---
title: "Parallel Formulation of Evidential-Reasoning Theories"
authors:
  - "Terence R. Thompson"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1985/61"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1985/0061.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1985
pages: "321-326"
track: "Expert Systems"
keywords:
---

# Parallel Formulation of Evidential-Reasoning Theories

Terence R. Thompson

*Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 321-326.

## Abstract

There ia no general consensus on bow best to attack evidential-reasoning (ER) problems, paniculady in expert-ayatem applications. Several approaches have evolved, but they have their roots in divene fields, eucb u etatiatice and pbiloeopby, and have neither a common terminology nor a common eet of ueumptiona. The research reported here provides two useful results. Firat, it etructures the evidential-reasoning problem in a general paradigm robust enough to be of practical uee in design and construction of expert eyateme. Second, it ueee tbia paradigm to formulate five important theoretical approaches in a parallel fubion in order to identify key ueumptione, eimilaritles, and differences. The five approaches diecueeed are clueical Bays, convex Bayee, Dempeter-Sbafer, Kyburg, and poeeibility.