2 - Introduction to Agent-Based Modeling Flashcards
What is a model?
An abstracted description of a process, object, or event (not a perfect match; tends to exaggerate certain aspects at the expense of others)
What is an agent?
Autonomous individual elements with properties and actions in a computer simulation
What is an Agent-Based Model?
A world that can be modeled using agents, an environment, and descriptions of agent-agent and agent-environment interactions
What is a phase transition?
A situation where a small change in the model parameters can lead to a big change in the system’s output
Give an example of a phase transition in the fire model.
A small change in the forest density slider can lead to a higher percentage of fire spread
Differentiate between agent-based and equation-based models?
ABMs have unlimited amounts of solutions and are bottom-up. EBMs have limited amounts of solutions and are top-down.
True or False: EBMs can be converted to ABMs to complement EBMs.
True
How can ABMs complement lab experiments?
ABMs can be used to generate new hypotheses and to determine the sensitivity of results, which leads to more robust lab experiments
Name 3 limitations of ABMs.
- High computational cost
- Many free parameters
- Require detailed individual behavioral knowledge
Regarding control and explanations, why do people resist ABMs?
People expect centralized control, which ABMs don’t have, and causal explanations, which are not always a full account of the phenomena being explored
Fill in the blank: ABMs can be used to describe ___.
real-world or artificial systems
To what extent can ABMs be simplified?
To the point where they are simple enough yet scalable to the phenomena they model
What can ABMs explain?
The potential underlying phenomena that control a system
In running experiments, how are ABMs a powerful tool?
ABMs can run repeated experiments with varying conditions and paramters
