Structure of Support and Plausibility

Abstract

In chapter 8 we have seen how the frame of discernment of a hint may be coarsened and how in this way information contained in a hint may be lost. This may be a deliberate action with the goal of simplifying a discussion. In this section the coarsening or rather the inverse process of refining the information contained in a hint is discussed in a new comprehensive way. Unlike in Chap. 6 where frames were refined and coarsened, here we refine and coarsen hints. A general notion of inclusion of hints is defined. This notion has a practical interest as means to construct approximations in order to simplify computations. But this inclusion of hints is also an important theoretical tool which allows one to study the fine structure of hints and their corresponding support and plausibility functions. This aspect is discussed in the subsequent section 14.2.