Effectiveness of simulation training on transfer of statistical concepts

The effectiveness of simulations for teaching statistical concepts was comp ared to the effectiveness of a textbook. The variable Medium (simulation ve rsus textbook) and Question specificity (Specific versus Nonspecific), were manipulated factorially. Question specificity was defined as follows: Subj ects were presented with a scenario in which gumballs were sampled from an urn. Subjects in the "Specific" condition were given a specific question ab out the outcome of the sampling procedure to consider; subjects in the "Non -specific" condition were asked generally to consider what would happen. A no-treatment control was included. The subjects consisted of 115 college st udents. The dependent variable was performance on problems requiring subjec ts to apply what they learned to ill defined everyday problems. Subjects tr ained by simulation performed significantly better than those trained with a textbook. Subjects in the "Specific" condition performed better than thos e in the "Non-specific" condition, although the difference did not teach co nventional levels of significance. These results support the increasing use of simulation in education and training.