Publications

Maja Schlüter, Tilman Hertz, Anja Klein, Nanda Wijermans. 2024. Disentangling the entangled in productive ways: modelling SES from a process-relational perspective. SocArXiv Papers. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/hb9ry

Process-relational perspectives have been proposed as new ways of conceptualising, analysing and engaging with social-ecological systems (SES) that are capable of dealing with intertwinedness and complexity. The application of PR perspectives in SES research, however, remains challenging and mostly conceptual. We explore the possibilities and limitations of combining process-relational thought with agent-based modelling as a m...

Harko Verhagen, Corinna Elsenbroich, Nanda Wijermans. 2024. Agent Decision-Making Heterogeneity—Agent (Meta)Frameworks for Agent-Based Modelling. Springer Link. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57785-7_48

Agent-based models have continuously increased regarding the implementation of the complexity of agent decision making. This poses questions for the ontological foundation of ABM as well as having implications for research design and data collections. This paper situates the meta-modelling framework CAFCA within other contextual and multidimensional agent-architectures, in particular focusing on its contributions to ontology a...

Francesca Giardini, Melania Borit, Harko Verhagen, Nanda Wijermans. 2024. Modeling Realistic Human Behavior in Disasters. A Rapid Literature Review of Agent-Based Models Reviews. Springer Link. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57785-7_13

Agent-based models of human behaviors in emergencies are extremely important in prevention, preparedness, response, and mitigation of crises. However, there is huge variation in the modeling of human cognitions and actions, with varying degrees of realism and even more diverse definitions of how realism should be implemented in the models. The aim of this Rapid Literature Review is to identify existing patterns in modelling re...

Christian Kammler, Frank Dignum, Nanda Wijermans. 2024. Towards a Social Simulation Interaction Tool for Policy Makers—A New Research Agenda to Enable Usage of More Complex Social Simulations. Springer Link. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57785-7_14

Social simulations can be a powerful tool for policy makers and other decision makers to support them in their decision making process. To be a powerful tool, it is not only important that the agents in the simulation exhibit realistic–human like—behavior, but also that the simulation is empowering the policy maker to use it in a—for them—meaningful way. To tackle this problem, we require interaction tools and visualization ca...

Helen Fischer, Nanda Wijermans, Maja Schlüter. 2023. Testing the Social Function of Metacognition for Common‐Pool Resource Use. Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13212

Metacognition, the ability to monitor and evaluate our own cognitive processes, confers advantages to individuals and their own judgment. A more recent hypothesis, however, states that explicit metacognition may also enhance the collective judgment of groups, and may enhance human collaboration and coordination. Here, we investigate this social function hypothesis of metacognition with arguably one of the oldest collaboration ...

Nanda Wijermans, Geeske Scholz, Émile Chappin, Alison Heppenstall, Tatiana Filatova, J. Gareth Polhill, Christina Semeniuk, Frithjof Stöppler. 2023. Agent decision-making: The Elephant in the Room - Enabling the justification of decision model fit in social-ecological models. Environmental Modelling & Software. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105850

Agent-based models are particularly suitable to reflect the dynamics of humans, nature, and their interactions, making them a crucial approach for understanding social-ecological systems. The formalisations of human decision-making are central to resulting model behaviours. Despite awareness of the complexity of human behaviour in social-ecological systems research, scholars tend to represent human decision-makers as simplifie...

Patrycja Antosz, Dan Birks, Bruce Edmonds, Alison Heppenstall, Ruth Meyer, J. Gareth Polhill, David O'Sullivan, Nanda Wijermans. 2023. What do you want theory for? - A pragmatic analysis of the roles of “theory” in agent-based modelling. Environmental Modelling & Software. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105802

There has been some discussion about agent-based modelling (ABM) and theory, particularly how ABM might facilitate theory building. However, there is confusion about the different ways they could relate and some scepticism as to whether theory is needed if one has an ABM. This paper distinguishes some of the different ways that the term “theory” is used in ABM papers in three important ABM journals: Environmental Modelling & ...

Nanda Wijermans, Geeske Scholz, Martin Neumann, Rocco Paolillo, Anne Templeton, Vhonani Netshandama, Doris Neuberger. 2023. Editorial: Social Identity Modelling. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.5188

This is an editorial to the special section on “Social Identity Modelling”, published in Volume 26, Issues 2 and 3, 2023 of the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. It provides information on how the Social Identity Approach (SIA) and the research using its theoretical framework explains collective behaviour, tailored specifically for modellers. The discussion centres around describing and reflecting on the s...

Nanda Wijermans, Harko Verhagen. 2023. Formalising Agent Reasoning—The Paso Doble of Data and Theory. Advances in Social Simulation. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-34920-1_42

One of the core assumptions made when building agent-based simulation models is how the agents decide or reason about the action to take next. The mode of reasoning is usually the same for all agents and over time within the simulation run. However, is this adequate? There exist several frameworks that describe multi-mode reasoning, however how do we know what we need? To engage with this core question, we reflect on this mode...

Geeske Scholz, Nanda Wijermans, Rocco Paolillo, Martin Neumann, Torsten Masson, Émile Chappin, Anne Templeton, Geo Kocheril. 2023. Social Agents? A Systematic Review of Social Identity Formalizations. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation. https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.5066

Simulating collective decision-making and behaviour is at the heart of many agent-based models (ABMs). However, the representation of social context and its influence on an agent's behaviour remains challenging. Here, the Social Identity Approach (SIA) from social psychology offers a promising explanation, as it describes how people behave while being part of a group, how groups interact and how these interactions and ingroup ...