Learning in an Interactive Simulation Tool against Landslide Risks: The Role of Amount and Availability of Experiential Feedback

To investigate how differing amounts of experiential feedback and feedback’s availability in an interactive simulation tool influences people’s decision-making against landslide risks. Feedback via simulation tools is likely to help people improve their decisions against disasters; however, currently little is known on how differing amounts of experiential feedback and feedback’s availability in simulation tools influences people’s decisions against landslides. We tested the influence of differing amounts of experiential feedback and feedback’s availability on people’s decisions against landslide risks in an Interactive Landslide Simulation (ILS) tool. In an experiment, in high-damage conditions, the probabilities of damages to life and property due to landslides were 10-times higher than those in the low-damage conditions. In feedback-present condition, experiential feedback was provided in numeric, text, and graphical formats in ILS. In feedback-absent conditions, the probabilities of damages were described; however, there was no experiential feedback present. Investments were greater in conditions where experiential feedback was present and damages were high compared to conditions where experiential feedback was absent and damages were low. Furthermore, only high-damage feedback produced learning in ILS. Experience gained in ILS enables people to improve their decision-making against landslide risks. Simulation tools seem appropriate for landslide risk communication and for performing what-if analyses.