Lecture 2 (End of Chapter Questions)

Question 1

What does “conflicting objective” mean?

Answer 1

• There is no alternative that dominates all other alternatives
• Trade-off between different objectives has to be considered
• Combine multiple attributes into a single index of the overall desirability of an alternative

Question 2

How does a non-additive value function differ from an additive value function?

Answer 2

The non-additive value function has a term that captures the interaction between the attributes (positive term: complement attributes; negative term; substitute attributes)

Question 3

What are the requirements for representing preferences with an ordinal or a cardinal attribute value function?

Answer 3

• Ordinal: mutual preferential independence

- Cardinal: additive difference independence

Question 4

What are the methods for determining value functions? Compare and contrast each method.

Answer 4

1. Direct method (direct assign values)
2. Bisection method (find attribute value in the middle)
3. DSST method (find attributes X0, X1, …)

• DSST is easiest and direct hardest method for DM

Question 5

What is the problem with eliciting the value function for a discrete attribute?

Answer 5

Bisection method and DSST method cannot be used.

Question 6

How can you elicit non-monotonic attribute value functions?

Answer 6

1. Split the objective into monotonic lower level objectives

2. Split the interval into subintervals on which the value function is monotonic