The method of judging satisfactory consistency of linguistic judgment matrix based on adjacency matrix and 3-loop matrix

Abstract

Language phrases are an effective way to express uncertain pieces of information, and easily conforms to the language habits of decision makers to describe the evaluation of things. The consistency judgment of a linguistic judgment matrices is the key to analytic hierarchy process (AHP). If a linguistic judgment matrix has a satisfactory consistency, then the rank of the decision schemes can be determined. In this study, the comparison relation between the decision schemes is first represented by a directed graph. The preference relation matrix of the linguistic judgment matrix is the adjacency matrix of the directed graph. We can use the $ n - 1 $ st power of the preference relation to judge the linguistic judgment matrix whether has a satisfactory consistency. The method is utilized if there is one and only one element in the $ n - 1 $ st power of the preference relation, and the element 1 is not on the main diagonal. Then the linguistic judgment matrix has a satisfactory consistency. If there are illogical judgments, the decision schemes that form a 3-loop can be identified and expressed through the second-order sub-matrix of the preference relation matrix. The feasibility of this theory can be verified through examples. The corresponding schemes for illogical judgments are represented in spatial coordinate system.

Keywords

• adjacency matrix
• linguistic judgment matrix
• satisfactory consistency
• 3-loop matrix