Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Click the “OK” button at the bottom of the “Experiment” interface, which returns
you to the “BehaviorSpace” interface. Click the “Run” button while the baseline
experiment is still highlighted. When you come to the “Run options” box (see Figure
4.8
c), you should uncheck the “Spreadsheet output” box and check the “Table output”
box. Ignore the third box, and click the “OK” button. This will take you to a box
where you can save your file. We recommend giving the file a name and folder you
will remember and be sure to add the extension
.csv
(see Figure
4.8
d). Once you are
finished saving the file, you finally make it to the interface “Running Experiment.”
Go ahead and move the speed slider to the right (fastest) and uncheck “Update view”
and “Update plots and monitors” (see Figure
4.8
e). At this point, you just wait for
your simulations to complete.
Exercise 4.35.
After the simulation is complete, open the file you've created in
a spreadsheet software such as Excel, OpenOffice Calc, or Google Spreadsheet. We
suggest that you save the file within your spreadsheet software at this point so that
you don't lose the work that follows. The spreadsheet has columns for all of the
input and output variables that we set up in the BehaviorSpace. We want to calculate
the averages of the output measures so that we have a basis for comparison in the
exercises that follow. The following instructions assume that you ran 100 simulations,
and you should modify them accordingly if you chose to run fewer. Click your mouse
on the cell B110. Type
= average (B8..B107)
. Obviously, you did not need to
average this value because it is the same in all runs, but now we can copy that formula
over to the columns where it is needed. Click and hold your mouse on the small dot
that's in the bottom-right corner of cell B110, and, still holding the mouse button,
drag your mouse over to cell U110. Release and you'll see that you have copied the
formula across all rows. Save this file for future reference. Compare the results of
these averages to the simulations that you ran in Exercise
4.33
.
Exercise 4.36.
Redo the previous two exercises so that you have new averages from
a new set of simulations (or compare the results of your simulations to our results
in the outline materials accompanying our chapter). How much variation is there
between the two sets of runs, and in the case where the input parameters differed,
what kind of difference in outcome values would you need to see to be convinced that
the end behavior had truly changed?
Exercise 4.37.
There are a number of experiments pre-programmed into the Behav-
iorSpace. Because the individual repeated simulations are time-consuming, it is most
helpful to divide these experiments throughout the class so that results can be com-
pared as a whole. Each experiment should be run following the instructions above,
and then averaged, using a modification of the spreadsheet instructions. You'll see
that column A,
[run number]
, often has its entries a little scrambled, and as a result,
when multiple experimental values are used, the spreadsheet sometimes ends up with
rows that need to be moved so that all like-values are listed together. Be mindful
of this task before averaging the experimental results as you complete any exercises
below.
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