The qualitative characteristics of combining evidence with discounting

Abstract

The qualitative characteristics of the combining evidence with the help of Dempster’s rule with discounting is studied in this paper in the framework of Dempster-Shafer theory. The discount coefficient (discounting rate) characterizes the reliability of information source. The conflict between evidence and change of ignorance after applying combining rule are considered in this paper as important characteristics of quality of combining. The quantity of ignorance is estimated with the help of linear imprecision index. The set of crisp and fuzzy discounting rates for which the value of ignorance after combining does not increases is described.