Explainability has become an important topic in computer science and
artificial intelligence, leading to a subfield called Explainable Artificial
Intelligence (XAI). The goal of providing or seeking explanations is to achieve
(better) 'understanding' on the part of the explainee. However, what it means
to 'understand' is still not clearly defined, and the concept itself is rarely
the subject of scientific investigation. This conceptual article aims to
present a model of forms of understanding in the context of XAI and beyond.
From an interdisciplinary perspective bringing together computer science,
linguistics, sociology, and psychology, a definition of understanding and its
forms, assessment, and dynamics during the process of giving everyday
explanations are explored. Two types of understanding are considered as
possible outcomes of explanations, namely enabledness, 'knowing how' to do or
decide something, and comprehension, 'knowing that' -- both in different
degrees (from shallow to deep). Explanations regularly start with shallow
understanding in a specific domain and can lead to deep comprehension and
enabledness of the explanandum, which we see as a prerequisite for human users
to gain agency. In this process, the increase of comprehension and enabledness
are highly interdependent. Against the background of this systematization,
special challenges of understanding in XAI are discussed.

在计算机科学和人工智能中，可解释性已经成为一个重要的话题，从而引出了一门称为可解释人工智能（XAI）的子领域。本概念性的文章旨在从跨学科的视角，将计算机科学、语言学、社会学和心理学整合，探讨在 XAI 和其他领域中理解及其形式、评估和动力学的模型。理解的两种类型被视为解释的可能结果，即使能型（知道如何做或决定某事）和理解型（知道某事）-- 两者程度不同（从浅到深）。解释通常从某一领域的浅层理解开始，可以达到深层的理解和使能，这被视为人类用户获得能动性的先决条件。在这一过程中，理解和使能性的增加高度相互依赖。本文还探讨了 XAI 中理解面临的特殊挑战。