A new unified probabilistic model

  • Authors:
  • David Bodoff;Stephen Robertson

  • Affiliations:
  • ISMT Department, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China;Microsoft Research Cambridge, 7 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0FB, United Kingdom

  • Venue:
  • Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

This paper proposes a new unified probabilistic model. Two previous models, Robertson et al.'s "Model 0" and "Model 3," each have strengths and weaknesses. The strength of Model 0 not found in Model 3, is that it does not require relevance data about the particular document or query, and, related to that, its probability estimates are straightforward. The strength of Model 3 not found in Model 0 is that it can utilize feedback information about the particular document and query in question. In this paper we introduce a new unified probabilistic model that combines these strengths: the expression of its probabilities is straightforward, it does not require that data must be available for the particular document or query in question, but it can utilize such specific data if it is available. The model is one way to resolve the difficulty of combining two marginal views in probabilistic retrieval.