Distributed Linguistic Representations in Decision Making: Taxonomy, Key Elements and Applications, and Challenges in Data Science and Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Distributed linguistic representations are powerful tools for modelling the uncertainty and complexity of preference information in linguistic decision making. To provide a comprehensive perspective on the development of distributed linguistic representations in decision making, we present the taxonomy of existing distributed linguistic representations. Then, we review the key elements and applications of distributed linguistic information processing in decision making, including the distance measurement, aggregation methods, distributed linguistic preference relations, and distributed linguistic multiple attribute decision making models. Next, we provide a discussion on ongoing challenges and future research directions from the perspective of data science and explainable artificial intelligence.National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) 71971039 71421001,71910107002,71771037,71874023 71871149Sichuan University sksyl201705 2018hhs-5

A systematic review on multi-criteria group decision-making methods based on weights: analysis and classification scheme

Interest in group decision-making (GDM) has been increasing prominently over the last decade. Access to global databases, sophisticated sensors which can obtain multiple inputs or complex problems requiring opinions from several experts have driven interest in data aggregation. Consequently, the field has been widely studied from several viewpoints and multiple approaches have been proposed. Nevertheless, there is a lack of general framework. Moreover, this problem is exacerbated in the case of experts’ weighting methods, one of the most widely-used techniques to deal with multiple source aggregation. This lack of general classification scheme, or a guide to assist expert knowledge, leads to ambiguity or misreading for readers, who may be overwhelmed by the large amount of unclassified information currently available. To invert this situation, a general GDM framework is presented which divides and classifies all data aggregation techniques, focusing on and expanding the classification of experts’ weighting methods in terms of analysis type by carrying out an in-depth literature review. Results are not only classified but analysed and discussed regarding multiple characteristics, such as MCDMs in which they are applied, type of data used, ideal solutions considered or when they are applied. Furthermore, general requirements supplement this analysis such as initial influence, or component division considerations. As a result, this paper provides not only a general classification scheme and a detailed analysis of experts’ weighting methods but also a road map for researchers working on GDM topics or a guide for experts who use these methods. Furthermore, six significant contributions for future research pathways are provided in the conclusions.The first author acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Universities [grant number FPU18/01471]. The second and third author wish to recognize their support from the Serra Hunter program. Finally, this work was supported by the Catalan agency AGAUR through its research group support program (2017SGR00227). This research is part of the R&D project IAQ4EDU, reference no. PID2020-117366RB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/ 501100011033.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

An overview on managing additive consistency of reciprocal preference relations for consistency-driven decision making and Fusion: Taxonomy and future directions

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.The reciprocal preference relation (RPR) is a powerful tool to represent decision makers’ preferences in decision making problems. In recent years, various types of RPRs have been reported and investigated, some of them being the ‘classical’ RPRs, interval-valued RPRs and hesitant RPRs. Additive consistency is one of the most commonly used property to measure the consistency of RPRs, with many methods developed to manage additive consistency of RPRs. To provide a clear perspective on additive consistency issues of RPRs, this paper reviews the consistency measurements of the different types of RPRs. Then, consistency-driven decision making and information fusion methods are also reviewed and classified into four main types: consistency improving methods; consistency-based methods to manage incomplete RPRs; consistency control in consensus decision making methods; and consistency-driven linguistic decision making methods. Finally, with respect to insights gained from prior researches, further directions for the research are proposed

Trust Based Consensus Model for Social Network in an Incomplete Linguistic Information Context

A theoretical framework to consensus building within a networked social group is put forward. This article investigates a trust based estimation and aggregation methods as part of a visual consensus model for multiple criteria group decision making with incomplete linguistic information. A novel trust propagation method is proposed to derive trust relationship from an incomplete connected trust network and the trust score induced order weighted averaging operator is presented to aggregate the orthopairs of trust/distrust values obtained from different trust paths. Then, the concept of relative trust score is defined, whose use is twofold: (1) to estimate the unknown preference values and (2) as a reliable source to determine experts' weights. A visual feedback process is developed to provide experts with graphical representations of their consensus status within the group as well as to identify the alternatives and preference values that should be reconsidered for changing in the subsequent consensus round. The feedback process also includes a recommendation mechanism to provide advice to those experts that are identified as contributing less to consensus on how to change their identified preference values. It is proved that the implementation of the visual feedback mechanism guarantees the convergence of the consensus reaching process

