Simulation versus Text: Acquisition of Implicit and Explicit Information

This study investigated potential differences in learning between two instructional activities: reading from a text and using a computer simulation. Participants were undergraduate students with limited knowledge of the domain topic (project management). Participants in both conditions (Simulation and Text) improved equally on a decontextualized, abstract knowledge assessment. In contrast, only the participants in the Simulation condition significantly improved on a contextualized case-based assessment. A propositional analysis revealed that participants in the Simulation condition acquired a significant amount of implicit domain information from pretest to posttest, whereas participants in the Text condition did not. These results suggest that educational computer simulations have the potential to significantly enhance the learning of implicit domain knowledge.