Monotonic and Nonmonotonic Preference Revision

TL;DR

This paper explores preference revision in relational frameworks, analyzing how preferences can be updated monotonically or nonmonotonically while preserving order properties, with applications to database querying.

Contribution

It introduces a relational framework for preference revision, characterizes classes of revisions that preserve order axioms, and applies these results to database preference querying.

Findings

Identifies classes of preference revisions preserving order axioms

Provides a relational framework for preference updates

Applies results to improve preference querying in databases

Abstract

We study here preference revision, considering both the monotonic case where the original preferences are preserved and the nonmonotonic case where the new preferences may override the original ones. We use a relational framework in which preferences are represented using binary relations (not necessarily finite). We identify several classes of revisions that preserve order axioms, for example the axioms of strict partial or weak orders. We consider applications of our results to preference querying in relational databases.