Artificial neural networks versus natural neural networks. A connectionist paradigm for preference assessment

Preference is an essential ingredient in all decision processes. This paper presents a new connectionist paradigm for preference assessment in a general multicriteria decision setting. A general structure of an artificial neural network for representing two specified prototypes of preference structures is discussed. An interactive preference assessment procedure and an autonomous learning algorithm based on a novel scheme of supervised learning are proposed. Operating characteristics of the proposed paradigm are also illustrated through detailed results of numerical simulations. © 1994.