Seminar Logic, Games & Computation: Preference Change

Why preference?

Just a reminder

• Preference over actions/strategies: e.g. in games, a player prefers 'going left' or 'going right'.
• Preference over state of affairs: Being heathy is preferred to being ill.
• Preference over objects: A house of good quality and cheap is preferred to one of good quality but expensive.

Why preference change?... motivations

• One changes one's preferences internally over time or externally because certain events have happened.

Example: Preference change triggered by events

• Via Beliefs: One changes one's beliefs, accordingly one changes one's preference.

Example: Preference change via belief change

A different representation/measure.

Example: Higher score = More preferable

What can we (logicians) do with preference change? Modelling!

METHODOLOGY: Dynamic Epistemic Logic (DEL, presented in the previous lectures)

Options for preference on the static level

• Modal logic: Preference as a unary modality. (in van Benthem, van Otterloo and Roy 2005)
• First order logic: Preference as a binary predicate.(in De Jongh and Liu 2006)
• Propositional logic: Propositional constant with numbers to indicate the preference.(in Liu 2006)

Different models of the dynamic preference change

• Relation-based preference change. See van Benthem and Liu 2005, Dynamic Logic of Preference Upgrade, to appear in the Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logic. (Click here for the main technical results.)
• Constraint-based preference change. See de Jongh and Liu 2006, Optimality, Belief and Preference. Presented at the ESSLLI Workshop Rationality and Knowledge, 31 July - 11 August, 2006. Malaga, Spain. (Click here for the slides.)
• Value-based preference change. See Liu 2006, Preference Change and Information Processing. Presented at the 7th Conference on Logic and the Foundations of Game and Decision Theory, 13-15 July, 2006, Liverpool, UK. (Click here for the slides.)

Homework

Homework on preference change.

Deadline: 1 Nov 2006.

Finally

a) For more events related to the seminar, please check the website Logic, Games and Computation at Amsterdam.

b) I am happy to discuss any questions concerning preference and preference change with you, please send an email to Fenrong.