Logical Decisions - Classweb

measures with categories require multipliers to define how to
weight each category in the weighted sum.
Since LDW lets you have different multipliers for different
preference sets, you should make sure you define multipliers in
each preference set in your analysis.
LDW provides two places to define category multipliers. The
"Category Multipliers" row in the Measure Categories view
(accessible with the View::Matrix option) shows the multipliers
for the active preference set.
The Category Multipliers row is only shown if you have elected to
show the categories for at least one measure. Once the multipliers
are visible, you can click on the multiplier you want and type in
the multiplier.
You can also set the multipliers with the Assess::Category
Multipliers option. When you select this option, LDW asks you to
select a measure from a list and then lets you type in a multiplier
for each category for that measure.
LDW assigns a default value of one (1.0) for each category
multiplier. See the discussion on page 9-10 for suggestions on
how to assess category multipliers.
Note that you should generally use a straight line (linear)
conversion to common units for measures that use categories.
Converting Measure Levels to Common Units
LDW converts measure levels to common units using what are
called single measure utility functions (SUFs). Since that
conversion is always needed, each preference set has a SUF for
each measure.
SUFs are defined so that the least preferred level of the measure
(as defined in the measure's properties dialog box) is assigned the
least preferred utility level – 0.0. The most preferred measure
level is assigned the most preferred utility level - 1.0. (You can
change the most and least preferred utility levels in the
Preferences::Utility Options option.)
The default SUF for any measure is a straight line (linear)
conversion from the measure's original scale to utility. This
means that each additional unit on the measure's scale represents
7-6 Section 7 -- Using LDW 2: Assessing