A Decision Calculus for Belief Functions in Valuation-based Systems

Valuation-based system (VBS) provides a general framework for representing knowledge and drawing inferences under uncertainty. Recent studies have shown that the semantics of VBS can represent and solve Bayesian decision problems (Shenoy, 1991a). The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision calculus for Dempster-Shafer (D-5) theory in the framework of VBS. The proposed calculus uses a weighting factor whose role is simila r t o t h e pro b ab i l i s tic interpretation of an assumption that dis amb igua t es deci sion problems represented with belief functions (Strat 1990). It will be shown that with the presented calculus, if the decision problems are represented in the valuation network properly, we can solve the problems by using fusion algorithm (Shenoy 1991a). It will also be shown the presented decision calculus can be reduced to the calculus for Bayesian probability theory w hen probabili ties, instead of belief functions, are given .