---
title: "A Computational Model for Causal and Diagnostic Reasoning in Inference Systems"
authors:
  - "Jin H. Kim"
  - "Judea Pearl"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/45"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1983/0045.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1983
pages: "190-192"
track: "Expert Systems"
keywords:
---

# A Computational Model for Causal and Diagnostic Reasoning in Inference Systems

Jin H. Kim, Judea Pearl

*Proceedings of the Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 190-192.

## Abstract

This paper introdu c es a representation of ev id e nti a l relationships which permits updating of be lief in tw o simultaneous modes: causal (i . e. top-down ) Rnd diagn o stic (i.e. bottom-up). It extends t he hierarchical tree representation by all owing multiple causes to a given manifestation. We develop an updating scheme that obeys the axioms of probability, is co mputationally efficient, and is compatible with experts reasoning. The belief parameters of each variable are defined and updated by those of its neighbors in such a way that the impact of each new e vidence propagates and settles through the network in a single pass.