Notes on “Possibilistic programming approach for fuzzy multidimensional analysis of preference in group decision making”

The aim of this note is to point out and correct some errors in the definitions, notations operations and possibilistic programming model introduced by Sadi-Nezhad and Akhtari (2008) and hereby develop two correct possibilistic programming models for fuzzy multidimensional analysis of preference in the fuzzy multiattribute group decision making problems with both the fuzzy weight vector and the fuzzy positive ideal solution (PIS) unknown a priori.     

Deriving decision makers’ weights in group decision making: An overview of objective methods

In group decision making problems, it is almost impossible to have a homogeneous group of decision makers whose experiences, attitudes, knowledge are the same or similar. Therefore, it is required to determine the weights of decision makers to reflect their relative importance or contribution to the problem. Decision maker weights show the importance or reliability of decision makers in solving the particular problem. The studies on determining the weights of the decision makers are limited. Besides, there is no comprehensive literature review or survey related to the determination of decision makers’ weight among the limited numbers of studies. Therefore, in this study, the literature on deriving decision makers’ weights is reviewed to present the state-of-the-art in the group decision making environment. Subsequently, a new classification system is proposed. Objective methods for deriving decision makers' weights are classified into five categories: Similarity-based approaches, index-based approaches, clustering-based approaches, integrated approaches, and other approaches. The literature review and analysis of the studies are conducted based on these categories; moreover, challenges and potential research directions are identified. According to the analysis of fifty-five papers, the interest in the topic increases dramatically after 2011. The highest percentage of the studies fell into the similarity-based approaches.     

The effects of a Web-based training in an instructional systems design approach on teachers’ instructional design behavior

Deficiencies in instructional design skill have been identified as a possible cause for the problems teachers of Dutch Polytechnics experience in designing competency-based education. This research investigates the effects of an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) training on teachers’ instructional design behavior. Thirty-six teachers from 16 Dutch Teacher Training Colleges received 20 hours of web-based training either in an ISD based condition or in an experience-based design condition (EXP). In the ISD condition teachers were trained to apply the Four-Component Instructional Design Model (4C-ID model) of Van Merriënboer (1997). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications, in the EXP condition the teachers were trained to optimize their own approach. The results supported the hypotheses, indicating that the ISD-based training resulted in a higher quality of design and was evaluated more positively than the EXP approach. These findings suggest that training in an ISD approach can effectively support teachers’ instructional design strategies.     

A commentary on “A novel soft rough set: Soft rough hemirings and corresponding multicriteria group decision making”

Zhan et al. (2016) proposed a novel soft rough set called soft rough hemiring and researched its algebra properties, along with an application in group decision making. However, we found that some results or its proofs are incorrect. Thus, the purpose of this note is to point out Remark 3.9, Proposition 3.16's proof are incorrect, moreover Theorems 4.9, 4.12, 4.15, 4.18 whose proofs mainly based on Proposition 3.16 and Lemma 4.43 whose proof based on Remark 3.9 are also generally incorrect.     

Social intelligence design in online chat communication: a psychological study on the effects of “congestion”

Social intelligence design (SID) is an essential concept for constructing electronic communities or computer-supported communication systems which effectively support various intelligent activities. This study is focused on one example of such systems, that is, online chat for real-time computer-mediated communication. We examined various dimensions of human information processing in online chat sessions from both the cognitive and social perspectives within psychology. A key variable which affects the process of a chat session is what we call communication congestion. We regard this quality as characterizing online chat sessions and are experimentally exploring its effects on chat performance and cognition processing by participants. Results of this experimental study suggest that medium-density congestion with a relevant topic might activate communication, particularly for experienced participants. Based on our findings, we discuss some suggestions regarding future innovations for chat systems.

Preference structure on alternatives and judges in a group decision problem—a fuzzy approach

In this paper a method is proposed for investigating the problem which deals with multi-judge, multi-criteria and multi-alternative decision problems. The objective of this paper basically consists of a procedure for giving a preference structure among the judges and ranking of alternatives with strength of preference by taking into account the opinion of all the judges according to their degree of efficiency. This paper also discusses some drawbacks of the application of majority rule for obtaining group consensus function.     

