Information Granulation and Approximation in a Decision-theoretic Model of Rough Sets

Granulation of the universe and approximation of concepts in the granulated universe are two related fundamental issues in the theory of rough sets. Many proposals dealing with the two issues have been made and studied extensively. We present a critical review of results from existing studies that are relevant to a decision-theoretic modeling of rough sets. Two granulation structures are studied, one is a partition induced by an equivalence relation and the other is a covering induced by a reflexive relation. With respect to the two granulated views of the universe, element oriented and granule oriented definitions and interpretations of lower and upper approximation operators are examined. The structures of the families of fixed points of approximation operators are investigated. We start with the notions of rough membership functions and graded set inclusion defined by conditional probability. This enables us to examine different granulation structures and the induced approximations in a decision-theoretic setting. By reviewing and combining results from existing studies, we attempt to establish a solid foundation for rough sets and to provide a systematic way for determining the required parameters in defining approximation operators.

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