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Showcase/Cross-lingual Causal Commonsense Reasoning (XCOPA)
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Cross-lingual Causal Commonsense Reasoning (XCOPA)

Select the most plausible cause or effect for a given premise, testing causal commonsense reasoning across languages. Based on XCOPA (Ponti et al., EMNLP 2020). Annotators choose between two alternatives, rate their confidence, and assess the reasoning difficulty.

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Configuration Fileconfig.yaml

# Cross-lingual Causal Commonsense Reasoning (XCOPA)
# Based on Ponti et al., EMNLP 2020
# Paper: https://aclanthology.org/2020.emnlp-main.185/
# Dataset: https://github.com/cambridgeltl/xcopa
#
# This task presents a premise and asks annotators to choose the more
# plausible cause or effect from two alternatives. XCOPA extends the
# original English COPA (Choice of Plausible Alternatives) benchmark
# to 11 typologically diverse languages, testing whether causal
# commonsense reasoning transfers across linguistic boundaries.
#
# Answer Labels:
# - CHOICE_1: The first alternative is more plausible
# - CHOICE_2: The second alternative is more plausible
#
# Confidence Levels:
# - CERTAIN: Very confident in the answer
# - FAIRLY CERTAIN: Reasonably confident but can see some ambiguity
# - UNCERTAIN: Both alternatives seem somewhat plausible
#
# Reasoning Difficulty:
# - STRAIGHTFORWARD: Common everyday causal relationship
# - REQUIRES WORLD KNOWLEDGE: Needs factual knowledge about the world
# - REQUIRES CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE: Needs understanding of cultural norms
# - AMBIGUOUS: Both alternatives are roughly equally plausible
#
# Annotation Guidelines:
# 1. Read the premise and understand the situation described
# 2. Note the question type: CAUSE (what led to this?) or EFFECT (what happened next?)
# 3. Read both choices and select the one that is more plausible
# 4. For CAUSE questions: which choice better explains WHY the premise happened?
# 5. For EFFECT questions: which choice more naturally FOLLOWS from the premise?
# 6. Use common sense and everyday knowledge to make your selection
# 7. Rate your confidence in the choice
# 8. Assess what kind of reasoning was needed
#
# Key Considerations:
# - Both choices may be possible, but one should be MORE plausible
# - Do not overthink -- go with the most natural/common interpretation
# - Some items may require cultural or world knowledge

annotation_task_name: "Cross-lingual Causal Commonsense Reasoning (XCOPA)"
task_dir: "."

data_files:
  - sample-data.json
item_properties:
  id_key: "id"
  text_key: "premise"

output_annotation_dir: "annotation_output/"
output_annotation_format: "json"

annotation_schemes:
  # Step 1: Select the more plausible alternative
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: correct_answer
    description: "Which alternative is the more plausible cause or effect of the premise?"
    labels:
      - "choice_1"
      - "choice_2"
    keyboard_shortcuts:
      "choice_1": "1"
      "choice_2": "2"
    tooltips:
      "choice_1": "The first alternative is more plausible"
      "choice_2": "The second alternative is more plausible"

  # Step 2: Confidence rating
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: confidence
    description: "How confident are you in your answer?"
    labels:
      - "certain"
      - "fairly-certain"
      - "uncertain"
    tooltips:
      "certain": "Very confident -- one alternative is clearly more plausible"
      "fairly-certain": "Reasonably confident but can see some ambiguity"
      "uncertain": "Both alternatives seem somewhat plausible; difficult to decide"

  # Step 3: Reasoning difficulty
  - annotation_type: radio
    name: reasoning_difficulty
    description: "What kind of reasoning was needed to answer this question?"
    labels:
      - "straightforward"
      - "requires-world-knowledge"
      - "requires-cultural-knowledge"
      - "ambiguous"
    tooltips:
      "straightforward": "Common everyday causal relationship that most people would agree on"
      "requires-world-knowledge": "Needs factual or scientific knowledge about how the world works"
      "requires-cultural-knowledge": "Needs understanding of cultural practices, norms, or conventions"
      "ambiguous": "Both alternatives are roughly equally plausible; genuinely hard to choose"

annotation_instructions: |
  You will be shown a premise (a short sentence describing a situation) and a question type (CAUSE or EFFECT). Two alternative sentences are provided:
  - For CAUSE questions: select the alternative that better explains WHY the premise happened.
  - For EFFECT questions: select the alternative that more naturally FOLLOWS from the premise.

  Use your common sense to pick the more plausible alternative. Both may be possible, but one should be clearly better. Rate your confidence and the type of reasoning required.

html_layout: |
  <div style="padding: 15px; max-width: 800px; margin: auto;">
    <div style="background: #f0f9ff; border: 1px solid #bae6fd; border-radius: 8px; padding: 16px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
      <strong style="color: #0369a1;">Premise:</strong>
      <p style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 8px 0 0 0;">{{premise}}</p>
    </div>
    <div style="background: #fefce8; border-left: 4px solid #f59e0b; padding: 10px 16px; border-radius: 4px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
      <strong style="color: #a16207;">Question type:</strong> What is the most plausible <strong>{{question_type}}</strong>?
    </div>
    <div style="display: flex; gap: 12px;">
      <div style="flex: 1; background: #f8fafc; border: 1px solid #e2e8f0; border-radius: 8px; padding: 14px;">
        <strong style="color: #475569;">Choice 1:</strong>
        <p style="margin: 6px 0 0 0; font-size: 15px;">{{choice_1}}</p>
      </div>
      <div style="flex: 1; background: #f8fafc; border: 1px solid #e2e8f0; border-radius: 8px; padding: 14px;">
        <strong style="color: #475569;">Choice 2:</strong>
        <p style="margin: 6px 0 0 0; font-size: 15px;">{{choice_2}}</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

allow_all_users: true
instances_per_annotator: 50
annotation_per_instance: 2
allow_skip: true
skip_reason_required: false

Sample Datasample-data.json

[
  {
    "id": "xcopa_001",
    "premise": "The man turned on the faucet.",
    "question_type": "effect",
    "choice_1": "The toilet flushed.",
    "choice_2": "Water flowed from the spout.",
    "language": "English"
  },
  {
    "id": "xcopa_002",
    "premise": "The woman hired a lawyer.",
    "question_type": "cause",
    "choice_1": "She wanted to sue her neighbor.",
    "choice_2": "She wanted to learn how to cook.",
    "language": "English"
  }
]

// ... and 8 more items

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Quick start:

git clone https://github.com/davidjurgens/potato-showcase.git
cd potato-showcase/text/cross-lingual/xcopa-causal-reasoning
potato start config.yaml

Details

Annotation Types

radio

Domain

NLPCommonsense ReasoningCross-lingual Transfer

Use Cases

Commonsense ReasoningCausal ReasoningCross-lingual Evaluation

Tags

cross-lingualcausal-reasoningcommonsensexcopaemnlp2020copa

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