Some Properties of Aggregated Distributions over Expected Values

• Software agents and humans alike face severe difficulties in making decisions in uncertain contexts. One approach is to formalise the decision situation by means of decision theory, i.e. probabilities and utilities leading to the principle of maximising the expected utility. Expected utility is here considered as a stochastic variable; under the assumption that all utility values are equally likely, and that each vector of probability values is equally likely, the probability distribution of expected utility is calculated for two, three, and four possible outcomes. The effect of these probability distributions concentrating around the middle value is explored and its significance for making decisions.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Computer and systems science

Data- och systemvetenskap

data- och systemvetenskap

Computer and Systems Sciences

Computer science

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)