WorldWideScience

Sample records for intellectual protection imitation

  1. Social Intervention for Adolescents with Autism and Significant Intellectual Disability: Initial Efficacyof Reciprocal Imitation Training

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingersoll, Brooke; Walton, Katherine; Carlsen, Danielle; Hamlin, Theresa

    2013-01-01

    Individuals with autism have difficulty with social skills across the lifespan. Few social interventions have been examined for older individuals with autism who also have significant intellectual disabilities (ID). Previous research suggests that reciprocal imitation training (RIT) improves imitation and social engagement in young children with…

  2. Intellectual Property Rights, Imitation, and Foreign Direct Investment: Theory and Evidence

    OpenAIRE

    Lee Branstetter; Raymond Fisman; C. Fritz Foley; Kamal Saggi

    2007-01-01

    This paper theoretically and empirically analyzes the effect of strengthening intellectual property rights in developing countries on the level and composition of industrial development. We develop a North-South product cycle model in which Northern innovation, Southern imitation, and FDI are all endogenous. Our model predicts that IPR reform in the South leads to increased FDI in the North, as Northern firms shift production to Southern affiliates. This FDI accelerates Southern industrial de...

  3. How much change is true change?: The smallest detectable difference of the Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale (PIPS) in preschoolers with intellectual disabilities of heterogeneous aetiology

    OpenAIRE

    Vanvuchelen, Marleen; Vochten, Christine

    2011-01-01

    The teaching of imitation skills is often the first step in interventions for young learners with intellectual disabilities. The main goal of this study was to determine the smallest detectable difference (SDD) at 95% confidence of the Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale(PIPS) in preschoolers with intellectual disabilities. Two raters independently scored videotapes of the imitation performance of 44 preschoolers (27 with Down syndrome, 10 with Non-Specific Mental Retardation and 7 with Low-...

  4. Imitation, patent protection and welfare

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mukherjee, A.; Pennings, H.P.G.

    2000-01-01

    Once a new technology has been invented it is shown that the innovator has an incentive to postpone technology adoption when the cost of imitation is high and patent protection is strong. With the possibility of licensing it is shown that licensing oftechnology instead of delaying technology

  5. Intellectual property right protection and its effects in North-South product cycles with innovation, adaption and imitation

    OpenAIRE

    Pättiniemi, Emmi

    2015-01-01

    The significance of knowledge and innovation has become an increasingly important part of international trade. Consequently, there have been continuous efforts to globally improve protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) through international trade agreements related to IPRs. The most comprehensive agreement is the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) that came into force on 1st of January 1995. As a founding part of World Trade Organization (WTO...

  6. To What Extent Do Joint Attention, Imitation, and Object Play Behaviors in Infancy Predict Later Communication and Intellectual Functioning in ASD?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poon, Kenneth K.; Watson, Linda R.; Baranek, Grace T.; Poe, Michele D.

    2012-01-01

    The extent to which early social communication behaviors predict later communication and intellectual outcomes was investigated via retrospective video analysis. Joint attention, imitation, and complex object play behaviors were coded from edited home videos featuring scenes of 29 children with ASD at 9-12 and/or 15-18 months. A quantitative…

  7. Preserved imitation in contrast to limited free application of comfortable hand actions in intellectually able young adults with an autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beelen, Caroline; Cuypers, Koen; van Schuerbeeck, Lise; Braeken, Marijke; Ross, Veerle; Jongen, Ellen; Meesen, Raf; Vanvuchelen, Marleen

    2017-06-01

    Imitation problems are commonly reported in children with an autism spectrum disorder. However, it has not yet been determined whether imitation problems persist into young adulthood. In this study, we investigated imitation skills of 20 intellectually able young adults with autism spectrum disorder relative to 19 age-matched neurotypical adults. For this purpose, we used a bar-transport task, which evokes the application of the end-state comfort principle. Specifically, we examined whether young adults with autism spectrum disorder imitated the means-end structure of a demonstrator's bar-transport action with and without application of the end-state comfort principle (imitation task). In addition, we examined whether participants spontaneously applied the end-state comfort principle during a similar bar-transport task (free execution task). Results revealed that young adults with autism spectrum disorder imitated the means-end structure of observed actions to the same degree as neurotypical adults ( p = 0.428). In contrast, they applied the end-state comfort principle less often during free executed actions ( p = 0.035). Moreover, during these actions, they were slower to place the bar into the penholder ( p = 0.023), which contributed to the reduced efficiency of their performance. Findings suggest that imitation abilities of young adults with autism spectrum disorder are preserved and that observing others' actions might promote more efficient action planning in this population.

  8. Exploring links among imitation, mental development, and temperament.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fenstermacher, Susan K; Saudino, Kimberly J

    2016-01-01

    Links among imitation, performance on a standardized test of intellectual development, and laboratory-assessed temperament were explored in 311 24-month old twin pairs. Moderate phenotypic associations were found between imitation, mental development, and temperament dimensions of Affect/Extraversion and Task Orientation. Covariance between imitation and mental development reflected genetic and shared environmental influences, whereas associations between imitation and temperament reflected genetic, shared, and nonshared environmental influences. Genetic factors linking imitation and temperament were the same as those linking temperament and mental development. Nonetheless, approximately 62% of total genetic variance on imitation was independent of genetic influences on mental development and temperament, suggesting that young children's imitation is not simply an index of general cognitive ability or dispositional style but has many underlying genetic influences that are unique.

  9. Offshore Outsourcing, Contractual R&D and Intellectual Property in Developing Countries

    OpenAIRE

    Marjit, Sugata; Xu, Xinpeng; Yang, Lei

    2009-01-01

    This paper examines the role of intellectual property in developing countries in offshore outsourcing of R&D. We find that strengthened intellectual property protection in developing countries provides incentive for firms, both multinational and local, to specialize in undertaking an R&D activity in which it has competitive advantage (the specialization effect). It also facilitates the process for local firms to switch from imitators to potential innovators (the switching effect). We demon...

  10. Teaching children generalized imitation skills: a case report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Freddy Jackson; Peace, Natalie; Parsons, Rachel

    2009-03-01

    Generalized imitation plays an important role in the acquisition of new skills, in particular language and communication. In this case report a multiple exemplar training procedure, with an errorless learning phase, was used to teach Ben, a 13-year-old child with severe intellectual disabilities, to imitate behaviours modelled by an adult instructor. After exposure to seven multiple exemplars, Ben learned to imitate novel actions to criterion (i.e. generalized imitation). These skills were maintained at 90 percent at 6 week and 18 week follow-up. In line with earlier research, this article provides some further support for the finding that multiple exemplar training can facilitate the reliable emergence of generalized imitation skills. Topographically similar behaviours during the learning phase can be difficult to discriminate and hence can slow the learning process. Future research could explore how generalized imitation supports the development of basic communication and activity skills.

  11. Intellectual property protection for brand Jamaica’s creative industries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keisha LaRaine Ingram

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Since the last decade, strategies employed by governments to manage their country brands have evolved beyond tourism marketing techniques. It is quite commonplace now for most governments to hire marketing specialists to design and implement county brand campaigns and policies to promote country brands globally to attract foreign direct investment into that country. Whether it is the arts-based “creative industry” or an “enterprise culture”, these features have evolved to become the drivers of profit in global markets, and give each nation a “competitive edge” over other nations in regards to their national brand. Country brand management is integral for the successful development of industry sectors and is also dependent on good country image. For Brand Jamaica one such industry is the creative industries sector. Brand Jamaica’s creative industries are mostly comprised of the branded tourism accommodations, atmosphere, heritage and culture as well as the indigenous music and recordings of local artistes and singers. For the development of this sector which currently contributes to Jamaica GDP it is interpreted that enforced intellectual property will play a key role especially in the promoting of the brand online. Good management of country brands creative industries involves good business acumen on protecting and developing that sector as it is vital towards translating the intangible wealth of developing countries into economic growth. Enforced intellectual property protection for Brand Jamaica’s music, arts, theatrical productions and creative expressions ultimately lessen the occurrence of infringements of the brand’s assets, piracy and production of counterfeit goods and services produces, while creating future possibilities in cyberspace.Purpose – as a source of unlimited supply of intellectual property, Brand Jamaica requires formal management of those assets especially in the creative industries sector that the brand

  12. An Overview of Human Rights and Intellectual Property Protection

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maysa Said Bydoon

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to discuss the legal framework of human rights and intellectual property in terms of state obligations to afford a protection for both human rights and intellectual property. The relationship between intellectual property and human rights, under bilateral, regional and multilateral treaties, is a matter of concern. In focusing on the relationship between intellectual property and human rights, this article argues that there are many challenges on the wide use of Intellectual property rights that given possible conflict between intellectual property and human rights.

  13. Bank equity connections, intellectual property protection and enterprise innovation – A bank ownership perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing Liu

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available This study investigates the effects of bank equity connections and intellectual property protection on enterprises’ innovation behavior, and the regulating effect of intellectual property protection on the relationship between bank equity connections and innovation. In general, bank equity connections and intellectual property protection not only significantly increase innovation input, but also improve innovation performance. However, the efficiency of bank equity connections is influenced by the heterogeneity of enterprises and the value orientation of the subjects. Bank equity connections have a more significantly positive effect on innovation in private and central enterprises, whereas the principal-agent problem and government intervention may weaken the marginal contribution of bank equity connections to the innovation of local state-owned enterprises. Bank equity connections and intellectual property protection are complementary in promoting enterprise innovation. Not only are the combined effects of bank equity connections and intellectual property protection greater than the individual effects, but when the latter is relatively weak, the former’s positive effect on innovation is obviously weakened and may even crowd out innovation.

