Using Controlled Knowledge Search to Retrieve Cross-Contextual Analogies

Case-Based Reasoning and Information Retrieval: Exploring Opportunities for Technology Sharing

Volume

Papers from the 1993 AAAI Spring Symposium

Contents

Indexing cases on features has been shown to be a successful method of retrieving experiential knowledge for many single-task systems. However, discovering a general set of indices for retrieving cross-contextual information in a multi-use knowledge base is impractical. We present a method for retrieving cross-contextual information based on knowledge-directed spreading activation in a semantic network. This method uses task-specific knowledge to guide a spreading activation search to a case or concept in memory which meets a desired similarity condition. We describe a specific instantiation of this method that retrieves analogies for the task of creative design, and also how the behavior of this method will differ from indexing schemes under varying knowledge base conditions.