1. Introduction
The multiple attribute decision making (MADM) problem is a significant area of decision science, whose theories and methods are widely used in engineering, economics, management, the military and many other fields. Generally, decision makers will provide an evaluation of each alternative for every attribute or criterion according to their own cognitive beliefs. The main task of solving MADM problems is sorting a group of choices and finding the best one based on decision information provided by decision makers.
Since being proposed by Zadeh [
1] in 1965, fuzzy theory has been widely used with applications in various areas. However, the fuzzy theory can only express membership—Non-membership cannot be represented. The intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) presented by Atanassov [
2], which is an important extension of traditional fuzzy sets, contains membership degree and non-membership degree. Because of the ambiguity of objects and the uncertainty of human thought and cognition, decision makers have difficulty using crisp numbers to evaluate relevant decision making problems, such as student assessment and car performance evaluation. Decision makers are more accustomed to making evaluations directly in linguistic terms, such as good, generally, and not good. Therefore, many methods and models have been developed to solve real problems based on linguistic variables [
3,
4,
5,
6]. For example, since the type 2 fuzzy sets (T2FSs) could better represent the indeterminacy and simplify the calculation process, the interval type 2 hesitant fuzzy sets (IT2HFSs) can reflect the uncertainty of inaccurate information more effectively. Deveci et al. [
7] proposed a method including T2FSs and the IT2HFSs to access airlines’ service quality. Finally, accurate data results and practical implications were obtained.
Herrera and Martinez [
8] proposed the concept of 2-tuples made up of a linguistic variable and a numerical value to prevent loss of information when addressing MADM problems. Subsequently, many operators and methods based on 2-tuples have been proposed. On the basis of the power average (PA) operator, Xu and Wang [
9] studied several 2-tuple linguistic power average (2TLPA) operators which could alleviate the impact of partial arguments on the aggregated consequences. Furthermore, the method proposed in the paper considered all the decision parameters and the interrelationships of each other. However, there is a slight disadvantage in that it ignores the relationship between the two parameters. In addition, considering the significance of different parameters, a 2-tuple linguistic weighted PA (2TLWPA) operator was proposed. Wei and Zhao [
10] came up with series aggregation operators according to 2-tuple linguistic information and a dependent operator that eliminates the influence of unjust 2-tuple linguistic parameters on the aggregation results. Jiang and Wei [
11] developed a 2-tuple linguistic Bonferroni mean (2TLBM) operator based on the Bonferroni mean (BM)operator and a 2-tuple linguistic weighted BM (2TLWBM) operator to account for the different importance of the input parameters. Merigó et al. [
12] introduced some aggregation operators based on 2-tuple linguistic information that provide a more complete understanding of the situation being considered. Moreover, the authors also studied the applicability of the novel method in different fields. A modified composite scale that can enhance the precision of decision making was developed by Wang et al. [
13] to overcome the limitation of the 2-tuple linguistic representation model. Qin and Liu [
14] proposed several operators based on 2-tuple linguistic information and the Muirhead mean (MM) operator. It is known as a mean type aggregation operator that can utilize the intact relation between the multi-input parameters. Meanwhile, they applied the method proposed in the paper for supplier selection.
As the decision environment and content become increasingly complex, the use of 2-tuple linguistic variables alone fails to accurately describe ambiguous and fragmentary cognitive information. Cuong [
15] developed the picture fizzy set (PFS) to express uncertain cognitive information characterized by three degrees: A positive membership degree
, a neutral membership degree
and a negative membership degree
. Therefore, PFS allows several types of answers when solving decision making problems, such as yes, abstain, no, and refusal. Many research achievements have been made in the field of PFS theory. Singh [
16] applied the correlation coefficient to clustering analysis where the attribute values are in the form of PFS. Because the PFS contains more information about people’s evaluation than IFS, the proposed correlation coefficients are a further generalization of IFSs. Yang et al. [
17] proposed picture fuzzy soft sets and studied their relevant properties. In particular, there is a method based on adjustable soft discernibility matrix which could obtain a sequential relationship between all objects. Son [
18] proposed a generalized distance measure for pictures and the method of hierarchical picture clustering (HPC). Wei [
19] proposed picture fuzzy cross entropy to address the MADM problem which can reflect the fuzziness of subjective judgment easily. Thong and Son [
20] developed a novel hybrid model including picture fuzzy clustering and intuitionistic fuzzy recommender systems that are applicable to health care support systems. These models not only improve the accuracy of medical diagnosis but also guarantee the development of a medical security system. But the limitations of these models are the time complexity and the capability of the model when new patients are added to the system.
