Many models offer different explanations of learning processes, some of them predicting equal learning rates between conditions. The simplest method by which to assess this equality is to evaluate the curvature parameter for each condition, followed by a statistical test. However, this approach is highly dependent on the fitting procedure, which may come with built-in biases difficult to identi...

Not every great product becomes a blockbuster. Not every new technology, as promising as it may be, will be used on a large scale. Some features are critical to the success of a new technology over the competitive already established ones. Surgeons are but consumers in this rapidly changing world, deciding which new technology/technique they will adopt: NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endos...

Microbialites can have complex morphologies that preserve clues to ancient microbial ecology. However, extracting and interpreting these clues is challenging due to both the complexity of microbial structures and the difficulties of connecting morphology to microbial processes. Fenestrate microbialites from the 2521±3 Ma Gamohaan Formation, South Africa, have intricate structures composed of th...

The article explores the fruitfulness of assuming all economic behavior to be non-rational unless special factors intervene to make it rational. The definition of rationality applied is that of intentional or calculative rationality.. This is deemed to be a variable, not a trait of a species. The association of rationality with three kinds of investment is indicated. Prior research on informati...

PURPOSE Although laparoscopic Heller myotomy and Dor fundoplication (LHD) is widely performed to address achalasia, little is known about the learning curve for this technique. We assessed the learning curve for performing LHD. METHODS Of the 514 cases with LHD performed between August 1994 and March 2016, the surgical outcomes of 463 cases were evaluated after excluding 50 cases with reduced...

The authors describe a transient phase during training on a movement sequence wherein, after an initial improvement in speed and decrease in variability, individual participants' performance showed a significant increase in variability without change in mean performance speed. Subsequent to this phase, as practice continued, variability again decreased, performance significantly exceeded the ga...

The universal asymptotic scaling laws proposed by Amari et al. are studied in large scale simulations using a CM5. Small stochastic multilayer feedforward networks trained with backpropagation are investigated. In the range of a large number of training patterns t, the asymptotic generalization error scales as 1/t as predicted. For a medium range t a faster 1/t2 scaling is observed. This effect...

Demands in the Ultimatum Game in its traditional form with one proposer and one responder are compared with demands in an Ultimatum Game with responder competition. In this modified form one proposer faces three responders who can accept or reject the split of the pie. Initial demands in both ultimatum games are quite similar, however in the course of the experiment, demands in the ultimatum ga...