Comment on “Some hybrid weighted averaging operators and their application to decision making”

The weighted averaging (WA) operator and the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) operator are the basic aggregation operators. Recently, a new hybrid weighted arithmetical averaging (HWAA) operator is proposed by Lin and Jiang to provide a unified framework between the WA and OWA operators. In this paper, I have some comments on their results. The major one concerns the monotonicity of the HWAA operator.     

The effects of alcohol dosing on driving performance on a closed course and in a driving simulator†

The effect of alcohol consumption on driving performance was examined in two studies. In the first, six subjects drove for two hours over a closed-loop, two-lane course. In the second, 12 subjects drove for two hours in a driving simulator. In both studies, target blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) were 000%, 007%, or 0-12%. Multiple measures of vehicle control, tracking and information processing were recorded. In general, the standard deviations of these measures increased as BAC increased. Differences in the results between the two studies were related to differences in facilities (i.e. closed course vs. driving simulator).     

The effects of information overload on consumers’ subjective state towards buying decision in the internet shopping environment

One of the strengths of e-retailers is their ability to convey rich information to their customers. The theory of information overload, however, predicts that, beyond a threshold, more information leads to worse quality of, but a better subjective state towards the buying decisions. This study, via re-appraising the conception of decision quality, subjective state towards decision, and threshold of information load, proposes an extended model, considering the roles of information filtering mechanisms, on-line shopping experience, and perceived information overload, to examine the effects of information load on subjective state towards decision. An experiment was conducted to test the research model. The results indicate that rich information leads to a perception of high information overload; and the latter lead consumers to a worse subject state towards decision. Information filtering tools and on-line shopping experience may have influences on relieving but are not the panacea to the phenomenon of information overload. Novice consumers may face a more serious information overload problem.     

Commentary on “New aggregation operators of single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set and their application in multi-attribute decision making”

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Liu and Luo (Pattern Anal Appl https://doi.org/10.1007/s10044-017-0635-6 ) proposed a single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy ordered weighted aggregation...     

Effects of sleep loss on team decision making: motivational loss or motivational gain?

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of 30 hr of sleep loss and continuous cognitive work on performance in a distributed team decision-making environment. BACKGROUND: To date, only a few studies have examined the effect of sleep loss on distributed team performance, and only one other to our knowledge has examined the relationship between sleep loss and social-motivational aspects of teams (Hoeksema-van Orden, Gaillard, & Buunk, 1998). METHOD: Sixteen teams participated; each comprised 4 members. Three team members made threat assessments on a military surveillance task and then forwarded their judgments electronically to a team leader, who made a final assessment on behalf of the team. RESULTS: Sleep loss had an antagonistic effect on team decision-making accuracy and decision time. However, the performance loss associated with fatigue attributable to sleep loss was mediated by being part of a team, as compared with performing the same task individually - that is, we found evidence of a "motivational gain" effect in these sleepy teams. We compare these results with those of Hoeksema-van Orden et al. (1998), who found clear evidence of a "social loafing" effect in sleepy teams. CONCLUSION: The divergent results are discussed in the context of the collective effort model (Karau & Williams, 1993) and are attributable in part to a difference between independent and interdependent team tasks. APPLICATION: The issues and findings have implications for a wide range of distributed, collaborative work environments, such as military network-enabled operations.     

The effects of deprivation of cigarette smoking on psychomotor performance∗

Increased restrictive action has been taken to limit tobacco smoking in a variety of public and occupational settings without regard to the behavioural effects of these actions on smokers. Two studies were undertaken; one examining the performance of 16 college female cigarette smokers under conditions of smoking or deprivation, and the second study investigating 16 males from the same population. Performance scores, taken from an instrumented complex psychomotor device, were adjusted for ability as determined from a training period on the device and then compared between smoking conditions. In both studies, deprived smokers performed significantly less well on the pursuit tracking task while reaction time, vigilance and mental arithmetic tasks were not affected. Results are discussed in terms of the negative effects on performance and the possible implications for work situations.     