Managing Incomplete Preference Relations in Decision Making: A Review and Future Trends

In decision making, situations where all experts are able to efficiently express their preferences over all the available options are the exception rather than the rule. Indeed, the above scenario requires all experts to possess a precise or sufficient level of knowledge of the whole problem to tackle, including the ability to discriminate the degree up to which some options are better than others. These assumptions can be seen unrealistic in many decision making situations, especially those involving a large number of alternatives to choose from and/or conflicting and dynamic sources of information. Some methodologies widely adopted in these situations are to discard or to rate more negatively those experts that provide preferences with missing values. However, incomplete information is not equivalent to low quality information, and consequently these methodologies could lead to biased or even bad solutions since useful information might not being taken properly into account in the decision process. Therefore, alternative approaches to manage incomplete preference relations that estimates the missing information in decision making are desirable and possible. This paper presents and analyses methods and processes developed on this area towards the estimation of missing preferences in decision making, and highlights some areas for future research

A multidimensional decision with nested probabilistic linguistic term sets and its application in corporate investment

With the rapid development of information, decision making problems in various fields have presented multidimensional, complex and uncertain characteristics. Nested probabilistic-numerical linguistic term set (NPNLTS) is an effective tool to describe complex information due to the nested structure and diverse variables. This paper extends the concept of NPNLTS, and defines an improved form, i.e., nested probabilistic linguistic term set (NPLTS), and then proposes a novel VIKOR method with nested probabilistic linguistic information to solve the model. Within the context of empirical corporate finance, a case study related to corporate investment decision is presented and handled by the novel VIKOR method. After that, comparative analysis is carried out considering other decision-making methods, decision coefficient in VIKOR, and weights of attributes. As a result, the proposed method not only provides a rational and effective solution, but also reveals the rule in the case when decision coefficient and weights of attributes change, respectively. Finally, we discuss the proposed method from the theoretical and application aspects with a view to guiding future research. To a certain extent, this study provides a new decision environment to deal with multidimensional problems

Classical Dynamic Consensus and Opinion Dynamics Models: A Survey of Recent Trends and Methodologies

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Consensus reaching is an iterative and dynamic process that supports group decision-making models by guiding decision-makers towards modifying their opinions through a feedback mechanism. Many attempts have been recently devoted to the design of efficient consensus reaching processes, especially when the dynamism is dependent on time, which aims to deal with opinion dynamics models. The emergence of novel methodologies in this field has been accelerated over recent years. In this regard, the present work is concerned with a systematic review of classical dynamic consensus and opinion dynamics models. The most recent trends of both models are identified and the developed methodologies are described in detail. Challenges of each model and open problems are discussed and worthwhile directions for future research are given. Our findings denote that due to technological advancements, a majority of recent literature works are concerned with the large-scale group decision-making models, where the interactions of decision-makers are enabled via social networks. Managing the behavior of decision-makers and consensus reaching with the minimum adjustment cost under social network analysis have been the top priorities for researchers in the design of classical consensus and opinion dynamics models

A novel method based on extended uncertain 2-tuple linguistic muirhead mean operators to MAGDM under uncertain 2-tuple linguistic environment

The present work is focused on multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problems with the uncertain 2-tuple linguistic information (ULI2–tuple) based on new aggregation operators which can capture interrelationships of attributes by a parameter vector P. To begin with, we present some new uncertain 2-tuple linguistic MM aggregation (UL2–tuple-MM) operators to handle MAGDM problems with ULI2–tuple, including the uncertain 2-tuple linguistic Muirhead mean (UL2–tuple-MM) operator, uncertain 2-tuple linguistic weighted Muirhead mean (UL2–tuple-WMM) operator. In addition, we extend UL2–tuple-WMM operator to a new aggregation operator named extended uncertain 2-tuple linguistic weighted Muirhead mean (EUL2–tuple-WMM) operators in order to handle some decision-making problems with ULI2–tuple whose attribute values are expressed in ULI2–tuple and attribute weights are also 2-tuple linguistic information. Whilst, the some properties of these new aggregation operators are obtained and some special cases are discussed. Moreover, we propose a new method to solve the MAGDM problems with ULI2–tuple. Finally, a numerical example is given to show the validity of the proposed method and the advantages of proposed method are also analysed