  14. Parietal and premotor cortices: activation reflects imitation accuracy during observation, delayed imitation and concurrent imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krüger, Britta; Bischoff, Matthias; Blecker, Carlo; Langhanns, Christine; Kindermann, Stefan; Sauerbier, Isabell; Reiser, Mathias; Stark, Rudolf; Munzert, Jörn; Pilgramm, Sebastian

    2014-10-15

    This study investigated whether activation within areas belonging to the action observation and imitation network reveals a linear relation to the subsequent accuracy of imitating a bimanual rhythmic movement measured via a motion capturing system. 20 participants were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) when asked to imitate observed bimanual movements either concurrently versus with a delay (2s) or simply to observe the movements without imitation. Results showed that action observation relates to activation within classic mirror-related areas. Activation patterns were more widespread when participants were asked to imitate the movement. During observation with concurrent imitation, activation in the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) was associated negatively with imitation accuracy. During observation in the delayed imitation condition, higher subsequent imitation accuracy was coupled with higher activation in the right superior parietal lobe (SPL) and the left parietal operculum (POp). During the delayed imitation itself, a negative association between imitation accuracy and brain activation was revealed in the right ventral premotor cortex (vPMC). We conclude that the IPL is involved in online comparison and visuospatial attention processes during imitation, the SPL provides a kinesthetic blueprint during movement observation, the POp preserves body identity, and the vPMC recruits motor representations--especially when no concurrent visual guidance is possible. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. APPROPRIATING CREATIVE WORKS PROTECTED BY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornelia DUMITRU

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available The ownership, either public or private, is an expression for appropriating goods. Consequently, the appropriation takes the form of private (i.e. private property and common forms (i.e. public property. The common law property defines appropriation as „a deliberate act of acquisition of something, often without the permission of the owner”, but the intellectual property rights do not protect goods. Particularly in this case „the object” of appropriation does not represent a „res nullius” simply because the intellectual property right arises from the act of creation, therefore the appropriation of somebody else’s creation becomes equivalent with stealing (plagiarism. Consequently, if we are to admit that the authors have a right of ownership over them, then ownership in intellectual property law has (it must have other manifestations than those known and accepted in the common law of property.

  16. Enhanced Automatic Action Imitation and Intact Imitation-Inhibition in Schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simonsen, Arndis; Fusaroli, Riccardo; Skewes, Joshua Charles; Roepstorff, Andreas; Campbell-Meiklejohn, Daniel; Mors, Ole; Bliksted, Vibeke

    2018-02-21

    Imitation plays a key role in social learning and in facilitating social interactions and likely constitutes a basic building block of social cognition that supports higher-level social abilities. Recent findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have imitation impairments that could contribute to the social impairments associated with the disorder. However, extant studies have specifically assessed voluntary imitation or automatic imitation of emotional stimuli without controlling for potential confounders. The imitation impairments seen might therefore be secondary to other cognitive, motoric, or emotional deficits associated with the disorder. To overcome this issue, we used an automatic imitation paradigm with nonemotional stimuli to assess automatic imitation and the top-down modulation of imitation where participants were required to lift one of 2 fingers according to a number shown on the screen while observing the same or the other finger movement. In addition, we used a control task with a visual cue in place of a moving finger, to isolate the effect of observing finger movement from other visual cueing effects. Data from 33 patients (31 medicated) and 40 matched healthy controls were analyzed. Patients displayed enhanced imitation and intact top-down modulation of imitation. The enhanced imitation seen in patients may have been medication induced as larger effects were seen in patients receiving higher antipsychotic doses. In sum, we did not find an imitation impairment in schizophrenia. The results suggest that previous findings of impaired imitation in schizophrenia might have been due to other cognitive, motoric, and/or emotional deficits.

  17. Reciprocal Imitation Following Adult Imitation by Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Tiffany; Ezell, Shauna; Nadel, Jacqueline; Grace, Ava; Allender, Susan; Siddalingappa, Vijaya

    2013-01-01

    This study examined the effects of adult imitation and adult playfulness on the imitation, social attention and initiation of new behaviours by non-verbal preschoolers with autism. Videotapes taken from a previous study were recoded for the adult's imitation and playful behaviour and the children's imitation, social attention (looking at…

  18. Developments in Intellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge Protection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Jane

    2009-01-01

    In order to protect indigenous/traditional knowledge, intellectual property law must be leveraged in a way that is responsive to the dynamic inter-relationships between law, society and culture. Over the last decade, increased attention to Indigenous concerns has produced a wealth of literature and prompted recognition of the diverse needs of…

  19. The Policies Concerning the Strength of Intellectual Property Rights Protection: The Choices for Estonia in Wider Context of EU

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tõnu Roolaht

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The foreign direct investment (FDI can be substitute for the contractual transfer of intellectual property rights in a situation where these rights are weakly protected. Hence, stronger intellectual property rights protection may reduce incentives for FDI. This is, however, only one line of reasoning. Stronger intellectual property protection can also increase motivation to invest into completely new products and processes. Thus, from the slightly different perspective FDI and strength of intellectual property protection can be seen as complementary. This duality of impact makes the search for efficient protection very difficult and complex. The aim of this paper is to outline the policy choices open for Estonia in influencing the relative strength of intellectual property rights protection and its impact on FDI. The vital secondary research agenda by this concerns the influence of EU-membership on the autonomy of such policy choices. Given the fact that there exist European patents and patent registry, certain intellectual property rights protection measures and legislative practices are undoubtedly pre-determined by this embeddedness into EU-wide protection systems. The national level policies and enforcement issues may still vary.

  20. Gesture Imitation in Schizophrenia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, Natasha; Gold, Brian J.; Sekuler, Robert; Park, Sohee

    2013-01-01

    Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) are impaired in their ability to imitate gestures and movements generated by others. This impairment in imitation may be linked to difficulties in generating and maintaining internal representations in working memory (WM). We used a novel quantitative technique to investigate the relationship between WM and imitation ability. SZ outpatients and demographically matched healthy control (HC) participants imitated hand gestures. In Experiment 1, participants imitated single gestures. In Experiment 2, they imitated sequences of 2 gestures, either while viewing the gesture online or after a short delay that forced the use of WM. In Experiment 1, imitation errors were increased in SZ compared with HC. Experiment 2 revealed a significant interaction between imitation ability and WM. SZ produced more errors and required more time to imitate when that imitation depended upon WM compared with HC. Moreover, impaired imitation from WM was significantly correlated with the severity of negative symptoms but not with positive symptoms. In sum, gesture imitation was impaired in schizophrenia, especially when the production of an imitation depended upon WM and when an imitation entailed multiple actions. Such a deficit may have downstream consequences for new skill learning. PMID:21765171

  1. Gesture imitation in schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthews, Natasha; Gold, Brian J; Sekuler, Robert; Park, Sohee

    2013-01-01

    Recent evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) are impaired in their ability to imitate gestures and movements generated by others. This impairment in imitation may be linked to difficulties in generating and maintaining internal representations in working memory (WM). We used a novel quantitative technique to investigate the relationship between WM and imitation ability. SZ outpatients and demographically matched healthy control (HC) participants imitated hand gestures. In Experiment 1, participants imitated single gestures. In Experiment 2, they imitated sequences of 2 gestures, either while viewing the gesture online or after a short delay that forced the use of WM. In Experiment 1, imitation errors were increased in SZ compared with HC. Experiment 2 revealed a significant interaction between imitation ability and WM. SZ produced more errors and required more time to imitate when that imitation depended upon WM compared with HC. Moreover, impaired imitation from WM was significantly correlated with the severity of negative symptoms but not with positive symptoms. In sum, gesture imitation was impaired in schizophrenia, especially when the production of an imitation depended upon WM and when an imitation entailed multiple actions. Such a deficit may have downstream consequences for new skill learning.

  2. Intellectual Property Protection of Software – At the Crossroads of Software Patents and Open Source Software

    OpenAIRE

    Tantarimäki, Maria

    2018-01-01

    The thesis considers the intellectual property protection of software in Europe and in the US, which is increasingly important subject as the world is globalizing and digitalizing. The special nature of software has challenges the intellectual property rights. The current protection of software is based on copyright protection but in this thesis, two other options are considered: software patents and open source software. Software patents provide strong protection for software whereas the pur...

  3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND THE INTERNATIONAL MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY: FIRM AND HOST COUNTRY IMPACTS

    OpenAIRE

    Goldsmith, Peter D.; Ramos, Gabriel; Steiger, Carlos

    2001-01-01

    The protection of intellectual property rights has been a contentious issue over the last 20 years. Industrialized nations have moved to knowledge-based economies and simultaneously trade barriers have fallen, making intellectual property vulnerable. Adding to this vulnerability are conflicting international institutional environments, belief systems, and economic realities. The debate over IPR protection has become a significant global trade issue pitting the net- technology producing North ...

  4. Analysis of Intellectual Property Protection Issues in Offshore Outsourcing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Satinder Pal

    2013-01-01

    Offshore outsourcing is a business strategy that involves contracting with a partner who can take over certain aspects of a company's business, such as information technology (IT) functions, in the interests of efficiency and cost savings. The purpose of this study was to analyze the intellectual property protection issues to achieve a better…

  5. Whom Should We Imitate? Imitation Strategy and Industry Knowledge Structure

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Posen, Hart E.; Yi, Sangyoon; Lee, Jeho

    Imitation is a common practice within and across industries. Recent research has begun to explore the potential of imitation as a purposeful strategy. But the question of what constitutes a “good” imitation strategy is as yet not well understood. This study examines the efficacy of two canonical ...

