Integrated neuro-symbolic architecture of user mental models for personalized explanations of intelligent systems decisions

Serhii Chalyi, Iryna Leshchynska

Abstract


The subject of the article is the methodology for building an integrated neuro-symbolic architecture of mental models for users with different levels of technical competence to generate personalized explanations of intelligent information systems decisions. The goal is to develop an architecture that provides automated detection of individual mental models from user behavioral data and the creation of interpretable symbolic representations of causal relationships with the adaptation of the level to detail to the user's skill level. The tasks addressed include: performing a comparative analysis of existing approaches to building mental models according to personalization criteria; developing an integrated neuro-symbolic architecture with functional distribution between neural network and symbolic components; conducting experimental verification of the proposed architecture; determining the scope of application for the developed architecture. The methods used include variational autoencoders with multi-channel attention mechanisms, neuro-symbolic translation with multi-level abstraction, and the generation of directed acyclic graphs. The following results were obtained: an integrated neuro-symbolic architecture was developed featuring a neural network component for the automated detection of individual cognitive structures through variational encoding and attention mechanisms with dynamic channel prioritization by user category, and a symbolic component for transforming latent descriptors into interpretable causal graphs with adaptive detailing and temporal validation to eliminate spurious dependencies. Conclusions. The results of the study confirmed the effectiveness of the integrated neuro-symbolic approach to building personalized mental models with the automated detection of latent cognitive structures from behavioral data without the need for expert knowledge. The scientific novelty of the results obtained lies in the development of an integrated neuro-symbolic architecture model that provides interaction between a neural network layer, designed for projecting behavioral trajectories into latent space and selecting significant features through multi-channel attention, and a symbolic layer for the neuro-symbolic translation of latent vectors into multi-level symbolic representation. This involves the generation of directed acyclic graphs and temporal validation, which improves the comprehensibility of intelligent systems' decisions through the construction of personalized, interpretable mental models. This, in turn, increases user trust in intelligent systems' decisions by tailoring explanations according to their level of technical competence.

Keywords


neuro-symbolic architecture; mental models; personalized explanations; explainable artificial intelligence; variational autoencoders; attention mechanisms; causal graphs; temporal validation; user differentiation; interpretability

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.32620/aktt.2026.1.12