Optimizing ordinal utility using quadratic programming and psychophysical theory

This paper presents a method for supporting the decision making process for multiattribute decisions by applying quadratic programming to screen alternatives when the degree to which various alternatives satisfy, each attribute and/or the relative importance of the attributes are only roughly specified. In particular, we will work with verbal specifications of these quantities, like low, medium, and high. These specifications will be interpreted as extended ordinal constraints using concepts of "just noticeable difference" derived from psychophysics.