  6. The effect of different imitation models on theaccuracy and speed of imitation of movement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishizawa, Hitomi; Kimura, Teiji; Goh, Ah-Cheng

    2015-11-01

    [Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy, speed and subjective ease of imitation of movement using three different imitation models. [Subjects] Thirty-four right-handed healthy males participated in this study. [Methods] The imitation task chosen for this study was an asymmetric combined motion of the upper and lower limbs. Three kinds of imitation models were displayed on a screen as follows: a) third person perspective mirror imitation (3PM), b) third person perspective anatomical imitation (3PA), and c) first person perspective ipsilateral imitation (1PI). Subjects were instructed to imitate the movement shown on a screen as quickly and as accurately as possible. They executed four sets of the movement with each set consisting of one trial of each of the three imitation models. [Results] 3PM was the most accurate, and 1PI was the fastest in speed and subjective ease of imitation, compared with the other two imitation models. [Conclusion] These results suggest that 1PI and 3PM, which do not require mental rotation of the movement task as required by 3PA, should be considered more suitable imitation models for teaching healthy subjects how to move.

  7. 6 CFR 25.10 - Confidentiality and protection of Intellectual Property.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 6 Domestic Security 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Confidentiality and protection of Intellectual Property. 25.10 Section 25.10 Domestic Security DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY REGULATIONS TO SUPPORT ANTI-TERRORISM BY FOSTERING EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES § 25.10 Confidentiality and...

  8. Group Dynamics in Automatic Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gleibs, Ilka H; Wilson, Neil; Reddy, Geetha; Catmur, Caroline

    Imitation-matching the configural body movements of another individual-plays a crucial part in social interaction. We investigated whether automatic imitation is not only influenced by who we imitate (ingroup vs. outgroup member) but also by the nature of an expected interaction situation (competitive vs. cooperative). In line with assumptions from Social Identity Theory), we predicted that both social group membership and the expected situation impact on the level of automatic imitation. We adopted a 2 (group membership target: ingroup, outgroup) x 2 (situation: cooperative, competitive) design. The dependent variable was the degree to which participants imitated the target in a reaction time automatic imitation task. 99 female students from two British Universities participated. We found a significant two-way interaction on the imitation effect. When interacting in expectation of cooperation, imitation was stronger for an ingroup target compared to an outgroup target. However, this was not the case in the competitive condition where imitation did not differ between ingroup and outgroup target. This demonstrates that the goal structure of an expected interaction will determine the extent to which intergroup relations influence imitation, supporting a social identity approach.

  9. Children with Autism Are More Imitative with an Imitative Adult than with Their Parents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Tiffany; Nadel, Jacqueline; Diego, Miguel; Hernandez-Reif, Maria; Russo, Kelly; Vchulek, Diane; Lendi, Kim; Siddalingappa, Vijaya

    2010-01-01

    Children with autism (mean age = 6 years) were videotaped first interacting with a parent and then with an unfamiliar researcher who imitated the child's behaviours. The researcher showed more imitative and playful behaviours than the parents. In turn, the children showed more imitative behaviour when playing with the imitative researcher than…

  10. Automatic Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2011-01-01

    "Automatic imitation" is a type of stimulus-response compatibility effect in which the topographical features of task-irrelevant action stimuli facilitate similar, and interfere with dissimilar, responses. This article reviews behavioral, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research on automatic imitation, asking in what sense it is "automatic"…

  11. Effective methods of protection of the intellectual activity results in infosphere of global telematics networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    D. A. Lovtsov

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this article is perfection of using metodology of technological and organization and legal protect of intellectual activity results and related intellectual rights in information sphere of Global Telematics Networks (such as of «Internet», «Relkom», «Sitek», «Sedab», «Remart», and others. On the conduct analysis base of the peculiarities and possibilities of using of different technological, organization and legal methods and ways protection of information objects the offers of perfection of corresponding organization and legal safeguarding are formulated. The effectiveness of the protection is provided on the basis of rational aggregation technological, organization and legal methods and ways possible in a particular situation.

  12. The Action Imitation network and motor imitation in children and adolescents with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wadsworth, Heather M; Maximo, Jose O; Lemelman, Amy R; Clayton, Kacy; Sivaraman, Soumya; Deshpande, Hrishikesh D; Ver Hoef, Lawrence; Kana, Rajesh K

    2017-02-20

    While deficits in imitation had been reported in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), its exact nature remains unclear. A dysfunction in mirroring mechanisms (through action imitation) has been proposed by some studies to explain this, although some recent evidence points against this hypothesis. The current study used behavior and functional MRI to examine the integrated functioning of the regions that are considered part of the Action Imitation network (AIN) in children and adolescents with ASD during a motor imitation task. Fourteen ASD and 15 age-and-IQ-matched typically developing (TD) children were asked to imitate a series of hand gestures in the MRI scanner. Intact performance on imitation (accurate imitation of hand gestures outside the scanner) in both ASD and TD groups was accompanied by significantly lower activity in ASD participants, relative to TD, in right angular gyrus, precentral gyrus, and left middle cingulate. In addition, autism traits were found to be significantly correlated with activation in the right angular gyrus. Overall, the findings of this study support the role of AIN in imitation and a potential difference in the recruitment of this network in ASD children. Copyright © 2016 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. The imitation game: Effects of social cues on 'imitation' are domain-general in nature.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marsh, Lauren E; Bird, Geoffrey; Catmur, Caroline

    2016-10-01

    Imitation has been hailed as 'social glue', facilitating rapport with others. Previous studies suggest that social cues modulate imitation but the mechanism of such modulation remains underspecified. Here we examine the locus, specificity, and neural basis of the social control of imitation. Social cues (group membership and eye gaze) were manipulated during an imitation task in which imitative and spatial compatibility could be measured independently. Participants were faster to perform compatible compared to incompatible movements in both spatial and imitative domains. However, only spatial compatibility was modulated by social cues: an interaction between group membership and eye gaze revealed more spatial compatibility for ingroup members with direct gaze and outgroup members with averted gaze. The fMRI data were consistent with this finding. Regions associated with the control of imitative responding (temporoparietal junction, inferior frontal gyrus) were more active during imitatively incompatible compared to imitatively compatible trials. However, this activity was not modulated by social cues. On the contrary, an interaction between group, gaze and spatial compatibility was found in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in a pattern consistent with reaction times. This region may be exerting control over the motor system to modulate response inhibition. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Protecting intellectual property associated with Canadian academic clinical trials - approaches and impact

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ross Sue

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Intellectual property is associated with the creative work needed to design clinical trials. Two approaches have developed to protect the intellectual property associated with multicentre trial protocols prior to site initiation. The ‘open access’ approach involves publishing the protocol, permitting easy access to the complete protocol. The main advantages of the open access approach are that the protocol is freely available to all stakeholders, permitting them to discuss the protocol widely with colleagues, assess the quality and rigour of the protocol, determine the feasibility of conducting the trial at their centre, and after trial completion, to evaluate the reported findings based on a full understanding of the protocol. The main potential disadvantage of this approach is the potential for plagiarism; however if that occurred, it should be easy to identify because of the open access to the original trial protocol, as well as ensure that appropriate sanctions are used to deal with plagiarism. The ‘restricted access’ approach involves the use of non-disclosure agreements, legal documents that must be signed between the trial lead centre and collaborative sites. Potential sites must guarantee they will not disclose any details of the study before they are permitted to access the protocol. The main advantages of the restricted access approach are for the lead institution and nominated principal investigator, who protect their intellectual property associated with the trial. The main disadvantages are that ownership of the protocol and intellectual property is assigned to the lead institution; defining who ‘needs to know’ about the study protocol is difficult; and the use of non-disclosure agreements involves review by lawyers and institutional representatives at each site before access is permitted to the protocol, significantly delaying study implementation and adding substantial indirect costs to research institutes

  15. Protecting intellectual property associated with Canadian academic clinical trials--approaches and impact.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Sue; Magee, Laura; Walker, Mark; Wood, Stephen

    2012-12-27

    Intellectual property is associated with the creative work needed to design clinical trials. Two approaches have developed to protect the intellectual property associated with multicentre trial protocols prior to site initiation. The 'open access' approach involves publishing the protocol, permitting easy access to the complete protocol. The main advantages of the open access approach are that the protocol is freely available to all stakeholders, permitting them to discuss the protocol widely with colleagues, assess the quality and rigour of the protocol, determine the feasibility of conducting the trial at their centre, and after trial completion, to evaluate the reported findings based on a full understanding of the protocol. The main potential disadvantage of this approach is the potential for plagiarism; however if that occurred, it should be easy to identify because of the open access to the original trial protocol, as well as ensure that appropriate sanctions are used to deal with plagiarism. The 'restricted access' approach involves the use of non-disclosure agreements, legal documents that must be signed between the trial lead centre and collaborative sites. Potential sites must guarantee they will not disclose any details of the study before they are permitted to access the protocol. The main advantages of the restricted access approach are for the lead institution and nominated principal investigator, who protect their intellectual property associated with the trial. The main disadvantages are that ownership of the protocol and intellectual property is assigned to the lead institution; defining who 'needs to know' about the study protocol is difficult; and the use of non-disclosure agreements involves review by lawyers and institutional representatives at each site before access is permitted to the protocol, significantly delaying study implementation and adding substantial indirect costs to research institutes. This extra step may discourage sites from

  16. Intellectual property and information controversy(I)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aoyama, Hirokazu

    This paper deals with intellectual property as the results of various intellectual activities such as R & D, and intellectual proprietary rights which protect it. New technology, designs, literary works, computer programs, semiconductor chips, new plant breeding, brands, trading secrets, CI and others, and legislations which protect them are described. Then, the background of the fact that intellectual proprietary rights are emphasized as analyzed. The author points out items as follows; movement toward much larger size of R & D, generation of the areas to be newly protected, trend in enforcement of intellectual property protection, commercialization of intellectual property, trend in software evolution, movement in technological protectionism, and the present status on each item.

  17. Dossier Imitation - Introduction générale Special section on Imitation – General introduction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Odile Petit

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Dans ce dossier spécial, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’aspect ontogénique et phylogénique de l’imitation. Nous avons invité des spécialistes du développement de l’enfant et des primatologues à discuter de ce que l’imitation représente pour l’espèce humaine, de sa présence chez des espèces de primates non humains et des éventuelles similarités observées au sein de l’ordre des primates. L’imitation possède une double dimension, cognitive et sociale. En effet, les processus d’imitation impliquent des compétences cognitives qui s’inscrivent dans des contextes sociaux et culturels. Ce mode d’apprentissage soulève de nombreuses questions : Peut-on considérer l’imitation comme une compétence innée ? L’étude de son développement permet-elle de comprendre les mécanismes du fonctionnement cognitif ? L’imitation est-elle uniquement humaine ?This special issue is interested in the ontogeny and the phylogeny of imitation. We have invited experts in developmental psychology and in primatology to discuss the definition of imitation in Human, its existence in non human primate species and to address the question of similarities between the different primate species. Imitation has both a cognitive and a social dimension. Imitation involves, indeed, cognitive processes that are part of social and cultural life. Learning occurs via imitation and several questions can be asked: Is imitation innate? Will studying its ontogeny help understanding its cognitive processes? Finally, is imitation human specific?

  18. Imitation in Newborn Infants: Exploring the Range of Gestures Imitated and the Underlying Mechanisms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N.; Moore, M. Keith

    1989-01-01

    Evaluated psychological mechanisms underlying imitation of facial actions in 40 newborn infants. Results showed imitation of head movement and a tongue-protrusion gesture. Subjects imitated from memory after displays had stopped. (RJC)

  19. Imitation by combination: preschool age children evidence summative imitation in a novel problem-solving task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subiaul, Francys; Krajkowski, Edward; Price, Elizabeth E; Etz, Alexander

    2015-01-01

    Children are exceptional, even 'super,' imitators but comparatively poor independent problem-solvers or innovators. Yet, imitation and innovation are both necessary components of cumulative cultural evolution. Here, we explored the relationship between imitation and innovation by assessing children's ability to generate a solution to a novel problem by imitating two different action sequences demonstrated by two different models, an example of imitation by combination, which we refer to as "summative imitation." Children (N = 181) from 3 to 5 years of age and across three experiments were tested in a baseline condition or in one of six demonstration conditions, varying in the number of models and opening techniques demonstrated. Across experiments, more than 75% of children evidenced summative imitation, opening both compartments of the problem box and retrieving the reward hidden in each. Generally, learning different actions from two different models was as good (and in some cases, better) than learning from 1 model, but the underlying representations appear to be the same in both demonstration conditions. These results show that summative imitation not only facilitates imitation learning but can also result in new solutions to problems, an essential feature of innovation and cumulative culture.

  20. Automatic imitation: A meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cracco, Emiel; Bardi, Lara; Desmet, Charlotte; Genschow, Oliver; Rigoni, Davide; De Coster, Lize; Radkova, Ina; Deschrijver, Eliane; Brass, Marcel

    2018-05-01

    Automatic imitation is the finding that movement execution is facilitated by compatible and impeded by incompatible observed movements. In the past 15 years, automatic imitation has been studied to understand the relation between perception and action in social interaction. Although research on this topic started in cognitive science, interest quickly spread to related disciplines such as social psychology, clinical psychology, and neuroscience. However, important theoretical questions have remained unanswered. Therefore, in the present meta-analysis, we evaluated seven key questions on automatic imitation. The results, based on 161 studies containing 226 experiments, revealed an overall effect size of g z = 0.95, 95% CI [0.88, 1.02]. Moderator analyses identified automatic imitation as a flexible, largely automatic process that is driven by movement and effector compatibility, but is also influenced by spatial compatibility. Automatic imitation was found to be stronger for forced choice tasks than for simple response tasks, for human agents than for nonhuman agents, and for goalless actions than for goal-directed actions. However, it was not modulated by more subtle factors such as animacy beliefs, motion profiles, or visual perspective. Finally, there was no evidence for a relation between automatic imitation and either empathy or autism. Among other things, these findings point toward actor-imitator similarity as a crucial modulator of automatic imitation and challenge the view that imitative tendencies are an indicator of social functioning. The current meta-analysis has important theoretical implications and sheds light on longstanding controversies in the literature on automatic imitation and related domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  1. The Monosyllable Imitation Test for Toddlers: Influence of Stimulus Characteristics on Imitation, Compliance and Diagnostic Accuracy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodges, Rosemary; Munro, Natalie; Baker, Elise; McGregor, Karla; Heard, Rob

    2017-01-01

    Background: Although verbal imitation can provide a valuable window into the developing language abilities of toddlers, some toddlers find verbal imitation challenging and will not comply with tests that involve elicited verbal imitation. The characteristics of stimuli that are offered to toddlers for imitation may influence how easy or hard it is…

  2. Promoting imitation in young children with autism: a comparison of reciprocal imitation training and video modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardon, Teresa A; Wilcox, M Jeanne

    2011-05-01

    The inability to imitate is a salient diagnostic marker for autism. It has been suggested that for children with autism, imitation may be a prerequisite skill that can assist in the development of various skills. Using a multiple baseline design across subjects, the purpose of this research was to determine if two interventions, reciprocal imitation training and video modeling were effective in promoting imitation acquisition in young children with autism. Six boys were matched across various features (i.e., age, language, autism severity) and randomly placed in a treatment condition. Results indicated that all six participants increased their imitation skills to varying degrees in both conditions, and imitation maintained and generalized at higher than baseline levels post treatment.

  3. MIMETISME ET IMITATION : UNE REVUE DE LA LITTERATURE

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    l‟imitation «des idées pures», mais aussi l‟existence d‟un type de protection de .... gion qui diffuse les caractéristiques de la mode d‟une organisation à une autre. ... d‟amélioration des performances mais par besoin de légitimité. La.

  4. Imitation, Awareness, and Folk Linguistic Artifacts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brunner, Elizabeth Gentry

    2010-01-01

    Imitations are sophisticated performances displaying regular patterns. The study of imitation allows linguists to understand speakers' perceptions of sociolinguistic variation. In this dissertation, I analyze imitations of non-native accents in order to answer two questions: what can imitation reveal about perception, and how are "folk linguistic…

  5. Accent Imitation Positively Affects Language Attitudes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patti eAdank

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other’s speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else’s speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship and examines how overt vocal imitation affects attitudes. Participants listened to sentences spoken by two speakers of a regional accent (Glaswegian of English. They vocally repeated (speaking in their own accent without imitating the sentences spoken by a Glaswegian speaker, and subsequently imitated sentences spoken by a second Glaswegian speaker (order counterbalanced across participants. After each repeating or imitation session, participants completed a questionnaire probing the speakers’ perceived power, competence, and social attractiveness. Imitating had a positive effect on the perceived social attractiveness of the speaker compared to repeating. These results are interpreted in light of Communication Accommodation Theory.

  6. Accent imitation positively affects language attitudes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adank, Patti; Stewart, Andrew J; Connell, Louise; Wood, Jeffrey

    2013-01-01

    People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other's speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else's speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship and examines how overt vocal imitation affects attitudes. Participants listened to sentences spoken by two speakers of a regional accent (Glaswegian) of English. They vocally repeated (speaking in their own accent without imitating) the sentences spoken by a Glaswegian speaker, and subsequently imitated sentences spoken by a second Glaswegian speaker (order counterbalanced across participants). After each repeating or imitation session, participants completed a questionnaire probing the speakers' perceived power, competence, and social attractiveness. Imitating had a positive effect on the perceived social attractiveness of the speaker compared to repeating. These results are interpreted in light of Communication Accommodation Theory.

  7. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Intellectual Property Protection, and Access to Medicines.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Townsend, Belinda; Gleeson, Deborah; Lopert, Ruth

    2016-11-01

    The inclusion of elevated standards of intellectual property (IP) protection in the recently negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement has raised serious public health concerns regarding access to medicines. A lesser-known trade agreement under negotiation in the Asia-Pacific region is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Framed as an attempt to reassert ASEAN's position in response to the United States-led TPP, RCEP includes key players China and India as well as several low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Leaked drafts of IP provisions proposed by Japan and South Korea raise similar concerns in the Asia-Pacific region. This article identifies TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement)-Plus provisions in leaked negotiating texts and examines their implications for LMICs that are not also parties to the TPP: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, China, and India. We find that higher levels of IP protection delay the market entry of generic medicines, giving rise to increased costs to governments and reduced access to essential medicines. The article concludes that the public health community should recognize risks inherent in trade agreements that promote expansions of IP rights and engage with governments to ensure that public health is adequately and explicitly protected in trade and investment negotiations. © 2016 APJPH.

  8. Neural systems for preparatory control of imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cross, Katy A; Iacoboni, Marco

    2014-01-01

    Humans have an automatic tendency to imitate others. Previous studies on how we control these tendencies have focused on reactive mechanisms, where inhibition of imitation is implemented after seeing an action. This work suggests that reactive control of imitation draws on at least partially specialized mechanisms. Here, we examine preparatory imitation control, where advance information allows control processes to be employed before an action is observed. Drawing on dual route models from the spatial compatibility literature, we compare control processes using biological and non-biological stimuli to determine whether preparatory imitation control recruits specialized neural systems that are similar to those observed in reactive imitation control. Results indicate that preparatory control involves anterior prefrontal, dorsolateral prefrontal, posterior parietal and early visual cortices regardless of whether automatic responses are evoked by biological (imitative) or non-biological stimuli. These results indicate both that preparatory control of imitation uses general mechanisms, and that preparatory control of imitation draws on different neural systems from reactive imitation control. Based on the regions involved, we hypothesize that preparatory control is implemented through top-down attentional biasing of visual processing.

  9. Brief Report: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Reciprocal Imitation Training for Teaching Elicited and Spontaneous Imitation to Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingersoll, Brooke

    2010-01-01

    Children with autism exhibit significant deficits in imitation skills. Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT), a naturalistic imitation intervention, was developed to teach young children with autism to imitate during play. This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of RIT on elicited and spontaneous imitation skills in 21…

  10. Elements of a comprehensive theory of infant imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N

    2017-01-01

    Imitation is central to human development. Imitation involves mapping between the perception and production of actions. Imitation after delays implicates preverbal memory. Imitation of people informs us about infants' processing of social events. A comprehensive theory needs to account for the origins, mechanisms, and functions of imitation. Neonatal imitation illuminates how the initial state engenders and supports rapid social learning.

  11. Imitation with Intention and Memory: an Experiment

    OpenAIRE

    Astrid Matthey

    2006-01-01

    Three results emerge from a simple experiment on imitation. First, I find behavior which strongly suggests an intention to imitate. Second, players im- itate successful other players rather than repeating successful actions. Third, to find imitation examples, players use several periods of memory. This lends support to learning models with a non-trivial role of memory. The experiment analyzes imitation in an individual learning context. It sup- plements the results obtained for imitation in e...

  12. Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Achilles, E I S; Fink, G R; Fischer, M H; Dovern, A; Held, A; Timpert, D C; Schroeter, C; Schuetz, K; Kloetzsch, C; Weiss, P H

    2016-02-01

    Apraxia typically results from left-hemispheric (LH), but also from right-hemispheric (RH) stroke, and often impairs gesture imitation. Especially in LH stroke, it is important to differentiate apraxia-induced gesture imitation deficits from those due to co-morbid aphasia and associated semantic deficits, possibly influencing the imitation of meaningful (MF) gestures. To explore this issue, we first investigated if the 10 supposedly meaningless (ML) gestures of a widely used finger imitation test really carry no meaning, or if the test also contains MF gestures, by asking healthy subjects (n=45) to classify these gestures as MF or ML. Most healthy subjects (98%) classified three of the 10 gestures as clearly MF. Only two gestures were considered predominantly ML. We next assessed how imitation in stroke patients (255 LH, 113 RH stroke) is influenced by gesture meaning and how aphasia influences imitation of LH stroke patients (n=208). All patients and especially patients with imitation deficits (17% of LH, 27% of RH stroke patients) imitated MF gestures significantly better than ML gestures. Importantly, meaningfulness-scores of all 10 gestures significantly predicted imitation scores of patients with imitation deficits. Furthermore, especially in LH stroke patients with imitation deficits, the severity of aphasia significantly influenced the imitation of MF, but not ML gestures. Our findings in a large patient cohort support current cognitive models of imitation and strongly suggest that ML gestures are particularly sensitive to detect imitation deficits while minimising confounding effects of aphasia which affect the imitation of MF gestures in LH stroke patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Race modulates neural activity during imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Losin, Elizabeth A. Reynolds; Iacoboni, Marco; Martin, Alia; Cross, Katy A.; Dapretto, Mirella

    2014-01-01

    Imitation plays a central role in the acquisition of culture. People preferentially imitate others who are self-similar, prestigious or successful. Because race can indicate a person's self-similarity or status, race influences whom people imitate. Prior studies of the neural underpinnings of imitation have not considered the effects of race. Here we measured neural activity with fMRI while European American participants imitated meaningless gestures performed by actors of their own race, and two racial outgroups, African American, and Chinese American. Participants also passively observed the actions of these actors and their portraits. Frontal, parietal and occipital areas were differentially activated while participants imitated actors of different races. More activity was present when imitating African Americans than the other racial groups, perhaps reflecting participants' reported lack of experience with and negative attitudes towards this group, or the group's lower perceived social status. This pattern of neural activity was not found when participants passively observed the gestures of the actors or simply looked at their faces. Instead, during face-viewing neural responses were overall greater for own-race individuals, consistent with prior race perception studies not involving imitation. Our findings represent a first step in elucidating neural mechanisms involved in cultural learning, a process that influences almost every aspect of our lives but has thus far received little neuroscientific study. PMID:22062193

  14. Selective and faithful imitation at 12 and 15 months.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilbrink, Elma E; Sakkalou, Elena; Ellis-Davies, Kate; Fowler, Nia C; Gattis, Merideth

    2013-11-01

    Research on imitation in infancy has primarily focused on what and when infants imitate. More recently, however, the question why infants imitate has received renewed attention, partly motivated by the finding that infants sometimes selectively imitate the actions of others and sometimes faithfully imitate, or overimitate, the actions of others. The present study evaluates the hypothesis that this varying imitative behavior is related to infants' social traits. To do so, we assessed faithful and selective imitation longitudinally at 12 and 15 months, and extraversion at 15 months. At both ages, selective imitation was dependent on the causal structure of the act. From 12 to 15 months, selective imitation decreased while faithful imitation increased. Furthermore, infants high in extraversion were more faithful imitators than infants low in extraversion. These results demonstrate that the onset of faithful imitation is earlier than previously thought, but later than the onset of selective imitation. The observed relation between extraversion and faithful imitation supports the hypothesis that faithful imitation is driven by the social motivations of the infant. We call this relation the King Louie Effect: like the orangutan King Louie in The Jungle Book, infants imitate faithfully due to a growing interest in the interpersonal nature of interactions. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Pathological Imitative Behavior and Response Preparation in Schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dankinas, Denisas; Melynyte, Sigita; Siurkute, Aldona; Dapsys, Kastytis

    2017-08-01

    Pathological imitative behavior (ehopraxia) is occasionally observed in schizophrenia patients. However, only a severe form of echopraxia can be detected with the help of a direct observation. Therefore, our goal was to study a latent form of pathological imitative behavior in this disorder, which is indicated by an increase of imitative tendencies. In our study, 14 schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy subjects were employed in two tasks: (a) in an imitative task they had to copy a hand action seen on a screen; (b) in a counter-imitative task they had to make a different movement (which involves an inhibition of prepotent imitative tendency that is impaired in case of pathological imitative behavior). Imitative tendencies were assessed by an interference score - a difference between counter-imitative and imitative response parameters. We also studied a response preparation in both groups by employing precueing probabilistic information. Our results revealed that schizophrenia patients were able to employ probabilistic information to prepare properly not only the imitative, but also the counter-imitative responses, the same as the healthy subjects did. Nevertheless, we detected increased prepotent imitative tendencies in schizophrenia patients, what indicates the latent pathological imitative behavior in case of this disorder. The obtained results suggest that in the case of schizophrenia problems with pathological imitative behavior more likely occurred in executive rather than in the preparatory stage of response. Our findings can help to detect a latent echopraxia in schizophrenia patients that cannot be revealed by direct observation. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  16. Imitation and speech: commonalities within Broca's area.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kühn, Simone; Brass, Marcel; Gallinat, Jürgen

    2013-11-01

    The so-called embodiment of communication has attracted considerable interest. Recently a growing number of studies have proposed a link between Broca's area's involvement in action processing and its involvement in speech. The present quantitative meta-analysis set out to test whether neuroimaging studies on imitation and overt speech show overlap within inferior frontal gyrus. By means of activation likelihood estimation (ALE), we investigated concurrence of brain regions activated by object-free hand imitation studies as well as overt speech studies including simple syllable and more complex word production. We found direct overlap between imitation and speech in bilateral pars opercularis (BA 44) within Broca's area. Subtraction analyses revealed no unique localization neither for speech nor for imitation. To verify the potential of ALE subtraction analysis to detect unique involvement within Broca's area, we contrasted the results of a meta-analysis on motor inhibition and imitation and found separable regions involved for imitation. This is the first meta-analysis to compare the neural correlates of imitation and overt speech. The results are in line with the proposed evolutionary roots of speech in imitation.

  17. 75 FR 60408 - Government Programs To Assist Businesses Protect Their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-30

    ... DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE International Trade Administration Government Programs To Assist Businesses Protect Their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Foreign Markets: Request of the International Trade... Property Rights, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. ACTION: Request for written...

  18. The neural basis of the imitation drive.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanawa, Sugiko; Sugiura, Motoaki; Nozawa, Takayuki; Kotozaki, Yuka; Yomogida, Yukihito; Ihara, Mizuki; Akimoto, Yoritaka; Thyreau, Benjamin; Izumi, Shinichi; Kawashima, Ryuta

    2016-01-01

    Spontaneous imitation is assumed to underlie the acquisition of important skills by infants, including language and social interaction. In this study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the neural basis of 'spontaneously' driven imitation, which has not yet been fully investigated. Healthy participants were presented with movie clips of meaningless bimanual actions and instructed to observe and imitate them during an fMRI scan. The participants were subsequently shown the movie clips again and asked to evaluate the strength of their 'urge to imitate' (Urge) for each action. We searched for cortical areas where the degree of activation positively correlated with Urge scores; significant positive correlations were observed in the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and bilateral midcingulate cortex (MCC) under the imitation condition. These areas were not explained by explicit reasons for imitation or the kinematic characteristics of the actions. Previous studies performed in monkeys and humans have implicated the SMA and MCC/caudal cingulate zone in voluntary actions. This study also confirmed the functional connectivity between Urge and imitation performance using a psychophysiological interaction analysis. Thus, our findings reveal the critical neural components that underlie spontaneous imitation and provide possible reasons why infants imitate spontaneously. © The Author (2015). Published by Oxford University Press.

