From Bayes’ Nets to Utility Nets
Ali E. Abbas, Paul M. Goggans, Chun-Yong Chan · AIP conference proceedings · 2009
Graphical representations of the independence relations in joint probability functions—commonly known as Bayesian networks—have played an essential role in knowledge representation and decision support. In this paper, we present a graphical representation of the independence relations in multiattribute utility functions, which we call bidirectional utility diagrams. These diagrams apply to more general functional forms that relax both the grounding conditions and n‐increasing conditions of joint cumulative probability functions. We also provide an expansion theorem for multiattribute utility functions and show how special cases of this expansion lead to some of the well‐known formulations of utility independence that occur in the literature.