, WE DEMONSTRATED AN INCREASE IN PRECISION FROM .43 TO .95, WITH...

2004), we demonstrated an increase in precision

from .43 to .95, with only a 30% drop in recall.

o Through a structured repository, such as a

Although the reciprocal questions seem to be

knowledge-base of real-world information

o Through statistical techniques tied to a machine-

symmetrical and thus redundant, their power stems

from the differences in the search for answers inher-

learning algorithm, and a text corpus.

ent in our system. The search is primarily based on

We think that all three methods are appropriate,

the expected answer type (STATE vs. CAPITAL in

but we initially concentrate on the first for practical

the above example). This results in different docu-

reasons. Most TREC-style factoid questions are

ment sets being passed to the answer selection mod-

about people, places, organizations, and things, and

ule. Subsequently, the answer selection module

we can generate generic auxiliary question sets for

each of these classes. Moreover, the purpose of this

works with a different set of syntactic and semantic

relationships, and the process of asking a reciprocal

paper is to explain the QDC methodology and to

question ends up looking more like the process of

investigate its value.

asking an independent one. The only difference be-