  19. Emulation, imitation, over-imitation and the scope of culture for child and chimpanzee.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whiten, Andrew; McGuigan, Nicola; Marshall-Pescini, Sarah; Hopper, Lydia M

    2009-08-27

    We describe our recent studies of imitation and cultural transmission in chimpanzees and children, which question late twentieth-century characterizations of children as imitators, but chimpanzees as emulators. As emulation entails learning only about the results of others' actions, it has been thought to curtail any capacity to sustain cultures. Recent chimpanzee diffusion experiments have by contrast documented a significant capacity for copying local behavioural traditions. Additionally, in recent 'ghost' experiments with no model visible, chimpanzees failed to replicate the object movements on which emulation is supposed to focus. We conclude that chimpanzees rely more on imitation and have greater cultural capacities than previously acknowledged. However, we also find that they selectively apply a range of social learning processes that include emulation. Recent studies demonstrating surprisingly unselective 'over-imitation' in children suggest that children's propensity to imitate has been underestimated too. We discuss the implications of these developments for the nature of social learning and culture in the two species. Finally, our new experiments directly address cumulative cultural learning. Initial results demonstrate a relative conservatism and conformity in chimpanzees' learning, contrasting with cumulative cultural learning in young children. This difference may contribute much to the contrast in these species' capacities for cultural evolution.

  20. Imitation Therapy for Non-Verbal Toddlers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gill, Cindy; Mehta, Jyutika; Fredenburg, Karen; Bartlett, Karen

    2011-01-01

    When imitation skills are not present in young children, speech and language skills typically fail to emerge. There is little information on practices that foster the emergence of imitation skills in general and verbal imitation skills in particular. The present study attempted to add to our limited evidence base regarding accelerating the…

  1. Vocal Imitations of Non-Vocal Sounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Houix, Olivier; Voisin, Frédéric; Misdariis, Nicolas; Susini, Patrick

    2016-01-01

    Imitative behaviors are widespread in humans, in particular whenever two persons communicate and interact. Several tokens of spoken languages (onomatopoeias, ideophones, and phonesthemes) also display different degrees of iconicity between the sound of a word and what it refers to. Thus, it probably comes at no surprise that human speakers use a lot of imitative vocalizations and gestures when they communicate about sounds, as sounds are notably difficult to describe. What is more surprising is that vocal imitations of non-vocal everyday sounds (e.g. the sound of a car passing by) are in practice very effective: listeners identify sounds better with vocal imitations than with verbal descriptions, despite the fact that vocal imitations are inaccurate reproductions of a sound created by a particular mechanical system (e.g. a car driving by) through a different system (the voice apparatus). The present study investigated the semantic representations evoked by vocal imitations of sounds by experimentally quantifying how well listeners could match sounds to category labels. The experiment used three different types of sounds: recordings of easily identifiable sounds (sounds of human actions and manufactured products), human vocal imitations, and computational “auditory sketches” (created by algorithmic computations). The results show that performance with the best vocal imitations was similar to the best auditory sketches for most categories of sounds, and even to the referent sounds themselves in some cases. More detailed analyses showed that the acoustic distance between a vocal imitation and a referent sound is not sufficient to account for such performance. Analyses suggested that instead of trying to reproduce the referent sound as accurately as vocally possible, vocal imitations focus on a few important features, which depend on each particular sound category. These results offer perspectives for understanding how human listeners store and access long

  2. The perils of the imitation age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bonabeau, Eric

    2004-06-01

    Imitation exerts enormous influence over society, and business and finance in particular. And its influence has grown as the avenues by which people imitate--and are imitated--have multiplied and the process has gotten faster. Thousands of communications channels make it possible for virtually anyone in the developed world to know, almost instantaneously, what others do, think, believe, claim, or predict. More significantly, we can and do act upon such knowledge. The resulting fads and fashions, bubbles and crashes are ever more frequent, severe, and complex. The information age has cast up more than its share of paradoxes, including this one: When information is plentiful, we often use it not to make better decisions but to imitate others--and their mistakes. In consumer purchases, financial markets, and corporate strategy, what others do matters more to us than the facts. When there's too much information, imitation becomes a convenient heuristic. This is the basis for a self-referential society. Imitation has its virtues, but it also promotes instability and unpredictability. That's because, by definition a multiplier, it can swell a single opinion into a mass movement or catapult the smallest player to the forefront of a market. Mastering the dynamics of self-reference won't ensure mastery of its consequences. But businesses that understand how imitation works can at least attempt to gird themselves against its worst effects--by accounting for it in their forecasts and risk-management plans, by becoming more sensitive to unexpectedly changing circumstances, and by avoiding mindless imitation of other companies' moves. In some instances, they may even be able to build strategies around self-reference and use the tools of imitation to capture new business. That won't make the world any less confusing. But it may make it more profitable.

  3. Understanding the Mechanisms behind Deficits in Imitation: Do Individuals with Autism Know "What" to Imitate and Do They Know "How" to Imitate?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvuchelen, Marleen; Van Schuerbeeck, Lise; Roeyers, Herbert; De Weerdt, Willy

    2013-01-01

    Although imitation problems have been associated with autism for many years, the underlying mechanisms of these problems remain subject to debate. In this article, the question whether imitation problems are caused by selection or correspondence problems is explored and discussed. This review revealed that hypotheses on the nature of imitation…

  4. Repeated imitation makes human vocalizations more word-like.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edmiston, Pierce; Perlman, Marcus; Lupyan, Gary

    2018-03-14

    People have long pondered the evolution of language and the origin of words. Here, we investigate how conventional spoken words might emerge from imitations of environmental sounds. Does the repeated imitation of an environmental sound gradually give rise to more word-like forms? In what ways do these forms resemble the original sounds that motivated them (i.e. exhibit iconicity)? Participants played a version of the children's game 'Telephone'. The first generation of participants imitated recognizable environmental sounds (e.g. glass breaking, water splashing). Subsequent generations imitated the previous generation of imitations for a maximum of eight generations. The results showed that the imitations became more stable and word-like, and later imitations were easier to learn as category labels. At the same time, even after eight generations, both spoken imitations and their written transcriptions could be matched above chance to the category of environmental sound that motivated them. These results show how repeated imitation can create progressively more word-like forms while continuing to retain a resemblance to the original sound that motivated them, and speak to the possible role of human vocal imitation in explaining the origins of at least some spoken words. © 2018 The Author(s).

  5. Phonetic imitation by young children and its developmental changes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Kuniko

    2014-12-01

    In the current study, the author investigated the developmental course of phonetic imitation in childhood, and further evaluated existing accounts of phonetic imitation. Sixteen preschoolers, 15 third graders, and 18 college students participated in the current study. An experiment with a modified imitation paradigm with a picture-naming task was conducted, in which participants' voice-onset time (VOT) was compared before and after they were exposed to target speech with artificially increased VOT. Extended VOT in the target speech was imitated by preschoolers and 3rd graders as well as adults, confirming previous findings in phonetic imitation. Furthermore, an age effect of phonetic imitation was observed; namely, children showed greater imitation than adults, whereas the degree of imitation was comparable between preschoolers and 3rd graders. No significant effect of gender or word specificity was observed. Young children imitated fine phonetic details of the target speech, and greater degree of phonetic imitation was observed in children compared to adults. These findings suggest that the degree of phonetic imitation negatively correlates with phonological development.

  6. Evaluation and Future Direction of Intellectual Property Strategy - Setting out a new intellectual property policy - (Japanese)

    OpenAIRE

    KUGAI Takashi

    2010-01-01

    1. An intellectual property strategy is a policy aimed at improving the international competitiveness of industry and reinvigorating the economy through the creation, protection, and greater use of intellectual property. 2. The realization of IP policies conventionally considered difficult to implement and greater awareness of intellectual property at all levels of society, as demonstrated the establishment of Intellectual Property High Courts that exclusively and solely handle intellectual p...

  7. Own-gender imitation activates the brain's reward circuitry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacoboni, Macro; Martin, Alia; Dapretto, Mirella

    2012-01-01

    Imitation is an important component of human social learning throughout life. Theoretical models and empirical data from anthropology and psychology suggest that people tend to imitate self-similar individuals, and that such imitation biases increase the adaptive value (e.g., self-relevance) of learned information. It is unclear, however, what neural mechanisms underlie people's tendency to imitate those similar to themselves. We focused on the own-gender imitation bias, a pervasive bias thought to be important for gender identity development. While undergoing fMRI, participants imitated own- and other-gender actors performing novel, meaningless hand signs; as control conditions, they also simply observed such actions and viewed still portraits of the same actors. Only the ventral and dorsal striatum, orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala were more active when imitating own- compared to other-gender individuals. A Bayesian analysis of the BrainMap neuroimaging database demonstrated that the striatal region preferentially activated by own-gender imitation is selectively activated by classical reward tasks in the literature. Taken together, these findings reveal a neurobiological mechanism associated with the own-gender imitation bias and demonstrate a novel role of reward-processing neural structures in social behavior. PMID:22383803

  8. Debates on Intellectual Property Rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paula – Angela VIDRAŞCU

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available This paper supports the understanding of the definition of intellectual property rights and strong connection with intangible assets and, on the other hand, provides a brief presentation of the organizations supporting the protection of such rights. The essential aim of this article is represented by the detailed information obtained as a result of research carried out in order to define, identify and study the application of IPR in general and especially in our country. At the end of the paper I mentioned what involves protecting intellectual property rights and brought little concerned how our country is perceived to protect such rights. Most often, intellectual property is defined as a formal document of title, like a lease, which means that the property is a legal concept distinct from real property that are actually good without concrete material form. Constitute a special category of assets being perceived as an original creation, derived from creative ideas; has or may have a commercial value due to its contribution to earnings for its owner. The need for protection of intellectual property rights has emerged because of the changes in the contemporary society. The aim and purpose of which is to protect human intelligence product and, at the same time, ensuring that consumers benefit from the use of the attributes of this product. Always remember that the violation of intellectual property rights, causes injury to major economic, signifying a strong threat to the consumers health and safety.

  9. Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacoboni, Marco

    2009-01-01

    There is a convergence between cognitive models of imitation, constructs derived from social psychology studies on mimicry and empathy, and recent empirical findings from the neurosciences. The ideomotor framework of human actions assumes a common representational format for action and perception that facilitates imitation. Furthermore, the associative sequence learning model of imitation proposes that experience-based Hebbian learning forms links between sensory processing of the actions of others and motor plans. Social psychology studies have demonstrated that imitation and mimicry are pervasive, automatic, and facilitate empathy. Neuroscience investigations have demonstrated physiological mechanisms of mirroring at single-cell and neural-system levels that support the cognitive and social psychology constructs. Why were these neural mechanisms selected, and what is their adaptive advantage? Neural mirroring solves the "problem of other minds" (how we can access and understand the minds of others) and makes intersubjectivity possible, thus facilitating social behavior.

  10. Intellectual Property Rights Management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alkærsig, Lars; Beukel, Karin; Reichstein, Toke

    Intellectual Property Rights Management explores how the entire toolbox of intellectual property (IP) protection and management are successfully combined and how firms generate value from IP. In particular, this book provides a framework of archetypes which firms will be able to self...

  11. Mimicry and automatic imitation are not correlated

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Den Bossche, Sofie; Cracco, Emiel; Bardi, Lara; Rigoni, Davide; Brass, Marcel

    2017-01-01

    It is widely known that individuals have a tendency to imitate each other. However, different psychological disciplines assess imitation in different manners. While social psychologists assess mimicry by means of action observation, cognitive psychologists assess automatic imitation with reaction time based measures on a trial-by-trial basis. Although these methods differ in crucial methodological aspects, both phenomena are assumed to rely on similar underlying mechanisms. This raises the fundamental question whether mimicry and automatic imitation are actually correlated. In the present research we assessed both phenomena and did not find a meaningful correlation. Moreover, personality traits such as empathy, autism traits, and traits related to self- versus other-focus did not correlate with mimicry or automatic imitation either. Theoretical implications are discussed. PMID:28877197

  12. Accent imitation positively affects language attitudes

    OpenAIRE

    Adank, Patti; Stewart, Andrew J.; Connell, Louise; Wood, Jeffrey

    2013-01-01

    People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other's speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else's speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship an...

  13. Accent Imitation Positively Affects Language Attitudes

    OpenAIRE

    Patti eAdank; Patti eAdank; Andrew J. Stewart; Louise eConnell; Jeffrey eWood

    2013-01-01

    People in conversation tend to accommodate the way they speak. It has been assumed that this tendency to imitate each other’s speech patterns serves to increase liking between partners in a conversation. Previous experiments examined the effect of perceived social attractiveness on the tendency to imitate someone else’s speech and found that vocal imitation increased when perceived attractiveness was higher. The present experiment extends this research by examining the inverse relationship an...

  14. A cross-cultural comparison of children's imitative flexibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clegg, Jennifer M; Legare, Cristine H

    2016-09-01

    Recent research with Western populations has demonstrated that children use imitation flexibly to engage in both instrumental and conventional learning. Evidence for children's imitative flexibility in non-Western populations is limited, however, and has only assessed imitation of instrumental tasks. This study (N = 142, 6- to 8-year-olds) demonstrates both cultural continuity and cultural variation in imitative flexibility. Children engage in higher imitative fidelity for conventional tasks than for instrumental tasks in both an industrialized, Western culture (United States), and a subsistence-based, non-Western culture (Vanuatu). Children in Vanuatu engage in higher imitative fidelity of instrumental tasks than in the United States, a potential consequence of cultural variation in child socialization for conformity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  15. Neural correlates of individual differences in manual imitation fidelity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braadbaart, Lieke; Waiter, Gordon D.; Williams, Justin H. G.

    2012-01-01

    Imitation is crucial for social learning, and so it is important to identify what determines between-subject variability in imitation fidelity. This might help explain what makes some people, like those with social difficulties such as in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), significantly worse at performance on these tasks than others. A novel paradigm was developed to provide objective measures of imitation fidelity in which participants used a touchscreen to imitate videos of a model drawing different shapes. Comparisons between model and participants' kinematic data provided three measures of imitative fidelity. We hypothesized that imitative ability would predict variation in BOLD signal whilst performing a simple imitation task in the MRI-scanner. In particular, an overall measure of accuracy (correlation between model and imitator) would predict activity in the overarching imitation system, whereas bias would be subject to more general aspects of motor control. Participants lying in the MRI-scanner were instructed to imitate different grips on a handle, or to watch someone or a circle moving the handle. Our hypothesis was partly confirmed as correlation between model and imitator was mediated by somatosensory cortex but also ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and bias was mediated mainly by cerebellum but also by the medial frontal and parietal cortices and insula. We suggest that this variance differentially reflects cognitive functions such as feedback-sensitivity and reward-dependent learning, contributing significantly to variability in individuals' imitative abilities as characterized by objective kinematic measures. PMID:23087625

  16. Neural correlates of individual differences in manual imitation fidelity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lieke eBraadbaart

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Imitation is crucial for social learning, and so it is important to identify what determines between-subject variability in imitation fidelity. This might help explain what makes some people, like those with social difficulties such as in Autism Spectrum Disorder, significantly worse at performance on these tasks than others. A novel paradigm was developed to provide objective measures of imitation fidelity in which participants used a touchscreen to imitate videos of a model drawing different shapes. Comparisons between model and participants’ kinematic data provided three measures of imitative fidelity. We hypothesised that imitative ability would predict variation in BOLD signal whilst performing a simple imitation task in the MRI-scanner. In particular, an overall measure of accuracy (correlation between model and imitator would predict activity in the overarching imitation system, whereas bias would be subject to more general aspects of motor control. Participants lying in the MRI-scanner were instructed to imitate different grips on a handle, or to watch someone or a circle moving the handle. Our hypothesis was partly confirmed as correlation between model and imitator was mediated by somatosensory cortex but also ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and bias was mediated mainly by cerebellum but also by the medial frontal and parietal cortices and insula. We suggest that this variance differentially reflects cognitive functions such as feedback-sensitivity and reward-dependent learning, contributing significantly to variability in individuals’ imitative abilities as characterised by objective kinematic measures.

  17. Frequency-dependent oscillatory neural profiles during imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugata, Hisato; Hirata, Masayuki; Tamura, Yuichi; Onishi, Hisao; Goto, Tetsu; Araki, Toshihiko; Yorifuji, Shiro

    2017-04-10

    Imitation is a complex process that includes higher-order cognitive and motor function. This process requires an observation-execution matching system that transforms an observed action into an identical movement. Although the low-gamma band is thought to reflect higher cognitive processes, no studies have focused on it. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine the neural oscillatory changes including the low-gamma band during imitation. Twelve healthy, right-handed participants performed a finger task consisting of four conditions (imitation, execution, observation, and rest). During the imitation and execution conditions, significant event-related desynchronizations (ERDs) were observed at the left frontal, central, and parietal MEG sensors in the alpha, beta, and low-gamma bands. Functional connectivity analysis at the sensor level revealed an imitation-related connectivity between a group of frontal sensors and a group of parietal sensors in the low-gamma band. Furthermore, source reconstruction with synthetic aperture magnetometry showed significant ERDs in the low-gamma band in the left sensorimotor area and the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) during the imitation condition when compared with the other three conditions. Our results suggest that the oscillatory neural activities of the low-gamma band at the sensorimotor area and MFG play an important role in the observation-execution matching system related to imitation.

  18. Frequency-dependent oscillatory neural profiles during imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugata, Hisato; Hirata, Masayuki; Tamura, Yuichi; Onishi, Hisao; Goto, Tetsu; Araki, Toshihiko; Yorifuji, Shiro

    2017-01-01

    Imitation is a complex process that includes higher-order cognitive and motor function. This process requires an observation-execution matching system that transforms an observed action into an identical movement. Although the low-gamma band is thought to reflect higher cognitive processes, no studies have focused on it. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to examine the neural oscillatory changes including the low-gamma band during imitation. Twelve healthy, right-handed participants performed a finger task consisting of four conditions (imitation, execution, observation, and rest). During the imitation and execution conditions, significant event-related desynchronizations (ERDs) were observed at the left frontal, central, and parietal MEG sensors in the alpha, beta, and low-gamma bands. Functional connectivity analysis at the sensor level revealed an imitation-related connectivity between a group of frontal sensors and a group of parietal sensors in the low-gamma band. Furthermore, source reconstruction with synthetic aperture magnetometry showed significant ERDs in the low-gamma band in the left sensorimotor area and the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) during the imitation condition when compared with the other three conditions. Our results suggest that the oscillatory neural activities of the low-gamma band at the sensorimotor area and MFG play an important role in the observation-execution matching system related to imitation. PMID:28393878

  19. Perception-action coupling and imitation in autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nadel, Jacqueline

    2015-04-01

    This paper focuses on the key function of imitation in motor and social development of typically developing infants and low-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We suggest that it might also be a developmental cornerstone for other neurodevelopmental disorders. Why this suggestion? First, imitation just requires relating one's motor patterns to perceived motor patterns. This is always possible if the actions seen are not beyond the individual's motor scope; for instance, newborn infants can already imitate tongue protrusion, eye blinking, or mouth opening, because these movements are part of their foetal repertoire. Second, imitation is a 'use it or lose it' capacity: the more it is used, the more the repertoire grows (plasticity). Finally, imitation is an efficient tool for two main adaptive functions: learning and communication. Imitation-based communication is available through the use of the two facets of imitation: imitating and being imitated. The two facets afford two roles that the partners can exchange as a turn-taking while they synchronize matched activities. Neuroimaging studies of interactive imitation have shown that such communicative systems involve a coordination of bottom-up and top-down processes. In this line, imitation is a booster of development that can also be of benefit for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. © 2015 The Authors. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology © 2015 Mac Keith Press.

