Friends and Buffaloes: One Game, Two Modelling Processes

Abstract

Starting from a simple gaming-simulation experiment about the management of a common resource, two modelling experiments were conducted in different settings. In the first experiment, the game was played by farmers and the modeller subsequently inferred a model from behaviour observed during the game. In order to address the validation problems underlying this type of modelling, a new experiment was conducted, in which computer science students played the game and then "self-modelled" their behaviour. We shall present, compare and discuss both these modelling processes. We show that self-modelling facilitated a better understanding of the players’ behaviours, although it is not a complete solution.