| The multi-criteria and multi-expert decision aiding models investigate the problems of identifying candidates, analyzing the criteria, and selecting the best alternative(s) based on the aggregation of the perceptions and preferences of the group decision makers. Although many studies have investigated these problems, there are no conclusions as to a single decision model that can dominate others. Among the various well-known models, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)/Analytic Network Process (ANP) is popular, and is applied in various domains, although there are some limitations. The Cognitive Network Process (CNP) is developed on the improvement of the AHP/ANP with the cognitive decision process.;The CNP model is applies the interdisciplinary techniques of decision sciences, cognitive sciences and fuzzy soft computing, on the basis of the mathematical modeling development. Several essential models are proposed. Compound Linguistic Ordinal Scale (CLOS) model is for the improvement of rating activities of the assessment. Cognitive Prioritization Operator (CPO) of the Pairwise Opposite Matrix (POM) is to derive the utility set from the POM. Cognitive Style and Aggregation Operator (CSAO) is for the selection of aggregation operators to aggregate the utility sets with respect to the attitudes or cognitive styles of the decision makers.;The cognitive architecture of the CNP is mainly comprised of five processes: Problem Cognition Process (PGP), Cognitive Assessment Process (CAP), Cognitive Prioritization Process (CPP), Multiple Information Fusion Process (MIP), and Decisional Volition Process (DVP).;The framework of CNP includes primitive and extent types. The primitive type is the individual decision making model using the linguistic variables represented by the crisp numbers. The extent types include the notions of the collective judgments and fuzzy linguistic variables.;Five cases illustrate the usability and validity of the CNP, with comparisons with the (fuzzy) AHP/ANP, and complementation with other decision models.;Like the impacts of the AHP/ANP, the proposed CNP can be applied in many domains such as material management, transportation management, psychometrics, social sciences, business research, decision sciences, computer sciences, and engineering management. The CNP is the ideal alternative of the AHP/ANP.;Keywords: decision analysis, cognitive informatics, linguistic modeling, pairwise comparison, optimization, measurement and evaluation... |
