Interpretable Knowledge Tracing via Response Influence-based Counterfactual Reasoning

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Cui, Jiajun, Yu, Minghe, Jiang, Bo, Zhou, Aimin, Wang, Jianyong, Zhang, Wei
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Cui, Jiajun
Yu, Minghe
Jiang, Bo
Zhou, Aimin
Wang, Jianyong
Zhang, Wei
author_facet Cui, Jiajun
Yu, Minghe
Jiang, Bo
Zhou, Aimin
Wang, Jianyong
Zhang, Wei
contents Knowledge tracing (KT) plays a crucial role in computer-aided education and intelligent tutoring systems, aiming to assess students' knowledge proficiency by predicting their future performance on new questions based on their past response records. While existing deep learning knowledge tracing (DLKT) methods have significantly improved prediction accuracy and achieved state-of-the-art results, they often suffer from a lack of interpretability. To address this limitation, current approaches have explored incorporating psychological influences to achieve more explainable predictions, but they tend to overlook the potential influences of historical responses. In fact, understanding how models make predictions based on response influences can enhance the transparency and trustworthiness of the knowledge tracing process, presenting an opportunity for a new paradigm of interpretable KT. However, measuring unobservable response influences is challenging. In this paper, we resort to counterfactual reasoning that intervenes in each response to answer \textit{what if a student had answered a question incorrectly that he/she actually answered correctly, and vice versa}. Based on this, we propose RCKT, a novel response influence-based counterfactual knowledge tracing framework. RCKT generates response influences by comparing prediction outcomes from factual sequences and constructed counterfactual sequences after interventions. Additionally, we introduce maximization and inference techniques to leverage accumulated influences from different past responses, further improving the model's performance and credibility. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our RCKT method outperforms state-of-the-art knowledge tracing methods on four datasets against six baselines, and provides credible interpretations of response influences.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_10045
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publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Interpretable Knowledge Tracing via Response Influence-based Counterfactual Reasoning
Cui, Jiajun
Yu, Minghe
Jiang, Bo
Zhou, Aimin
Wang, Jianyong
Zhang, Wei
Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Knowledge tracing (KT) plays a crucial role in computer-aided education and intelligent tutoring systems, aiming to assess students' knowledge proficiency by predicting their future performance on new questions based on their past response records. While existing deep learning knowledge tracing (DLKT) methods have significantly improved prediction accuracy and achieved state-of-the-art results, they often suffer from a lack of interpretability. To address this limitation, current approaches have explored incorporating psychological influences to achieve more explainable predictions, but they tend to overlook the potential influences of historical responses. In fact, understanding how models make predictions based on response influences can enhance the transparency and trustworthiness of the knowledge tracing process, presenting an opportunity for a new paradigm of interpretable KT. However, measuring unobservable response influences is challenging. In this paper, we resort to counterfactual reasoning that intervenes in each response to answer \textit{what if a student had answered a question incorrectly that he/she actually answered correctly, and vice versa}. Based on this, we propose RCKT, a novel response influence-based counterfactual knowledge tracing framework. RCKT generates response influences by comparing prediction outcomes from factual sequences and constructed counterfactual sequences after interventions. Additionally, we introduce maximization and inference techniques to leverage accumulated influences from different past responses, further improving the model's performance and credibility. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that our RCKT method outperforms state-of-the-art knowledge tracing methods on four datasets against six baselines, and provides credible interpretations of response influences.
title Interpretable Knowledge Tracing via Response Influence-based Counterfactual Reasoning
topic Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.10045