Agent-based modelling as scientific method: a case study analysing primate social behaviour.

ABSTRACT: A scientific methodology in general should provide two things: first, a means of explanation and, second, a mechanism for improving that explanation. Agent-based modelling (ABM) is a method that facilitates exploring the collective effects of individual action selection. The explanatory force of the model is the extent to which an observed meta-level phenomenon can be accounted for by the behaviour of its micro-level actors. This article demonstrates that this methodology can be applied to the biological sciences; agent-based models, like any other scientific hypotheses, can be tested, critiqued, generalized or specified. We review the state of the art for ABM as a methodology for biology and then present a case study based on the most widely published agent-based model in the biological s

SUBMITTER: Bryson JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2440780 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature