Models Based on the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence

Abstract

Like Bayesian approaches, the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence aims to model and quantify uncertainty by degrees of belief. But in contrast to Bayesian approaches it permits assignment of degrees of belief to sets of hypotheses rather than to hypotheses in isolation. The underlying idea is that the process of narrowing the hypothesis set with the collection of evidence is better represented in terms of this theory than in terms of Bayesian approaches. For this reason the theory can be viewed as an alternative to Bayesian modeling in probability theory.