14. A computer program product as set forth in claim 13 , further comprising instruction means for causing a computer to perform operations of: receiving a known truth corresponding to a variable having a probability distribution, the known truth having characteristics; comparing the characteristics of the known truth to the probability distribution to generate an error; and updating the weights assigned to the inputs to minimize the error.
13. A computer program product for operating a valuation-based learning system, the computer program product comprising computer-readable instruction means stored on a computer-readable medium that are executable by a computer for causing the computer to perform operations of: receiving a plurality of inputs, each input being input evidence corresponding to a variable in a Dempster-Shafer Reasoning System, wherein the Dempster-Shafer Reasoning System is a network of interconnected nodes, with each node being representative of a characteristic of a problem domain; optimizing a discount weight for assigning to each of the inputs; generating a basic probability assignment (bpa) using the Dempster-Shafer Reasoning System, and where the bpa is an output for use in determining a solution of the problem domain; determining a solution to the problem domain using the bpa; and providing the solution to a user.