Psychophysics in Operation Research l

Workshop on Psychophysics and Questionnaire Construction
( 27.11.2012 - 1.12.2012 at Kathmandu Engineering College)

Psychophysics is the study to optimize production cost, product differentiation, product survival, product sensitization, product innovation and product planning so that product can be perceptible, reliable, sustainable and satisfactory to the consumers. Therefore learning psychophysics is very important to the engineers, marketing and operation research scientists. It bridges the gap of knowledge between production engineering and marketing management. Psychophysics provides the insight about what and to what extent attributes of the product be changed so that change will be perceptible and differentiating. Psychophysics is very useful for textile engineering, food processing, shoe engineering and pharmaceuticals. 

ORSN:  What is Psychophysics ? Why do we learn ?

Prof. Dutta Roy:   Psychophysics is the study to optimize production cost, product differentiation, product survival, product sensitization, product innovation and product planning so that product can be perceptible, reliable, sustainable and satisfactory to the consumers. Therefore learning psychophysics is very important to the engineers, marketing and operation research scientists. It bridges the gap of knowledge between production engineering and marketing management. Psychophysics provides the insight about what and to what extent attributes of the product be changed so that change will be perceptible and differentiating. Psychophysics is very useful for textile engineering, food processing, shoe engineering, pharmaceuticals, medicals and robotic engineering. Operation Research Society of Nepal is pioneer in introducing the concept of Psychophysics in Nepal. They invited me to give speech on psychophysics in the INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON OPERATION RESEARCH held in 1-2 February, 2012. Title of my topic of presentation was “ Psychophysics in Operation Research for Sustainable Development “.

ORSN:  What are the methods in psychophysics ?

Prof. Dutta Roy: Psychophysics is the science that investigates quantitative relationship between changes in the physical events on physical scale and changes in corresponding psychological events on psychological scale. For example, one textile engineer for product differentiation in weight changes some attributes of one garment. But the customer cannot find the difference despite extensive advertisement. Next engineer changes the attribute by spending more amount and customers find the difference. Next time, engineer changes the attribute in such a manner so that change becomes perceptible and cost of production is less. In this approach, changes in production attribute are made according to the customers’ choice or judgment and finally such change is able to optimize.

     In above, Changes in physical attribute occur on physical scale and customer’s ability to discriminate the change occurs on psychological scale.

The experiment aims at finding out differential threshold wherein customer can make the product differentiation. There are three thresholds – absolute, differential and terminal thresholds. Supersonic plane is designed following analysis of terminal threshold in decibels.  Thresholds are determined by three methods – method of minimal changes, frequency and average errors.

ORSN: What is your contribution in Psychophysics ?

Prof. Dutta Roy:   In existing psychophysics, responses are measured in categorical scale, i.e., I do not see the change (No), I see the change (yes), and I think the two changes are equal to me (equal). In my research, I make it interval scale by highlighting the feeling gradient.

ORSN: Do you think that Psychophysics has good scope in Nepal ?

Prof. Dutta Roy: Nepal is the developing country. It has good amount of natural resources,  human resources, facilities for engineering and marketing. It has high potentiality to export  textiles, pharmaceuticals, foods  through product engineering. Psychophysics can help in production engineering, product promotion and optimization of production cost in Nepal.

TRAINING CUM WORKSHOP

PSYCHOPHYSICS IN OPERATION RESEARCH AND QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION 

DAY 1
12:00	INAUGURATION
12-30 :1-00 PM	PSYCHOPHYSICS AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION THRESHOLDS
1-00:2-00	THRESHOLDS AND VALUE DETERMINATION
2:00-2:30	BREAK
2-30: 3-30	METHOD OF LIMITS
3-30:4-30	FREQUENCY METHOD
4:30-5:00	TEA BREAK
5-00- 6:00	AVERAGE ERROR
DAY 2
12-30:1-30	THEORIES OF FEELING GRADIENT
1-30:2-30	MEASUREMENT SCALES AND TRANSFORMATION
2:30-3:00	BREAK
3-00: 4:00	PRODUCT ATTRIBUTE EXPLORING
4-00:5-00	BASIC PRINCIPLES OF QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION
5:00-5:30	TEA BREAK
5-30:6-30	EXPLORING CONSTRUCT  AND SUB CONSTRUCT
DAY 3
12-30:1-30	ITEM CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
1-30:2-30	ITEM NETWORK AND ITEM STRUCTURE
2:30-3:00	BREAK
3-00: 4-00	ITEM DIFFICULTY, ITEM DISCRIMINATION
4-00:5-00	TEST-RETEST
5:00-5:30	TEA BREAK
5-30:6-30	ALTERNATE FORM RELIABILITY,
DAY 4
12-30:1-30	ODD-EVEN & CRONBACH’S ALPHA
1-30:2-30	VALIDITY PRINCIPLES, CONTENT VALIDITY
2:30-3:00	BREAK
3-00: 4-00	CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY
4-00:5-00	CONVERGENT - DIVERGENT VALIDITY
5:00-5:30	TEA BREAK
5-30:6-30	CONSTRUCT VALIDITY
DAY 5
12-30:1-30	NORM
1-30:2-30	NORM
2:30-3:00	BREAK
3-00: 4-00	TEST ADAPTATION
4-00:5-00	TEST ADAPTATION
5-00:6:00	VALEDICTORY and TEA BREAK