A Measurement for Essential Conflict in Dempster-Shafer Theory

Wenjun Ma, Jieyu Zhan, Yuncheng Jiang

2021

Abstract

Dempster’s combination rule in Dempster-Shafer (D-S) theory is widely used in data mining, machine learning, clustering and database systems. In these applications, the counter-intuitive result is often obtained with this rule when the combination of mass function is performed without checking whether original beliefs are in conflict. In this paper, a new type of conflict called essential conflict has been revealed with two characteristics: (i) it is an essential factor that leading to the counter-intuitive result by turning a possible state into a necessary true state or an impossible state; (ii) it cannot be corrected by the combination process of any new mass functions. After showing that the existing conflict measurements in D-S theory have the limitations to address the essential conflict and presenting a formalism about the concept of essential conflict, we propose a measurement of essential conflict between two mass functions based on the mass value and the intersection relation of their focal elements. We argue that if there exists a focal element of one mass function, such that the intersection of it and any focal element of another mass function is an empty set, then the essential conflict is caused and Dempster’s combination rule is not applicable.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Ma W., Zhan J. and Jiang Y. (2021). A Measurement for Essential Conflict in Dempster-Shafer Theory.In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART, ISBN 978-989-758-484-8, pages 1282-1289. DOI: 10.5220/0010394512821289

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icaart21,
author={Wenjun Ma and Jieyu Zhan and Yuncheng Jiang},
title={A Measurement for Essential Conflict in Dempster-Shafer Theory},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,},
year={2021},
pages={1282-1289},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010394512821289},
isbn={978-989-758-484-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence - Volume 2: ICAART,
TI - A Measurement for Essential Conflict in Dempster-Shafer Theory
SN - 978-989-758-484-8
AU - Ma W.
AU - Zhan J.
AU - Jiang Y.
PY - 2021
SP - 1282
EP - 1289
DO - 10.5220/0010394512821289