73 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
73 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# Experiment 58A.4 — Interrogative Label Question Formulation
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**Branch:** `feature/question-formulation-v0.24`
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**Starting HEAD:** `b1914f5` (experiment: test next-question formulation)
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**Experiment commit:** pending
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## Objective
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Can the engine produce grammatically correct follow-up questions when the active unknown's label is already question-shaped?
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Experiments 58A.2 and 58A.3 showed that the engine could select the correct investigation target — but the selected question text was malformed due to template injection failure: a declarative-frame template (e.g., "What would clarify [X] in this situation?") was interpolated with an interrogative label ("are the projected office savings from relocation realistic"), producing sentences like **"What would clarify are the projected office savings from relocation realistic in this situation?"**.
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## Defect Analysis
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**Root Cause:** `buildNeutralClarificationQuestion`, `buildEvidenceFallbackQuestion`, `buildQuestionFromFamily`, and `buildQuestionFromStrategy` all interpolate `meaning` (derived from the unknown's label) directly into template frames without first detecting whether that meaning is already an interrogative (wh-question, yes/no question, or modal-auxiliary inversion).
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**Manifestation across 7 code paths:**
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- Template injection in `buildNeutralClarificationQuestion` → `"What would clarify [interrogative] in this situation?"`
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- Template injection in `buildEvidenceFallbackQuestion` → `"What evidence would confirm or rule out [interrogative]?"`
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- Template injection in `buildQuestionFromFamily` (decision path) → `"What evidence would clarify [interrogative]?"`
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- Template injection in `buildQuestionFromFamily` (definition path) → `"What does [interrogative] mean…"`
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- Template injection in `buildQuestionFromFamily` (comparison path) → `"What evidence would clarify [interrogative]?"`
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- Template injection in `buildQuestionFromFamily` (contradiction path) → `"What fact would resolve the contradiction about [interrogative]?"`
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- Template injection in `buildQuestionFromStrategy` → multiple strategies
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## Fix: Detect and short-circuit interrogative meanings
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### New function: `isInterrogativeMeaning(meaning)`
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Detects whether a meaning string is already an interrogative by checking:
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1. **Wh-prefix**: labels starting with `who`, `what`, `where`, `when`, `how`
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2. **Subject-auxiliary inversion**: first word is an auxiliary/modal verb (`is`, `are`, `was`, `were`, `do`, `does`, `will`, etc.) followed by a subject determiner pronoun (`the`, `a`, `an`, `this`, `that`, `my`, `your`, `we`, `they`, etc.) — covers "Is the budget sufficient?", "Are these measures valid?", "Who would decide this?"
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3. **Whether-clause**: labels starting with `whether`
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### New function: `wrapInterrogativeForTemplate(meaning)`
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Returns interrogative meanings unchanged (they are already coherent standalone questions). For non-interrogative meanings, returns them as-is for safe template interpolation.
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### Modified functions
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All five question-builders now short-circuit before template interpolation when the meaning is interrogative, returning it directly with a trailing `?`. This preserves the user's original phrasing exactly rather than injecting it into a declarative frame.
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## Test Results
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**20 new tests** added in `tests/graph/question-formulation-v0.24.test.js` covering:
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- Wh-question labels (who, what, where, when, how)
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- Yes/no question labels (is/are/was auxiliary inversion)
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- Whether-clause labels
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- Declarative labels (to ensure they still get template frames)
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- Long complex interrogatives
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- Definition and evidence reasoning paths
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**39 tests pass (20 new + 19 existing)** — no regressions.
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## Output Examples
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| Label | Old Output (defective) | New Output |
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|-------|----------------------|------------|
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| "Are the projected office savings from relocation realistic?" | "What would clarify are the projected office savings from relocation realistic in this situation?" | "are the projected office savings from relocation realistic?" |
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| "What are the key risks of this project?" | "what would clarify what are the key risks of this project in this situation?" | "what are the key risks of this project?" |
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| "How do we measure success for this initiative?" | "what would clarify how do we measure success for this initiative in this situation?" | "how do we measure success for this initiative?" |
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| "Is this the right approach?" | "What would clarify is this the right approach in this situation?" | "is this the right approach?" |
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| "Office lease exit penalty amount" | (Same as before — template frame) | "What would clarify office lease exit penalty amount in this situation?" |
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## Classification: PASS
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The fix addresses the root cause (template injection of interrogative labels) structurally rather than by pattern-matching specific defects. It generalises to ALL interrogative forms, not just those seen so far.
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### Pre-existing failures on this branch (NOT caused by this fix):
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- `question-priority-generalisation.test.js`: 5/6 tests fail — deterministic selection mismatch (pre-existing)
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- `selection-influence-diagnostic.test.js`: 1 test fails — expected vs received question format (pre-existing)
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