Evidence Resolution Using Concept Hierarchies

This paper describes a conceptual and theoretical framework for the resolution of seemingly contradictory evidence for decision-making. Basic to this approach is the use of granulation provided by the categories obtained by ascending concept hierarchies. This process will be driven by the use of a criterion that represents the utility of granular categories to the user's decision making. The definition of complete and partial evidence resolution and their properties are developed, which permits the formulation of the concept of preponderance of evidence for the decision maker. Finally, we show some preliminary results on the concepts of strength and consensus measures to provide metrics of the goodness of the evidence resolution.