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What is Computer Simulation?
Author(s) -
Sainani Kristin L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pmandr
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.617
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1934-1563
pISSN - 1934-1482
DOI - 10.1016/j.pmrj.2015.10.010
Subject(s) - computer science , statistic , statistical hypothesis testing , intuition , statistical model , histogram , test statistic , data mining , machine learning , artificial intelligence , statistics , mathematics , philosophy , epistemology , image (mathematics)
Computer simulation is a powerful tool that is often used to guide statistical practice. Simulations give us a way to understand complex systems when their behavior is too complicated to predict theoretically. For example, statisticians may be able to mathematically work out how a statistical test will perform on idealized data (eg, normally distributed, no missing data, and perfectly measured), but they may need simulations to predict the test’s performance on messy, real-world data. Because simulations avoid complicated mathematical derivations, they are intuitive, easy to perform, and easy to understand. Unfortunately, many clinical researchers are only vaguely familiar with computer simulation and its many applications. This article reviews how computer simulation works and why it is useful.