On Partitioning a Sample with Binary-Type Questions in Lieu of Collecting Observations
以二元问题代替精确观测的样本划分
The problem is to search for the t largest observations in a random sample of size n by asking binary-type questions of the people (or items) in the sample without collecting any exact data whatever. The unordered and ordered cases are both considered; in the latter case the complete ranking is of special interest. Two different criteria of optimality are considered: (a) to minimize the expected number of questions required and (b) to maximize the probability of terminating…