Partially Specified Belief Functions

Abstract: This paper presents a procedure to determine a complete belief function from the known values of belief for some of the subsets of the frame of discerment. The method is based on the principle of minimum commitment and a new principle called the focusing principle. This additional principle is based on the idea that belief is specified for the most relevant sets: the focal elements. The resulting procedure is compared with existing methods of building complete belief functions: the minimum specificity principle and the least commitment principle.