Research and Development in Expert Systems XV

An algorithm for decision-tree induction is presented in which attribute selection is based on the evidence-gathering strategies used by doctors in sequential diagnosis. Since the attribute selected by the algorithm at a given node is often the best attribute according to Quinlan's information gain criterion. the decision tree it induces is often identical to the ID3 tree when the number of attributes is small. In problemsolving applications of the induced decision tree. an advantage of the approach is that the relevance of a selected attribute or test can be explained in strategic terms. An implementation of the algorithm in an environment providing integrated support for incremental learning. problem solving and explanation is presented.