Experimental investigations of uncertainty in a rule-based system for information retrieval

✍ Scribed by Richard M. Tong; Daniel G. Shapiro

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1985
• Weight: 996 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(85)80003-1

✦ Synopsis

This paper describes the results of an experimental investigation of the effects of different representations of uncertainty in an interactive rule-based expert system for Information Retrieval. We draw on Fuzzy Set Theory both to define the various representations and to help analyse the results. We conclude that specification of an uncertainty calculus is a subtle problem that interacts in several ways with the scheme used to represent the expert knowledge itself. Our results indicate that some calculi appear to prevent the development of good queries while those whose behaviour is appropriately smooth can give satisfactory performance. More interestingly, our evidence suggests that as queries become more complex the impact of the choice of calculus is reduced. The paper concludes with a discussion of the insights gained with respect to the general problem of building rule-based expert systems.