Opportunistic Processing in Arguments

In two previous papers, we have proposed a part of a computational theory of argumentation, including representations for argument structure and rules for using those representations in understanding and in rebutting (Birnbaum et ai (1980) and Flowers et al (1981); related work includes Cohen (1980)). One property of the model which we emphasized is the way in which argument mechanisms and inferential memory can each help to direct the processing of the other. In particular, we presented examples in which inferential memory can uncover good rebuttals to an input as a side-effect of the processing that naturally goes on in trying to understand that input. When such opportunities for rebuttal are noticed during understanding, they render unnecessary the use of argument rules to find a response, since one has already been discovered.