TRR 318 - Project C04: Metaphors as an explanation tool
Overview
Project C04 investigates metaphors as a specific means to make difficult phenomena interpretable. The innovative aspect is to regard both highlighting and hiding processes when metaphors are utilized in explanations. The project aims to understand how metaphors may either facilitate or impede understanding, and how this understanding can be applied in AI systems to construct metaphors. The project contributes to our understanding of explanation spaces and to the principles by which explanations are generated or tailored to the needs of an addressee by making choices in the explanation space, that is, by systematically highlighting and hiding aspects of the explanandum.
Key Facts
- Grant Number:
- 438445824
- Project type:
- Forschung
- Project duration:
- 07/2021 - 12/2025
- Funded by:
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- Website:
-
Homepage
More Information
Publications
Framing what and how to think: Lay people’s metaphors for algorithms
P.F. Porwol, M. Körber, F. Kern, C. Schulte, I. Scharlau, in: P. Cimiano, B. Paaßen, A.-L. Vollmer (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd TRR 318 Conference: Contextualizing Explanations, Bielefeld University Press, 2026.
When prediction replaces explanation: A threat to psychological science
M. Knauff, M.V. Butz, B. Kaup, W. Kunde, I. Scharlau, Psyarxiv (2026).
Agency in metaphors of explaining: An analysis of scientific texts
I. Scharlau, K.J. Rohlfing, (2025).
An annotated corpus of elicited metaphors of explaining and understanding using MIPVU
P. Porwol, I. Scharlau, An Annotated Corpus of Elicited Metaphors of Explaining and Understanding Using MIPVU, OSF, 2025.
Investigating Co-Constructive Behavior of Large Language Models in Explanation Dialogues
Show all publications
L. Fichtel, M. Spliethöver, E. Hüllermeier, P. Jimenez, N. Klowait, S. Kopp, A.-C. Ngonga Ngomo, A. Robrecht, I. Scharlau, L. Terfloth, A.-L. Vollmer, H. Wachsmuth, ArXiv:2504.18483 (2025).
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