A Fuzzy Goal Programming Formulation with Multiple Target Levels

The essential activity of a manager is decision making, which is becoming more and more complex, mainly in the multi‐criteria problems. Multi‐choice goal programming (MCGP) is considered as a robust tool in operational research to solve this type of problem. However, in real world problems, determining precise targets for the goals is a difficult task. To deal with such situation, Tabrizi introduced and used in 2012 the concept of membership functions in the MCGP model in order to model the targets fuzziness of each goal. In their model, they considered just only one type of functions (triangular form), which does not reflect adequately the decision maker's preferences that are considered as an essential element for modelling the goal's fuzziness. Their model is called Fuzzy MCGP. In this paper, new ideas are presented to reformulate MCGP model to tackle all types of functions by introducing the (decision maker's) preferences. The concept of indifference thresholds is used in the new formulation for characterizing the imprecision and the preferences associated with all types of the goals. The proposed formulation provides useful insight about the solution of a new class of problems. A numerical example is given to demonstrate the validity and strength of the new formulation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

心理学对经济学的涉入——从理性自利到社会偏好的决策框架

理性认知能力与社会偏好存在紧密的关联。文章简要回顾了经济决策理论从理性模型到有限理性模型和社会偏好模型的发展进程,论述了人们理性的局限性及其根源,并进一步探讨理性认知能力与社会偏好的关系。对人类以及灵长目动物的研究显示,有限理性可能是由根源于演化的适应性机制所导致。人类不公平厌恶的起源、个体公平能力的发展规律和表征公平的大脑结构上的证据表明,理性认知能力能让人更好地抑制自私性,实现更高层次的公平。     

眼动操纵技术在决策研究中的应用前景：改变决策行为

眼动追踪技术因干扰性低、客观性强、获取数据丰富而准确等优点, 被广泛应用于行为决策研究。通过操纵眼动过程, 可使决策结果按照预期的方向改变, 建立决策过程和结果的因果链, 为决策的干预研究提供思路。基于外源性眼动操纵、注视追随操纵这两类研究, 介绍了行为决策领域眼动操纵的基本方法及原理、常见操纵指标、操纵效果, 并分析和讨论了不同操纵类别的优缺点。在实验设计中考虑决策者策略及偏好的差异, 结合计算建模等方法进一步丰富操纵指标和分析方法, 并将该方法的优势拓展到其它领域是眼动操纵研究未来的重要方向。     

Female face preference in 4-month-olds: The importance of hairline

At 3–4 months of age, infants respond to gender information in human faces. Specifically, young infants display a visual preference toward female over male faces. In three experiments, using a visual preference task, we investigated the role of hairline information in this bias. In Experiment 1, we presented male and female composite faces with similar hairstyles to 4-month-olds and observed a preference for female faces. In Experiment 2, the faces were presented, but in this instance, without hairline cues, and the preference was eliminated. In Experiment 3, using the same cropping to eliminate hairline cues, but with feminized female faces and masculinized male faces, infants’ preference toward female faces was still not in evidence. The findings show that hairline information is important in young infants’ preferential orientation toward female faces.     

Hand preference status and reach kinematics in infants

Infants show age-related improvements in reach straightness and smoothness over the first years of life as well as a decrease in average movement speed. This period of changing kinematics overlaps the emergence of handedness. We examined whether infant hand preference status is related to the development of motor control in 53 infants ranging from 11 to 14 months old. Hand preference status was assessed from reaching to a set of 5 objects presented individually at the infant's midline; infants were classified into ‘right preference’ or ‘no preference’ groups. Three-dimensional (3-D) recordings were made of each arm for reaches under two distinct conditions: pick up a ball and fit it into the opening of a toy (grasp-to-place task) or pick up a Cheerio^® and consume it (grasp-to-eat task). Contrary to expectations, there was no effect of hand preference status on reach smoothness or straightness for either task. On the grasp-to-eat task only, average speed of the left hand differed as a function of hand preference status. Infants in the no preference group exhibited higher left hand average speeds than infants in the right preference group. Our results suggest that while behavioral differences in the use of the two hands may be present in some infants, these differences do not appear to be systematically linked to biases in motor control of the arms early in development.     

Preferences for suicide prevention strategies among university students in Japan: a cross-sectional study using full-profile conjoint analysis

In Japan, implementation of suicide prevention policies is mainly supported by public funds. However, it is unclear what kinds of suicide prevention strategies people prefer. We conducted a survey to clarify people’s preferences regarding suicide prevention strategies adopted in Japan. This was a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire survey. Participants were recruited through a lecture held by the first author at their university. We distributed questionnaires to 324 people present at the lecture; 249 completed questionnaires were included in the final analysis. We estimated suicide prevention strategy preferences using full profile conjoint analysis. For all six prevention strategies, the inclusion of each strategy in the policy profile was statistically significantly related to the positive evaluation of the overall policy profile. Marginal Willingness to Pay (MWTP) for restriction of access to means showed the highest value of the six suicide prevention strategies. MWTP was the lowest for public awareness activities. Preferred suicide prevention strategies in Japan are restriction of access to means and enhancement of psychiatric services. The results of this study indicate the strategies that are preferred have a high level of evidence of suicide prevention and do not directly intervene in a person’s free will to die by suicide.     

Effects of perception on public bike-and-ride: A survey under complex,multifactor mode-choice scenarios

Bicycles are an environmentally-friendly, energy-saving mode of transportation. Public bike-and-ride is a term used to describe the use of public bicycles combined with transit as a means of transportation. A new stated preference (SP) design scheme based on the factors respondents felt were most important was proposed to augment the traditional SP design under complex multi-factor and multi-level situations. iPads were used to automatically administer the survey under each design scheme and collect the choice behavior data for public bike-and-ride. The concept of perceived psychological distance was further proposed and used to estimate Logit models. Comparative analysis of these models shows for the traditional SP design scheme, some factors, including perceived psychological distance, have reduced statistically significant effects on public bike-and-ride choice relative to the new SP design scheme. This indicates that in scenarios with complex decisions, the decision-makers would reduce their consideration of some factors and simplify their decision process making the new SP survey design scheme more suitable to analyze their choice behavior in those cases. Model analysis showed that perceived psychological distance for each traveler is the most critical factor during the decision process for travel behavior analysis. Finally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine which factors in the new survey design were important to increase the share of public bike-and-ride users. Practical findings for promoting public bike-and-ride use are presented in addition to theoretical references for improving the traditional survey methods.