IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjsmxx/v14y2020i2p130-144.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can we learn from simplified simulation models? An experimental study on user learning

Author

Listed:
  • Antuela A. Tako
  • Naoum Tsioptsias
  • Stewart Robinson

Abstract

Simple models are considered useful for decision making, especially when decisions are made by a group of stakeholders. This paper describes an experimental study that investigates whether the level of model detail affects users’ learning. Our subjects, undergraduate students, were asked to solve a resource utilisation task for an ambulance service problem. They worked in groups under three different conditions, based on the type of simulation model used (specifically a simple, adequate or no model at all), to analyse the problem and reach conclusions. A before and after questionnaire and a group presentation capture the participants’ individual and group attitudes towards the solution. Our results suggest that differences in learning from using the two different models were not significant, while simple model users demonstrated a better understanding of the problem. The outcomes and implications of our findings are discussed, alongside the limitations and future work.

Suggested Citation

  • Antuela A. Tako & Naoum Tsioptsias & Stewart Robinson, 2020. "Can we learn from simplified simulation models? An experimental study on user learning," Journal of Simulation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 130-144, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjsmxx:v:14:y:2020:i:2:p:130-144
    DOI: 10.1080/17477778.2019.1704636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17477778.2019.1704636
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17477778.2019.1704636?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Katsikopoulos, Konstantinos V. & Egozcue, Martin & Garcia, Luis Fuentes, 2022. "A simple model for mixing intuition and analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(2), pages 779-789.
    2. Harper, Alison & Mustafee, Navonil & Yearworth, Mike, 2021. "Facets of trust in simulation studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 289(1), pages 197-213.
    3. Aubert, Alice H. & Schmid, Sara & Lienert, Judit, 2024. "Can online interfaces enhance learning for public decision-making? Eliciting citizens’ preferences for multicriteria decision analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 314(2), pages 760-775.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tjsmxx:v:14:y:2020:i:2:p:130-144. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjsm .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.