The effect of answer validation on the performance of Question-Answering systems. (February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rodrigo, Alvaro; Herrera, Jesús; Peñas, Anselmo
• Is Part Of: Expert systems with applications. Volume 116(2019)
• Page Start: 351
• Page End: 363
• Publication Date: 2019-02
• Subjects: Question answering -- Answer validation -- Textual entailment recognition; Expert systems (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Systèmes experts (Informatique) -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 006.33
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eswa.2018.09.014
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0957-4174

Abstract

Highlights: We describe a new approach for evaluating the contribution of Answer Validation. We use real systems in order to obtain better conclusions for future research. We show how Answer Validation modules improve Question Answering results. We interpret results in order to offer important lessons for future research. Abstract: Question Answering (QA) systems help users to find relevant information. However, current QA systems still return several incorrect answers, which decreases the confidence of users in such systems. Some researchers have suggested the inclusion of validation in QA with the purpose of reducing wrong responses and, therefore, improving results. Nevertheless, there has not been a precise study about how validation contributes to QA results. In this paper, we include a new analysis of the impact of validation on QA results. We reuse data from real QA systems and show that validation enables QA systems to reduce incorrect answers and obtain better results. We think this study will allow researchers to develop better QA systems.