Resource Independence and Decision-Making Procedure Specificity in Simulation Games

Designing Simulation Games to Teach Decision-Making Skills

“…Generally, game designers do not require participants to use explicit decisionmaking concepts and procedures. In one survey of simulation games, only 27% of the games emphasizing decision making required participants to utilize explicit criteria in formulating their judgments (VanSickle, 1975). There seems to be a common questionable assumption that if participants are put in situations which require them to make decisions they will learn to make more accurate and effective decisions.…”

“…Alarge proportion of commercially available simulation games are designed to teach participants to make better decisions about difficult questions and problems (VanSickle, 1975). Very little research has been done to assess the effects of simulation games in this area or to assess the characteristics of games that tend to lead to higher cognitive gains (Wentworth and Lewis, 1973;VanSickle, 1977a).…”