The harmonium and decision problems

Decision tables are modeled by a harmonium in a manner similar to P. Smolensky´s implementation of the two-resistor circuit problem on a harmonium (1984). The lower units consist of the condition combinations, while the knowledge atoms are the actions that are to be carried out in response to the outcome of the conditions. Representational and knowledge vectors are defined. In general, some of the components of these vectors are known and the completion problem consists in filling in the rest of the values that are maximally consistent with the fixed features. The model is described by using harmony theory as the measure of goodness to accomplish the completion task. A comparison with more traditional structures for representing decision tables is made. It is argued that the harmonium is a more flexible and robust model, especially when the environment contains imperfect or incomplete situations