A TUTORIAL ON BOTTLENECK DYNAMICS: A HEURISTIC SCHEDULING METHODOLOGY

We give a tutorial on bottleneck dynamics. Bottleneck dynamics is a scheduling framework that uses approximate dual resource prices to make decentralized decisions. The basic idea is to establish a price for a resource as a function of the set of jobs that need to be processed by the resource. Tasks are then sequenced according to a cost/benefit ratio. Starting with one resource sequencing problems, we describe how priorities for jobs can be developed and how they translate into resource prices. We then describe how resource prices can be approximated in a multiresource situation and how lead times which are critical for these approximations can be accurately computed. We also describe a number of studies that have shown bottleneck dynamics to be an effective approach in several different problem areas.     

EDUCATION MODERATES SOME RESPONSE EFFECTS IN ATTITUDE MEASUREMENT

On the basis of over 130 survey-based experiments, Schuman andPresser concluded that respondents' levels of edu cational attainmentdid not seem to be a pervasive and systematic moderator of susceptibilityto response effects. Via a meta analysis of these same data,we found that lower education was indeed associated with greaterstrength of seven response effects: response order effects,acquiescence, middle alternative effects not involving statusquo options, no-opinion filter effects, forbid/ allow effects,balance effects, and question order effects based on the normof reciprocity. The specific patterns of relations ob tainedare consistent with the notion that some of these response effectsmay result from satisficing.