In the original speciication of the Ecolab model, spatial variation of the system's variables was included, with an additional migration operator introduced proportional to the divergence of the species density. Suitably discretized, the model then consists of a number of cells, each running the non-spatial Ecolab model, linked together by the migration operator. This paper reports on the imple...

We are exploring whether the use of facilities aimed at improving the learner’s motivation has an effect on learning food-chains and food-webs, but also on help-seeking behaviour. The M-Ecolab is a Vygotskyan intelligent learning environment that incorporates both cognitive and affective feedback by combining a cognitive model capable of providing written feedback at the cognitive and metacogni...

The goal of the qualitative research is to achieve information regarding the attitudes and opinions of a group of individuals with similar habits, needs and interests. The selection of the participants is a key element in the qualitative research. This paper presents a new model, ECoLab (Experiencial Cooperative Laboratory), of qualitative research that integrates the following methods: Focus G...

At Alife VI, Mark Bedau proposed some evolutionary statistics as a means of classifying different evolutionary systems. Ecolab, whilst not an artificial life system, is a model of an evolving ecology that has advantages of mathematical tractability and computational simplicity. The Bedau statistics are well defined for Ecolab, and this paper reports statistics measured for typical Ecolab runs, ...

EcoLab is an agent based modeling system for C++ programmers, strongly influenced by the design of Swarm. This paper is just a brief outline of EcoLab’s features, more details can be found in other published articles, documentation and source code from the EcoLab website. 1 EcoLab EcoLab is an ABM system for C++ programmers. This is not the time or place to debate the merits of C++ over any oth...

In a recent paper, Newman [1] surveys the literature on power law spectra in evolution, self-organised criticality and presents a model of his own to arrive at a conclusion that self-organised criticality is not necessary for evolution. Not only did he miss a key model (Ecolab [2,3]) that has a clear self-organised critical mechanism, but also Newman’s model exhibits the same mechanism that giv...

By adding the concept of random embryology with locality to Lotka-Volterra population equations, a description of biological evolution is created. This model is called Ecolab. Computer simulations of these systems display self organised criticality, with power law behaviour for species lifetimes that stand in stark contrast to gradualism. This paper explores areas of future research with this m...