In this paper, a technique will be presented for establishing the value of acquiring data on attributes unavailable at the time an initial inference is made from a fuzzy cognitive map. The technique involves three steps. In the first, an assessment is made of the reachability of unavailable attributes to the final outcomes. This involves determining whether a chain of causality from the attribute of interest to the outcome is present. If not, the attribute of concern can not affect the outcome and can be eliminated from further consideration. For those nodes that can affect the outcome dominance in the chains of causality are determined within the map. This is the second step in the process. If other paths dominate the chain of interest such that the attribute can not affect the outcome regardless of its value, then it can also be eliminated from further consideration. In the final step, assuming that the cost of acquiring the required information has been incorporated into the map, a determination is made of the value of having the additional data.

Date Published: 9 April 2007
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 6571, Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications 2007, 65710O (9 April 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.718465

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6571:
Multisensor, Multisource Information Fusion: Architectures, Algorithms, and Applications 2007
Belur V. Dasarathy, Editor(s)