Fuzzy methods for case-based recommendation and decision support

The paper proposes two case-based methods for recommending decisions to users on the basis of information stored in a database. In both approaches, fuzzy sets and related (approximate) reasoning techniques are used for modeling user preferences and decision principles in a flexible manner. The first approach, case-based decision making, can principally be seen as a case-based counterpart to classical decision principles well-known from statistical decision theory. The second approach, called case-based elicitation, combines aspects from flexible querying of databases and case-based prediction. Roughly, imagine a user who aims at choosing an optimal alternative among a given set of options. The preferences with respect to these alternatives are formalized in terms of flexible constraints, the expression of which refers to cases stored in a database. As both types of decision support might provide useful tools for recommender systems, we also place the methods in a broader context and discuss the role of fuzzy set theory in some related fields.