Waiting on Weighting: olic Least Commitment Approach'
Kevin Ashley, Edwina L. Rissland · 1988
In this paper we describe an approach to the problem of weighting various factors that contribute to an analysis or outcome of a problem situation and discuss issues about weighting as they touch upon our case-based reasoned HY@O. In HYPO, we take the approach of delaying for as long as possible any assignment of weights-and of symbolically comparing the “weights” of competing factors. We call this approach a least commitm&t weighting scheme. I mtrsduction Problem analysis and solution can depend on many factors, some of which are more important th-an others and some of which may compete with and contradict each other. Further, the importance and contribution of a factor can be highly dependent upon the context defined by the problem situation and also the other factors present in it. Rarelv are all factors of equal weight or is a problem decomposable in a linear factor-by-factor manner. Experts in domains like the law and tactical planning know this. One can see that they are pursuing an approach that postpones for as long as feasible any commitment to assign weights or to select a combining function for factors. Experts do this for several reasons: