A Metaplan Model for Problem-Solving Discourse

Abstract

The structure of problem-solving discourse in the expert advising setting can be modeled by adding a layer of metaplans to a plan-based model of the task domain. Classes of metaplans are introduced to model both the agent's gradual refinement and instantiation of a domain plan for a task and the space of possible queries about preconditions or fillers for open variable slots that can be motivated by the exploration of particular classes of domain plans. This metaplan structure can be used to track an agent's problem-solving progress and to predict at each point likely follow-on queries based on related domain plans. The model is implemented in the Pragma system where it is used to suggest corrections for ill-formed input.