Statistical Inference as Default Reasoning

May 1998

Proceedings of the Eleventh International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS 1998)

Volume

Proceedings of the Eleventh International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS 1998)

All Papers

Classical statistical inference is nonmonotonic in nature. We show how it can be formalized in the default logic framework. The structure of statistical inference is the same as that represented by default rules. In particular, the prerequisite corresponds to the sample statistics, the justifications require that we do not have any reason to believe that the sample is misleading, and the consequent corresponds to the conclusion sanctioned by the statistical test.