We interpret the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), recently adopted by the EU as a mode of governance in the area of social policy and other fields, as an imitative learning dynamics of the type considered in evolutionary game theory. The best-practise feature and the iterative design of the OMC correspond to the behavioral rule “imitate the best.” In a redistribution game with utilitarian gov...

PURPOSE The goal was to assess the effects of maturation and phonological development on performance, by normally hearing children, on an imitative test of auditory capacity (On-Line Imitative Test of Speech-Pattern Contrast Perception [OlimSpac]; Boothroyd, Eisenberg, & Martinez, 2006; Eisenberg, Martinez, & Boothroyd, 2003, 2007). METHOD Thirty-four hearing children (aged between 1;8 [years...

In automated bargaining a common method to obtain complex concession behaviour is to mix individual tactics, or decision functions, by a linear weighted combination. In such systems, the negotiation process between agents using mixed strategies with imitative and non-imitative tactics is highly dynamic, and non-monotonicity in the sequence of utilities of proposed offers can emerge at any time ...

PURPOSE Suicide is a major health problem in Korea. Extensive media exposure of celebrity suicide may induce imitative suicide, a phenomenon called the Werther effect. We examined the increased suicide risk following the suicides of an entertainer and a politician, and identified the relative suicide risks. METHODS News articles about the celebrity suicides were obtained from three major news...

A large number of studies have demonstrated impaired performance on a range of imitation tasks among individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The theory which suggests that these impairments are caused by a mirror system deficit has become increasingly prominent. Under this view, the capacity to match observed with executed actions or to 'mirror' is impaired in individuals with ASD. Th...

This paper analyzes a model of learning by imitation, where besides the decision maker, there is a population of individuals facing the same decision problem. We analyze a property called Absolute Expediency, which requires that the decision maker’s expected payo¤ increases from one round to the next for every decision problem and every profile of realized actions taken by the population. We gi...

BACKGROUND Most previous investigations of imitative suicide have reported suicide clustering in the general population, either temporal clustering following media reporting of suicide or case studies of geographically localised clusters. AIMS To determine whether space - time and space-time-method clustering occur in a national case register of those who had recent contact with mental health...