Sociology and Social Theory in Agent Based Social Simulation: A Symposium

A lengthy and intensive debate about the role of sociology in agent based social simulation dominated the email list simsoc@jiscmail.ac.uk during the autumn of 2000. The debate turned on the importance of models being devised to capture the properties of whole social systems and whether those properties should determine agent behaviour or, conversely, whether the properties of social systems should emerge from the behaviour and interaction of the agents and, if so, how that emergence should be represented. The positions of four of the main protagonists concerned specifically with the modelling issues are reprised and extended in this symposium.     

Change in the Form of Evolution: Transition from Primate to Hominid Forms of Social Organization

In this paper I sketch a model for the transition from biologically to culturally based forms of social organization. The impetus for the transition arises from increased individualization among the non-human primates that can be observed as one moves phylogenetically from the Cercopithecoids and Ceboids (Old and New World monkeys) to the hominoids, especially the African apes. Increased individualization introduced a conflict with coherent and stable social integration that was only resolved among the hominid ancestors to modern Homo sapiens by shifting to a cultural/conceptual, rather than a behavioral/biological, basis for social organization. The shift entailed a change from evolution driven by individual fitness to evolution driven by the structural coherency of a conceptual system for social organization; that is, to selection based on group, rather than individual, level traits. Conceptually the transition depended upon the evolution of mental capacities such as a theory of mind and recursion, both of which are absent or occur only in minimal form among the non-human primates.     

基于网络混合学习策略的股市投资者行为演化模型及仿真

针对投资者有限理性决策行为的模仿学习等特质,运用复杂网络、贝叶斯学习和社会学习理论,分别对个人投资者和机构投资者的投资行为决策机制进行系统性分析,由此构建基于网络混合学习策略的投资者行为演化机理和数理模型,并进行数理解析和模拟仿真。研究发现,投资者金融关联网络的拓扑结构对个人投资者行为动态演变具有较强影响,但对机构投资者的影响较弱;个人投资者的学习策略偏好影响其行为动态演变均衡状态的稳定性较为显著;机构投资者获取的私有信息精确度与其行为动态演变的均衡状态之间存在显著的非线性关联;投资者的初始行为状态对其投资行为动态演变均衡状态的影响效应均较弱。     

Who You Know vs. What You Know: The Impact of Social Position and Knowledge on Team Performance

Organizational behavior theories generally agree that human capital is critical to teams and organizations, but little guidance exists on the extent to which such theories accurately explain the relative contributions of individual actors to overall performance. Using newly created network measures and simulations based on data obtained from a software development firm, we investigate the relative effectiveness of social network theory and resource dependency theory as predictors of individuals' contributions to team performance. Our results indicate that individual impacts on team performance are more closely associated with knowledge and task dimensions than with social network structure. Furthermore, given that knowledge may be assessed a priori, these factors provide useful guidance for structuring teams and predicting team performance.     

Coordination in Dynamic Social Networks Under Heterogeneity

People often make choices or form opinions depending on the social relations they have, but they also choose their relations depending on their preferred behavior and their opinions. Most of the existing models of coevolution of networks and individual behavior assume that actors are homogeneous. In this article, we relax this assumption in a context in which actors try to coordinate their behavior with their partners. We investigate with a game-theoretic model whether social cohesion and coordination change when interests of actors are not perfectly aligned as compared to the homogeneous case. Using analytical and simulation methods we characterize the set of stable networks and examine the consequences of heterogeneity for social optimality and segregation in emerging networks.     

在线知识社区中基于个体异质性的知识与社会系统协同演化研究

在Web 2.0环境下,在线知识社区(Online Knowledge Community, OKC)已成为人们进行学习、利用、分享、传播知识的重要平台。然而,现有关于OKC的研究较多关注其中社会系统对个体知识建构、群体知识建构的影响,缺少从OKC演化的视角,以用户为基础对OKC中社会系统与知识系统间双向交互影响规律的研究。为此,本文将个体异质性作为影响因素引入到OKC的研究中,在一个开放的在线知识社区中模拟个体的观点、认知结构以及个体间形成的社会关系与知识系统的共同演化。将个体间以信任为基础形成的关系网络视为OKC中的社会系统,将群体依据自身认知结构表达出的全部观点视为社区中的知识系统,进而采取了社会科学计算实验的研究方法构建了一个OKC中社会系统与知识系统协同演化模型,并在模型中引入了个体的内在和外在异质性作为影响因素。研究结果表明OKC中个体的学习能力、容忍度、活跃度等个体因素,对其中知识观点的传播与社区中社会网络的演化影响显著。本研究希望能够为OKC中知识的自组织、序化的研究提供理论支持。     

