems" 2013

Thesis: purl.org/jsphd• “Modeling Arguments in Scientific Papers” at ArgDiaP 2014

http://jodischneider.com/jodi.html

Example: "Stop at a red light"

1. Does the rule require carrying out this type of action?Were you driving a vehicle?

2. Are there other established rules that might conflict with or override this one?Did a police officer direct you to continue without stopping?

3. Are there extenuating circumstances or an excuse for noncompliance?Were you driving an ambulance with its siren on?

Critical Questions from Argument from Rules based on Walton, Reed, and Macagno 2008

How to win an argument (Arucaria)?

Classifying Arguments by Scheme. Vanessa Wei Feng. Master's thesis, Toronto, 2010.

Argumentation mining could be the basis for support tools

• Help participants write persuasive arguments– How: provide personalized feedback on drafts– Requires: knowing which arguments are accepted;

identifying argumentation in a drafts • Find weaknesses in others’ arguments– How: suggest & instantiate relevant critical questions– Requires: identifying argumentation schemes

• Summarize the overall conclusions of the debate– How: identify the winning and losing rationales– Requires: identifying rationales and contradictions

Experts vs. Novices

• Experts were more likely to use – Argument from Precedent

• Novices were more likely to use– Argumentation from Values– Argumentation from Cause to Effect– Argument from Analogy

Unsuccessful arguments from novices

• Emsworth Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in the world, and this really is worth a mention. Especially on a website, where pointless people … gets a mention.

• Why just because it is a small team and not major does it not deserve it’s (sic) own page on here?

Newcomers don't understand how to counterargue

Wikipedia Factors Analysis

Factors determined by iterative annotation

4 Factors cover– 91% of comments– 70% of discussions

“Other” as 5th catchall

Factor Example (used to justify `keep')

Notability Anyone covered by another encyclopedic reference is considered notable enough for inclusion in Wikipedia.

Sources Basic information about this album at a minimum is certainly verifiable, it's a major label release, and a highly notable band.

Maintenance …this article is savable but at its current state, needs a lot of improvement.

Bias It is by no means spam (it does not promote the products).

**Other I'm advocating a blanket "hangon" for all articles on newly-drafted players