Probabilistic Similarity Networks

I address practical issues concerning the construction of normative expert systems, and examine the influence diagram as a potential framework for representing knowledge in such systems. I introduce an extension of the influence-diagram representation called a similarity network. A similarity network is a tool for constructing large and complex influence diagrams. The representation allows a user to construct independent influence diagrams for subsets of a given domain. A valid influence diagram for the entire domain can then be constructed from the individual diagrams.