京沪文化创意产业发展比较研究

北京市和上海市的文化创意产业发展迅速,已经成为支柱性产业.北京形成文化创意产业发展的"一核、一带、两轴、多中心"的空间发展格局,而上海则形成"一轴、一带、两河、多圈"的空间格局.北京以京派文化、首都文化等为基础,形成"3+3+X"的文化创意产业发展模式,而上海以沪派文化、国际经济中心等为基础,形成"5+3+3"的文化创意产业发展模式.北京市和上海市都已经通过多元投融资渠道,在园区发展模式上由自发型走向政府导向型模式.     

基于两阶段灰色聚类模型的新疆经济社会发展水平评价研究

通过两阶段灰色聚类模型选择影响经济社会发展水平,基础设施建设,相关产业发展水平以及区域经济基础四个一级指标的10个二级指标来构建区域经济社会发展水平评价指标体系,以2013年新疆14地州市相关数据为样本,运用基于改进的中心点混合三角白化权函数把新疆各地州市从经济社会发展的角度划分成4个区域,为"新丝绸之路经济带"下新疆各地州的经济与社会发展定位提供依据最后找出属于三、四级经济圈内地区经济与社会发展落后的原因并提出相关建议.     

基于社会福利最大化的油气资源税费研究

合理的油气资源税费能够引导企业优化开发决策,平衡当代与后代利益关系,实现跨期资源有效配置。从跨期油气资源最优分配的角度,通过最优控制理论构建寡头垄断市场中社会福利最大化和企业利润最大化目标下的油气资源开发决策模型,并以社会福利最大化目标下的资源开发决策为基准,研究从价、从量、储量三种不同形式的油气资源税费对资源开发决策的调节作用,研究发现:(1)征收从价税费,最优的从价税率为26.4%,政府既可以保障社会最优,还可以获得较多的税费收入;(2)征收从量税费,从量税率为1.77元/吨,政府可以保证社会福利最大化,但相比从价税费政府的税费收入较少;(3)征收储量税费,社会福利最大化下的储量税费为-0.13元/吨,也就是政府需向企业进行补贴才可以保证社会最优,会形成一定的财政压力。     

The Effects of Project‐Based Learning on Students' Academic Achievement,Attitude, and Retention of Knowledge: The Subject of “Electricity in Our Lives”

The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of project‐based learning on students' academic achievement, attitude, and retention of knowledge in relation to the subject of “Electricity in Our Lives” in a fourth‐grade science course. The study was conducted in a quasi‐experimental design as a “pre‐test, post‐test with control group.” In the experimental group, the unit was taught through the project‐based learning method. The measuring tools were administered to both groups before and after the applications. To perfectly analyze the “process” of the method, seven different learning assessment “forms” were administered to the students. The findings of the forms indicated that the students learn to construct their own learning and to evaluate changes in their own behavior through the application of the method. The application of different methods between both groups had a statistically significant effect in terms of academic achievement, (F(1,112) = 46.78, p = .000) and of retention of knowledge (F(1,112) = 35.24, p = .000). However, there were no statistically significant effects from being in different groups for the attitudes of students (F(1,112) = .99, p = .321). For the students, being in the project‐based learning groups resulted in better academic achievement and retention of knowledge than being in the traditional teaching group.     

Populations with individual variation in dispersal in heterogeneous environments: Dynamics and competition with simply diffusing populations

We consider a model for a population in a heterogeneous environment, with logistic-type local population dynamics, under the assumption that individuals can switch between two different nonzero rates of diffusion. Such switching behavior has been observed in some natural systems. We study how environmental heterogeneity and the rates of switching and diffusion affect the persistence of the population. The reactiondiffusion systems in the models can be cooperative at some population densities and competitive at others. The results extend our previous work on similar models in homogeneous environments. We also consider competition between two populations that are ecologically identical, but where one population diffuses at a fixed rate and the other switches between two different diffusion rates. The motivation for that is to gain insight into when switching might be advantageous versus diffusing at a fixed rate. This is a variation on the classical results for ecologically identical competitors with differing fixed diffusion rates, where it is well known that "the slower diffuser wins".