A Mechanism for Creating Knowledge Bases Supporting Contradictory Models

In many domains, users from varying backgrounds (and with varying conceptualisations of the domain) seek advice from an expert and the expert adapts their reasoning and explanation for the background of each user, using stereotypical categories of user (for example physicist or engineer). In earlier papers, the viewpoints mechanism was presented as a means of replicating this behaviour in knowledge-based systems. This paper both illustrates and extends the ideas described in earlier papers, presenting a system which can not only cater for diiering classes of users (in this case a beneet claimant and an adjudicator), but allows them to interact through the knowledge base. The beneets of this approach are then discussed.