Evaluation of a verbal-numerical probability scale

For purposes such as the development of decision support systems, the probabilities that model the uncertainties in the domain of application are usually elicited from domain experts. A number of elicitation methods is available. While constructing a reallife system, we however found none of these methods to be quite usable: they turned out to be too time-consuming and difficult for experts. In an earlier paper we described a verbal–numerical response scale we developed to facilitate elicitation of a large number of probabilities. In this paper we describe a study that justifies our claim that use of this verbal–numerical scale generally facilitates the assessment process. 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.