Mary Ellen Phillips

Validating heterogeneous and competing knowledge bases using a black-box approach

Abstract This paper provides a framework and case study for the validation of heterogeneous and competing knowledge bases. The framework is a black-box model, based on test data. The case study derives from the domain of financial planning. Section 1 presents an introduction to the paper and some definitions. Section 2 summarizes the application from the financial planning domain. Section 3 provides a framework for validating heterogeneous and competing knowledge bases using a black-box approach. Section 4 discusses the generation of test problems to facilitate the validation of the heterogeneous and competing systems. Section 5 summarizes the systems that are investigated. Section 6 analyzes the results. Section 7 briefly summarizes the paper and discusses the contributions.

The effects of expert system use on entry-level accounting expertise: An experiment

Abstract An experiment that used 65 senior-level accounting students as surrogates for entry-level accounts to determine if the use of an accounting expert system enhances the development expertise of the accountants more than the use of a distilled version of the accounting standard—the traditional method of developing expertise—is described. In addition, the experiment was used to determine if an account expert system that included explanations for its recommendations enhanced the expertise of the accountants more than the use of the same accounting expert system without explanations for its decisions. The accountants using the summary of an accounting standard developed more expertise than both of the groups that used the expert system. No significant difference was found in the development of expertise between the subjects that used an expert system with explanations and those who used an expert system that did not provide explanations.