Goal-based Decision Making

Chapter 6

The VOTE Program

Chapter Summary

In the past three chapters, we have presented the underlying theory of goals, resources, and interpersonal relationships. In the present chapter, we discuss the VOTE program’s knowledge structures and decision making algorithm. The roll call voting task illustrates several aspects of our theory of goals and relationships.

6.1 Roll Call Voting

We now apply the theory of goals and relationships discussed in the preceding three chapters to the task of decision making, specifically congressional roll call voting. We summarize the relevant points as follows.

•   Agents have a multitude of goals.

•   Limited resources will require agents to make trade-offs among goals.

•   Importance can be used to rank ...