The key components of this type of experiment are:
1) Realistic representation of the situation: imitates the main aspects of the natural situation being studied.
2) Control of variables: some factors are controlled to demonstrate their influence on behavior.
3) Flexibility and reproducibility: the experiment can be repeated several times to check the stability and representativeness of the results.
4) Limited extrapolation: the results are generalized provided that the elements of the representative situation correspond to the real ones.