Simulation Of Human Behavior Research Articles

Human Diagnostic Reasoning by Computer: An Illustration from Financial Analysis

A major complaint of people who use “decision-making” computer programs is that these programs merely provide a final decision, and fail to present the supporting argumentation, in terms the user can understand. This article presents an approach that makes computer programs more “human-like” by basing them on human decision making behavior. Decision making processes of student financial analysts are captured by asking them to think aloud during their evaluation. These verbal traces, called protocols, are analyzed at various levels of detail, resulting in specific models of the decision making processes involved, the strategies used, and the task-specific (financial) knowledge that is required to perform the task. The models and strategies are translated into executable computer programs. Extensive comparisons between human behavior and model simulation output are provided, assessing the extent that the computer program “thinks” and “talks” like a human decision maker. Although the model clearly suffers from “linguistic rigidity,” it does appear to perform the evaluation in a similar manner as the human decision maker, examining the same information in the same order, making the same inferences, and reporting the same conclusions.

Computer simulation of human behavior

Computer simulations of human behavior multiplied rapidly during the 1950s and 1960s, but slowly during the 1970s. Simulation's inherent characteristics do not explain its decelerated use during recent years. Although it has disadvantages as well as advantages, it is the best methodology for some tasks. For several reasons, simulation may have disappointed simulators and their audiences. Many simulators have overstated and underutilized the methodology's capabilities. Simulation's ambiguous domain and deviant goals of simulators may create confusion about circumstances that call for simulation and criteria for judging simulations. Simulations have exposed the lack of knowledge in several social-science domains. Government support has declined dramatically, and experiences with government agencies may have made simulators doubt the pragmatic benefits of their models. Some of the problems impeding simulation's use will diminish spontaneously, and microcomputers may amplify enthusiasm for simulation, but better software could make simulation easier and more effective.

Imitation and Game Simulation of Human Behavior in Technological and Socioeconomic Processes

Imitation and Game Simulation of Human Behavior in Technological and Socioeconomic Processes

Simulation of human behavior: possibilities for public health education.

Three levels of computer simulation of individual and aggregate human behavior are examined and applications to health education are reviewed. General implications of this use of computers for the training and future role of public health educators are suggested.

Delta Approximation: Parameter Identification for Simulation Models of Human Behavior

There is much concern over the implications of increasing population growth and resource consumption. It may be that traditional academic disciplines have not yet reoriented their goals to deal with this question in a completely satisfactory manner. With the proliferation of computers and computer technology, it is inevitable that some researchers would attempt simulations of long-term human behavior with respect to environment and resources. The great weakness of these ``simulation models'' is that they can never be validated and, therefore, cannot inspire unqualified confidence. Their great strength is that they are summaries of expert opinion and could serve as a focus for multidisciplinary research. The identification of parameters for such models is the main theme of this paper. It is shown that parameter identification, for the proper choice of a ``goodness of fit'' criterion, can be a rapid, always convergent process. This same criterion usually allows identification to occur independently for each state equation. Independence could be especially conducive to multidisciplinary human behavior model building. The technique is illustrated with an identification for a nonlinear, discrete-time simulation model (17th order) of the use of land and energy in California. This model has 80 parameters, which were identified with 150 data points and a few minutes of computer time. Only the hypothetical dynamic relations for agricultural variables need be rejected in this preliminary effort.

Review of Computer simulation of human behavior.

Review of Computer simulation of human behavior.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor: —Critique of Professor Ian I. Mitroff's “Fundamental Issues in the Simulation of Human Behaviour: A Case in the Strategy of Behavioral Science” (Mitroff, Ian I. 1969. Fundamental issues in the simulation of human behavior: A case study in the strategy of behavioral science. Management Sci. 15 (12, August) B-635–B-649)—by Socrates Litsios, Chief, Operational Research Unit Division of Research in Epidemiology and Communications Science, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; —Reply to Dr. Socrates Litsios—by Ian I. Mitroff, Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 15213; —On the Credit Granting Decision—by Harold Bierman, Jr., Warren H. Hausman, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Fundamental Issues in the Simulation of Human Behavior: A Case in the Strategy of Behavioral Science

Every scientific study has its own unique case history. Unfortunately, most scientific papers present a greatly distorted and static image of the true history and sociology of a research project. This paper represents an attempt to report on selected aspects of the actual growth and development of a simulation project, especially as that process affected the development of a novel method for validating simulation models. The paper also represents a philosophical analysis of the concept of simulation, especially as that analysis formed an integral part of the study's development. One of the paper's main theses is that the teleology or purpose behind the construction of a simulation model is an ever present task-master guiding and influencing all the phases of a model's construction and validation. A general thesis is that a researcher's philosophy of science is as characteristic of him (i.e., his psychology) as it is of the phenomena he typically studies. The implications of these theses are illustrated in terms of the simulation of the engineering design behavior of a practicing mechanical engineer.

Simulating Communication Network Experiments

A report of a computer simulation of human behavior in Bavelas-type communication network experiments. The simulation successfully imitates behavior in the five-man chain network, and does reasonably well for a six-man Y net, but fails on a more complex six-man net. Main features of the simulation are described. In order to simulate human behavior, a number of non-optimal activities were initially permitted in the simulation and were discarded gradually by probabilistic selection of “desirable” patterns of message sending. Results lead one to question the notion of “optimal performance,” even for a simple communication task in a small group.

Pretending to Have (or to Be) a Computer as a Strategy in Teaching

Computer simulation of human behavior has become a lively area of psychological research. Taking as his example the simple counting of first grade children,the author shows how constructing a program for a real or an imaginary computer can help both the teacher and the child to understand the mental operations involved.

Monte Carlo model of tracking behavior.

A Monte Carlo model was devised for simulation of human tracking behavior with a digital computer. The model had four basic equations and included provision for one- and two-dimensional tracking, repetitive and irregular input signals, and practice trials. Four groups of 12 human subjects each were given 40 practice trials on either one- or two-dimensional tracking, and either repetitive or irregular input signals. The model was then used to simulate corresponding data for four groups of 12 hypothetical subjects each, and comparisons of the real and hypothetical subject samples were made for various measures of proficiency. Overall, the adequacy of the simulation was judged as good. Research tactics are discussed for arriving at a generalized model of n-dimensional tracking behavior, and for elaborated models that will include procedural and decision acts to simulate more complex man-machine systems.

Simulation of human problem-solving behavior

In the simulation of human behavior on a digital computer, one first attempts to discover the manner in which subjects (Ss) internally represent the environment and the rules that they employ for acting upon this representation. The interaction between the rules and the environmental representation over a period of time constitutes a set of processes. Processes can be expressed as flow charts which, in turn, are stated formally in terms of a computer program. The program serves as a theory which is tested by executing the program on a computer and comparing the machine's performance with S's behavior.

Simulation of human verbal learning behavior

Simulation of human verbal learning behavior