ITS 832 Chapter 3
The Quality of Social Simulation: An Example from Research Policy Modelling
Information Technology in a Global Economy
1
Introduction
The Quality of Social Simulation:
An Example from Research Policy Modelling
A simulation is good
“… when we get from it what we originally would have liked to get from the target”
Different views
Standard
Constructionist
User community
Chapter focus
Different approaches to assessing the quality of a simulation
Simulation comparison
Standard View
Verification
Does the code do what it is supposed to do?
Validation
Do the outputs resemble observations of the target?
Relies on the observability of reality
Must be able to compare simulation output to reality
Standard view may suffer from under-determination
Multiple incompatible theories may result from the same data
Constructionist View
Compares
What you observe in the real world with,
What you observe as simulation output
Seems similar to Standard view, right?
Constructionists view all observations as constructions
Evaluation is not possible
Even observations of reality lack the ability to pass validation
User Community View
Evaluation is carried out
Using the observations of the affected user community
Not just based on prior knowledge
Closer to “real” results
Often, results are influenced by multiple related factors
Summary
Simulation quality depends on simulation process
Three different simulation views
Standard
Constructionist
User community
User community view
Most promising
Most work-intensive