A note on “New aggregation operators of single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set and their application in multi-attribute decision making”

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Single-valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy elements (SVNHFEs) can be used to characterize incomplete, uncertain and inconsistent information effectively, which...     

“Girls can't play”: The effects of stereotype threat on females' gaming performance

The current study examined the impact of stereotype threat on female online gamers' performance and further examined whether manipulating the availability of multiple social identities effectively eliminated these performance decrements. Further, participants' implicit attitudes towards female online gamers were assessed. Eighty-one participants (60 female) were assigned to one of four experimental conditions: 1), stereotype threat, 2), multiple social identities, 3), female control, and 4), male control. They completed an Implicit Association Test and a gaming task. The number of coins collected in a 5-min time period provided a measure of gameplay performance. Results indicated that stereotype threatened females underperformed on the gaming task relative to males in the control condition. The intervention of multiple social identities successfully protected females' gameplay performance from stereotype threat. Additionally, differences were found between conditions in implicit attitudes pertaining to gender-gaming competence. This research highlights the harmful effects of negative stereotypes on females' gaming performance, and suggests that these decrements may be eliminated when females identify with an alternative positive social identity.     

The effects of recommendations’ presentation on persuasion and satisfaction in a movie recommender system

The explosive growth of Internet applications and content, during the last decade, has revealed an increasing need for information filtering and recommendation. Most research in the area of recommendation systems has focused on designing and implementing efficient algorithms that provide accurate recommendations. However, the selection of appropriate recommendation content and the presentation of information are equally important in creating successful recommender applications. This paper addresses issues related to the presentation of recommendations in the movies domain. The current work reviews previous research approaches and popular recommender systems, and focuses on user persuasion and satisfaction. In our experiments, we compare different presentation methods in terms of recommendations’ organization in a list (i.e. top N-items list and structured overview) and recommendation modality (i.e. simple text, combination of text and image, and combination of text and video). The most efficient presentation methods, regarding user persuasion and satisfaction, proved to be the “structured overview” and the “text and video” interfaces, while a strong positive correlation was also found between user satisfaction and persuasion in all experimental conditions.     

The effects of social media on students’ behaviors; Facebook as a case study

Social networks are one of the most used communication methods of today's world. Their use in different fields has been examined in several research studies. This study aims to examine the effects of social media on student's behaviors which will mainly focus on Facebook. Whether there is a positive relationship between confidence, social media participation and social media related behaviors will also be assed with regard to using Facebook. In order to collect the primary data, a general scanning model was used to observe attitudes of high school students. The participants chosen were 362 high school students from level 9 to 12. The findings highlight that Facebook is used for communication entertainment and sharing news, pictures and songs. In addition, their Facebook profile picture is alone and students were aware that swearing is considered a form of misconduct, which is a good sign. The study also indicates that students were aware of protecting their social identity as their Facebook shares are not public. Furthermore, they respect privacy as they do not use their friend's Facebook account.     

“Understanding a fury in your words”: The effects of posting and viewing electronic negative word-of-mouth on purchase behaviors

Marketing scholars and practitioners have long recognized that the power of electronic negative word-of-mouth (e-NWOM) can influence brand revenues and firm performance, but most previous studies have only examined the effect of viewing. This study is one of the initial attempts to test the effects of e-NWOM on both posters and viewers. We also test the moderating effects of company usefulness and company apology in a separate study. Using an observational dataset that contains NWOM viewing and posting records and customers' purchase transactions from a real company, Study 1 finds that viewing e-NWOM has a negative effect on subsequent purchases, whereas posting e-NWOM has a positive interaction effect with company usefulness. Study 2 shows that a company's public apology has a positive effect on viewers, but not posters. We conclude with the theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications of e-NWOM and webcare research.