Title: Reflective and intuitive thinking: how do they influence learning and performance in simulation gaming?

Authors: Matteo Cristofaro; Pier Luigi Giardino; Luna Leoni

Addresses: Department of Management and Law, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', 00133 Rome, Italy ' University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', 00133 Rome, Italy ' Department of Management and Law, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', 00133 Rome, Italy

Abstract: This paper investigates the influence of reflective and intuitive thinking on students' learning and performance within a simulation game environment. In particular, the decision-making processes of 120 graduate students - divided into teams - taking part in a simulation game have been investigated. The results show that an average level of reflective thinking leads teams to reach a higher performance, compared to teams with a high or low level of reflective thinking. Moreover, results demonstrate that participation in simulation games do not improve the reflective thinking of participants, whilst simulation gaming is able to positively affect their learning capacity. Teachers can use these findings to design the 'best team composition' of students, allowing them to increase their overall performance in simulation gaming. Yet, this work - reinforcing prior literature - bolsters the ability of simulation games in improving learning skills of students.

Keywords: simulation game; cognition; dual mind process; cognitive reflection test; CRT; learning; performance; operations management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIOME.2021.114737

International Journal of Information and Operations Management Education, 2021 Vol.7 No.1, pp.45 - 65

Received: 01 May 2020
Accepted: 07 Jul 2020
Published online: 04 May 2021 *

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