Focusing on the Most Important Explanations: Decision-Theoretic Horn Abduction

Abstract

This paper describes a new method, called Decision-Theoretic Horn Abduction (DTHA), for generating and focusing on the most important explanations. A procedure is given that can be used iteratively to generate a sequence of explanations from the most to the least important. The new method considers both the likelihood and utility of partial explanations and is applicable to a wide range of tasks. This paper shows how it applies to an important engineering design task, namely Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). A concrete example illustrates the advantages of the general approach in the context of FMEA.

Cite

Text

O'Rorke. "Focusing on the Most Important Explanations: Decision-Theoretic Horn Abduction." AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1994.

Markdown

[O'Rorke. "Focusing on the Most Important Explanations: Decision-Theoretic Horn Abduction." AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1994.](https://mlanthology.org/aaai/1994/oaposrorke1994aaai-focusing/)

BibTeX

@inproceedings{oaposrorke1994aaai-focusing,
  title     = {{Focusing on the Most Important Explanations: Decision-Theoretic Horn Abduction}},
  author    = {O'Rorke, Paul},
  booktitle = {AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence},
  year      = {1994},
  pages     = {275-280},
  url       = {https://mlanthology.org/aaai/1994/oaposrorke1994aaai-focusing/}
}