  Inspired by a novel action-theoretic formalization of actual cause, Khan and
Lesp\'erance (2021) recently proposed a first account of causal knowledge that
supports epistemic effects, models causal knowledge dynamics, and allows
sensing actions to be causes of observed effects. To date, no other study has
looked specifically at these issues. But their formalization is not
sufficiently expressive enough to model explanations via causal analysis of
mental states as it ignores a crucial aspect of theory of mind, namely
motivations. In this paper, we build on their work to support causal reasoning
about conative effects. In our framework, one can reason about causes of
motivational states, and we allow motivation-altering actions to be causes of
observed effects. We illustrate that this formalization along with a model of
goal recognition can be utilized to explain agent behaviour in communicative
multiagent contexts.