Archimedean
t-norms and
t-conorms (ATT) are types of
t-norms and
t-conorms that have become important tools for explaining the conjunction, and the operational rules have been defined. Beliakov et al. [
21] used ATT to calculate the IFS, thus simplifying and extending the existing constructions. Liu [
22] developed single-valued neutrosophic number operators based on ATT which are able to extend to most of the existing
t-norms and
t-conorms and single-valued neutrosophic numbers (SVNNs). Liu [
23] developed some operators based on ATT and PFS and studied several properties and particular cases of the operators.
The aggregation operator is a crucial tool for addressing MADM problems. Many effective aggregation operators have been developed for situations where the input arguments have some relations. Yager [
24] introduced the PA operator. In the process of aggregation, parameter values support each other. Tan and Chen [
25] investigated the induced Choquet ordered averaging (I-COA) operator and demonstrated its relationship to the induced ordered weighted averaging operator. Bonferroni [
26] developed the Bonferroni mean (BM) operator, which can effectively address the relationships among input parameters. Liu et al. [
27] presented several intuitionistic uncertain linguistic Bonferroni OWA (IULBOWA) operators that can aggregate max and min operators and introduced relevant score functions, accuracy functions, and comparative methods. Li and Liu [
28] proposed novel aggregation operators according to the Heronian mean (HM) operator that considered the interrelationships of attribute values. BM and HM operators can only account for relationships between input arguments and not the correlation between multiple arguments. To overcome this limitation, Maclaurin [
29] proposed a Maclaurin symmetric mean (MSM) operator to capture the relationships among multiple input arguments. Qin and Liu [
30] solved MADM problems based on MSM operators under a hesitant fuzzy environment. Wang et al. [
31] extended MSM aggregation operators with single-valued neutrosophic linguistic variables and developed methods for multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM). Wei and Lu [
32] proposed the Pythagorean fuzzy MSM (PFMSM) and Pythagorean fuzzy weighted MSM (PFWMSM) operators and discussed their desirable properties. Liu and Zhang [
33] extended MSM operators with the single-valued trapezoidal neutrosophic number (SVTNNs) to not only account for the correlation between multi-input arguments but also conveniently depict uncertain information in the decision making process.
Inspired by the above analysis, although the PFS can address complex and uncertain problem flexibly, PFS has difficulty expressing cognitive information. Therefore, we use the picture 2-tuple linguistic set based on PFS and 2-tuple linguistic information to address MADM problems, thereby overcoming the above limitation and preventing loss of information in the calculation and aggregation processes. In addition, we apply the ATT to address MADM problems described by picture 2-tuple linguistic numbers (P2TLNs). Then, we extend MSM operators under a P2TLN environment, such as ATT-P2TLMSM and ATT-P2TLGMSM, to capture the interrelationships among multiple input parameters. In cases where the input parameters have different significances, ATT-P2TLWMSM and ATT-P2TLGWMSM are proposed. Based on the above operators, we propose a method to handle MADM problems.
The framework of this paper is as follows. In
Section 2, we explain several basic concepts and theories. In
Section 3, a novel operation for picture 2-tuple linguistic sets based on ATT is proposed. In
Section 4, we develop novel P2TLMSM operators. In
Section 5, we present models based on the ATT-P2TLWMSM operator and the ATT-P2TLGWMSM operator to solve the MADM problems. Finally, an expositive instance is provided in
Section 6.