Craig Boutilier
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V6T 1Z4
email: cebly@cs.ubc.ca
Ronen I. Brafman
Department of Math and Computer Science
Ben-Gurion University
Beer Sheva, ISRAEL 84105
email: brafman@cs.bgu.ac.il
Holger H. Hoos
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V6T 1Z4
email: hoos@cs.ubc.ca
David Poole
Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, CANADA, V6T 1Z4
email: poole@cs.ubc.ca
Abstract
In many domains it is desirable to assess the preferences of users
in a qualitative rather than quantitative way. Such representations
of qualitative preference orderings form an important component of
automated decision tools. We propose a graphical representation of
preferences that reflects conditional dependence and independence of
preference statements under a ceteris paribus (all else being
equal) interpretation. Such a representation is often compact and arguably
natural. We describe several search algorithms for dominance testing
based on this representation; these algorithms are quite effective,
especially in specific network topologies, such as chain- and
tree-structured networks, as well as polytrees.
To appear, UAI-99
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