Inductive Inference and Link Analysis

Like link analysis, our approach to inductive inference has been concerned with observing behavioral elements or entities; determining how they are related within a specified domain; and describing how these entities may combine to classify or predict (even as-yet-unobserved) behaviors. Both the analysis and inference processes thus can define "all" the behaviors within a domain or "all" the components of a body of knowledge. Unlike link analysis as described in [4], our primary inductive inference research has emphasized theoretical issues and results, rather than specific practical applications. Yet we feel that this theory can be adapted to the domain of practice. A wealth of well-developed inference theory, already defined in the artificial intelligence community, can provide insights into solving the problems of the newer research area of link analysis. Here we briefly describe some of our own inductive inference research and results that we believe may have potential utility in the link analysis field.