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

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