Figure 2: Timing results for variational empirical Bayes (VEB), variational hierarchical Bayes (VB), and MCMC. Within each panel, convergence time is plotted on the log scale as a function of the number of agents, for fixed values of the other simulation parameters (shown at the top of each panel). 17 Number of decision−makers Completion time (log scale) 10s 1m 5m 30m 1h 12h 1d 250 5K 15K 25K 3 attrs 3 items Low het 10 attrs 3 items Low het 250 5K 15K 25K 3 attrs 12 items Low het 10s 1m 5m 30m 1h 12h 1d 10 attrs 12 items Low het 10s 1m 5m 30m 1h 12h 1d 3 attrs 3 items High het 250 5K 15K 25K 10 attrs 3 items High het 3 attrs 12 items High het 250 5K 15K 25K 10s 1m 5m 30m 1h 12h 1d 10 attrs 12 items High het VEB VB MCMC