Arguing for Decisions: A Qualitative Model of Decision Making

Abstract

We develop a qualitative model of decision making with two aims: to describe how people make simple decisions and to enable computer programs to do the same. Current approaches based on Planning or Decisions Theory either ignore uncertainty and tradeoffs, or provide languages and algorithms that are too complex for this task. The proposed model provides a language based on rules, a semantics based on high probabilities and lexicographical preferences, and a transparent decision procedure where reasons for and against decisions interact. The model is no substitude for Decision Theory, yet for decisions that people find easy to explain it may provide an appealing alternative.

Appears in Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1996)

References in corpus (1)

• An Order of Magnitude Calculus

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Using arguments for making decisions: A possibilistic logic approach
• A Qualitative Linear Utility Theory for Spohn's Theory of Epistemic Beliefs
• A unified setting for inference and decision: An argumentation-based approach
• Qualitative Decision Making Under Possibilistic Uncertainty: Toward more discriminating criteria