Showcase/Rationale Annotation (ERASER)
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Rationale Annotation (ERASER)

Annotate rationales (evidence spans) that justify classification decisions. Based on the ERASER benchmark (DeYoung et al., ACL 2020). Identify which parts of the text are necessary and sufficient for making a prediction.

📝

text annotation

Configuration Fileconfig.yaml

# Rationale Annotation (ERASER-style)
# Based on DeYoung et al., ACL 2020
# Paper: https://aclanthology.org/2020.acl-main.408/
# Benchmark: https://www.eraserbenchmark.com
#
# Rationales are text spans that provide evidence for a classification decision.
# Good rationales should be:
# - SUFFICIENT: The rationale alone should support the label
# - NECESSARY: Removing the rationale should change the prediction
# - MINIMAL: Don't include extra context that isn't needed
#
# Annotation Guidelines:
# 1. First make the classification decision for the full text
# 2. Then identify which spans were most important for that decision
# 3. Ask: "If I only saw these spans, would I make the same decision?"
# 4. Ask: "If these spans were removed, would the label change?"
# 5. Prefer shorter, more precise spans over longer ones
# 6. Multiple separate rationales are okay
#
# Common Patterns:
# - For sentiment: words expressing opinion, emotion
# - For topics: key phrases indicating subject matter
# - For NLI: phrases showing contradiction or entailment

port: 8000
server_name: localhost
task_name: "Rationale Annotation"

data_files:
  - sample-data.json
id_key: id
text_key: text

output_file: annotations.json

annotation_schemes:
  # Step 1: Make the classification
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: classification
    description: "What is the sentiment of this movie review?"
    labels:
      - "Positive"
      - "Negative"
    tooltips:
      "Positive": "The reviewer liked the movie (recommending it)"
      "Negative": "The reviewer disliked the movie (not recommending it)"

  # Step 2: Highlight rationales
  - annotation_type: span
    name: rationales
    description: "Highlight the text spans that JUSTIFY your classification (evidence)"
    labels:
      - "Rationale"
    label_colors:
      "Rationale": "#3b82f6"
    tooltips:
      "Rationale": "Spans that provide evidence for the classification. Should be sufficient (enough to justify label) and necessary (removing them would change the label)"
    allow_overlapping: false

  # Step 3: Rationale sufficiency check
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: sufficiency
    description: "Looking ONLY at your highlighted rationales, would you make the same classification?"
    labels:
      - "Yes, definitely"
      - "Probably yes"
      - "Uncertain"
      - "Probably no"
    tooltips:
      "Yes, definitely": "The rationales alone are completely sufficient"
      "Probably yes": "The rationales are mostly sufficient"
      "Uncertain": "Hard to tell from rationales alone"
      "Probably no": "More context would be needed"

allow_all_users: true
instances_per_annotator: 100
annotation_per_instance: 2
allow_skip: true
skip_reason_required: false

Sample Datasample-data.json

[
  {
    "id": "rat_001",
    "text": "I went into this movie with low expectations, but I was completely blown away. The performances were incredible, especially the lead actor who delivered a career-defining role. The cinematography was breathtaking. Highly recommend!"
  },
  {
    "id": "rat_002",
    "text": "What a waste of two hours. The plot made no sense, the dialogue was cringeworthy, and I found myself checking my watch constantly. Save your money and skip this one."
  }
]

// ... and 6 more items

Get This Design

View on GitHub

Clone or download from the repository

Quick start:

git clone https://github.com/davidjurgens/potato-showcase.git
cd potato-showcase/rationale-annotation
potato start config.yaml

Details

Annotation Types

radiospan

Domain

NLPExplainabilityMachine Learning

Use Cases

Explainable AIEvidence ExtractionModel Interpretability

Tags

rationaleexplainabilityevidenceeraseracl2020interpretability

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