Strength Change Explanations in Quantitative Argumentation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kampik, Timotheus, Yin, Xiang, Potyka, Nico, Toni, Francesca
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Kampik, Timotheus
Yin, Xiang
Potyka, Nico
Toni, Francesca
author_facet Kampik, Timotheus
Yin, Xiang
Potyka, Nico
Toni, Francesca
contents In order to make argumentation-based inference contestable, it is crucial to explain what changes can achieve a desired (instead of the contested) inference result. To this end, we introduce strength change explanations for quantitative (bipolar) argumentation graphs. Strength change explanations describe changes to the initial strengths of a subset of the arguments in a given graph that can achieve a desired ordering based on the final strengths of some (potentially different) subset of arguments. We show that the existing notions of inverse and counterfactual problems can be reduced to strength change explanations. We also prove basic soundness and completeness properties of our strength change explanations, and demonstrate their existence and non-existence in some special cases. By applying a heuristic search, we demonstrate that we can often successfully find strength change explanations for layered graphs that are common in typical application scenarios; still, limitations remain for settings where we do not provide guarantees for the presence (or absence) of explanations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_00008
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Strength Change Explanations in Quantitative Argumentation
Kampik, Timotheus
Yin, Xiang
Potyka, Nico
Toni, Francesca
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Logic in Computer Science
In order to make argumentation-based inference contestable, it is crucial to explain what changes can achieve a desired (instead of the contested) inference result. To this end, we introduce strength change explanations for quantitative (bipolar) argumentation graphs. Strength change explanations describe changes to the initial strengths of a subset of the arguments in a given graph that can achieve a desired ordering based on the final strengths of some (potentially different) subset of arguments. We show that the existing notions of inverse and counterfactual problems can be reduced to strength change explanations. We also prove basic soundness and completeness properties of our strength change explanations, and demonstrate their existence and non-existence in some special cases. By applying a heuristic search, we demonstrate that we can often successfully find strength change explanations for layered graphs that are common in typical application scenarios; still, limitations remain for settings where we do not provide guarantees for the presence (or absence) of explanations.
title Strength Change Explanations in Quantitative Argumentation
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Logic in Computer Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00008