  20. Bimanual Gesture Imitation in Alzheimer's Disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanin, G Nter; Benke, Thomas

    2017-01-01

    Unimanual gesture production or imitation has often been studied in Alzheimer's disease (AD) during apraxia testing. In the present study, it was hypothesized that bimanual motor tasks may be a sensitive method to detect impairments of motor cognition in AD due to increased demands on the cognitive system. We investigated bimanual, meaningless gesture imitation in 45 AD outpatients, 38 subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 50 normal controls (NC) attending a memory clinic. Participants performed neuropsychological background testing and three tasks: the Interlocking Finger Test (ILF), Imitation of Alternating Hand Movements (AHM), and Bimanual Rhythm Tapping (BRT). The tasks were short and easy to administer. Inter-rater reliability was high across all three tests. AD patients performed significantly poorer than NC and MCI participants; a deficit to imitate bimanual gestures was rarely found in MCI and NC participants. Sensitivity to detect AD ranged from 0.5 and 0.7, specificity beyond 0.9. ROC analyses revealed good diagnostic accuracy (0.77 to 0.92). Impairment to imitate bimanual gestures was mainly predicted by diagnosis and disease severity. Our findings suggest that an impairment to imitate bimanual, meaningless gestures is a valid disease marker of mild to moderate AD and can easily be assessed in memory clinic settings. Based on our preliminary findings, it appears to be a separate impairment which can be distinguished from other cognitive deficits.

  1. How were Imitations of Samian Formed?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tino Leleković

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This article examines the variety of the locally made ceramic group known as Pannonian slipped ware (Pannonische Glanztonware - PGW. For the Roman provincial archaeology of Pannonia this group has particular meaning because it is perceived as a regional amalgam of Roman imperial taste and local Celtic traditions. This phenomenon is even more intriguing given that almost all the imitations were burnished grey and black, differing significantly from terra sigillata originals. The quality of the imitations clearly indicates that such colouring was not a consequence of a technological deficiency, but a clear expression of local taste and demand. Imitations that were made subsequently, later in the second century, show that the preference for black/grey slipped imitations of terra sigillata persisted in this region, obviously representing a distinctive alternative to the ever-present red gloss terra sigillata that was later imported from Gaul and Germania. A re-examination of other sites in the region and contextualisation of published material shows that this was not an isolated phenomenon, but that these imitations were part of a regional ceramic group known as Pannonian slipped ware (PSW. Several aspects of these imitations could be explored, but the task of this article is to investigate why these vessels were made as they were by comparing the PSW finds with original terra sigillata found in the region to determine patterns of differences and similarities.

  2. Selective and Faithful Imitation at 12 and 15 Months

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilbrink, Elma E.; Sakkalou, Elena; Ellis-Davies, Kate; Fowler, Nia C.; Gattis, Merideth

    2013-01-01

    Research on imitation in infancy has primarily focused on "what" and "when" infants imitate. More recently, however, the question why infants imitate has received renewed attention, partly motivated by the finding that infants sometimes selectively imitate the actions of others and sometimes faithfully imitate, or overimitate,…

  3. Effects of stimulus response compatibility on covert imitation of vowels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adank, Patti; Nuttall, Helen; Bekkering, Harold; Maegherman, Gwijde

    2018-03-13

    When we observe someone else speaking, we tend to automatically activate the corresponding speech motor patterns. When listening, we therefore covertly imitate the observed speech. Simulation theories of speech perception propose that covert imitation of speech motor patterns supports speech perception. Covert imitation of speech has been studied with interference paradigms, including the stimulus-response compatibility paradigm (SRC). The SRC paradigm measures covert imitation by comparing articulation of a prompt following exposure to a distracter. Responses tend to be faster for congruent than for incongruent distracters; thus, showing evidence of covert imitation. Simulation accounts propose a key role for covert imitation in speech perception. However, covert imitation has thus far only been demonstrated for a select class of speech sounds, namely consonants, and it is unclear whether covert imitation extends to vowels. We aimed to demonstrate that covert imitation effects as measured with the SRC paradigm extend to vowels, in two experiments. We examined whether covert imitation occurs for vowels in a consonant-vowel-consonant context in visual, audio, and audiovisual modalities. We presented the prompt at four time points to examine how covert imitation varied over the distracter's duration. The results of both experiments clearly demonstrated covert imitation effects for vowels, thus supporting simulation theories of speech perception. Covert imitation was not affected by stimulus modality and was maximal for later time points.

  4. Spontaneous cross-species imitation in interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Persson, Tomas; Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina; Madsen, Elainie Alenkær

    2018-01-01

    Imitation is a cornerstone of human development, serving both a cognitive function (e.g. in the acquisition and transmission of skills and knowledge) and a social-communicative function, whereby the imitation of familiar actions serves to maintain social interaction and promote prosociality. In nonhuman primates, this latter function is poorly understood, or even claimed to be absent. In this observational study, we documented interactions between chimpanzees and zoo visitors and found that the two species imitated each other at a similar rate, corresponding to almost 10% of all produced actions. Imitation appeared to accomplish a social-communicative function, as cross-species interactions that contained imitative actions lasted significantly longer than interactions without imitation. In both species, physical proximity promoted cross-species imitation. Overall, imitative precision was higher among visitors than among chimpanzees, but this difference vanished in proximity contexts, i.e. in the indoor environment. Four of five chimpanzees produced imitations; three of them exhibited comparable imitation rates, despite large individual differences in level of cross-species interactivity. We also found that chimpanzees evidenced imitation recognition, yet only when visitors imitated their actions (as opposed to postures). Imitation recognition was expressed by returned imitation in 36% of the cases, and all four imitating chimpanzees engaged in so-called imitative games. Previously regarded as unique to early human socialization, such games serve to maintain social engagement. The results presented here indicate that nonhuman apes exhibit spontaneous imitation that can accomplish a communicative function. The study raises a number of novel questions for imitation research and highlights the imitation of familiar behaviours as a relevant-yet thus far understudied-research topic.

  5. Discussion on the Legal Protection of Agriculture Intellectual Property Rights in Henan Province%河南省农业知识产权的法律保护问题探讨

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    秦元元

    2011-01-01

    分析了河南省农业知识产权法律保护存在的问题,提出了加强河南省农业知识产权法律保护的路径,即应从思想上增强农业知识产权法律保护意识,减少农业知识产权被非法窃取甚至流失的可能;健全农业知识产权法律保护体系,为做好河南省农业知识产权的法律保护工作提供刚性的制度保障;加大农业知识产权法律保护的执法力度,保持权益人寻求法律救助的热情;注重农业知识产权法律 ·保护专业人才培养,为河南省农业知识产权的法律保护务实人才基础.%Problems in the legal protection of agriculture intellectual property rights in Henan Province were analyzed, and the ways for enhancing agriculture intellectual property rights protection in Henan Province were proposed, namely, we should strengthen the consciousness of legal protection of agriculture intellectual property rights from the angle of thought, reduce the probability of the stealing and even lose of agriculture intellectual property; perfect legal protection of agriculture intellectual property rights system in Henan Province, to provide rigid system guarantee for the legal protection of agriculture intellectual property rights in Henan Province; strengthen the law enforcement of agriculture intellectual property protection, maintain the legal aid enthusiasm of the needy; pay attention to the professional talents cultivation of the legal protection of agricultural intellectual property rights, to consolidate personnel base for the legal protection of agricultural intellectual property rights in Henan Province.

  6. Global Perspective for Protecting Intellectual Property - Patenting in USA and Poland

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grebski, Michalene Eva; Wolniak, Radosław

    2018-06-01

    Paper addresses the different methods for protecting intellectual property in modern knowledge-based economies. The focus of the paper is a comparison between the procedures for applying for patents in Poland and the United States. The comparison has been made from the perspective of the cost of obtaining and maintaining a patent in Poland, the United States and some other countries. The comparison has also been made from the perspective of the procedures for applying for a patent in different countries based on the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The paper also includes a comparison of the time needed for processing the patent application. Low cost provisional twelve-month patent pending protection available in the United States is also being discussed. The paper also provides some guidance and recommendations for conducting a patent search in order to validate the originality of the invention.

  7. 'Speaking Truth' Protects Underrepresented Minorities' Intellectual Performance and Safety in STEM.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Zeev, Avi; Paluy, Yula; Milless, Katlyn L; Goldstein, Emily J; Wallace, Lyndsey; Márquez-Magaña, Leticia; Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten; Estrada, Mica

    2017-06-01

    We offer and test a brief psychosocial intervention, Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP), designed to protect underrepresented minorities' (URMs) intellectual performance and safety in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). STEP takes a 'knowledge as power' approach by: (a) providing a tutorial on stereotype threat (i.e., a social contextual phenomenon, implicated in underperformance and early exit) and (b) encouraging URMs to use lived experiences for generating be-prepared coping strategies. Participants were 670 STEM undergraduates [URMs (Black/African American and Latina/o) and non-URMs (White/European American and Asian/Asian American)]. STEP protected URMs' abstract reasoning and class grades (adjusted for grade point average [GPA]) as well as decreased URMs' worries about confirming ethnic/racial stereotypes. STEP's two-pronged approach-explicating the effects of structural 'isms' while harnessing URMs' existing assets-shows promise in increasing diversification and equity in STEM.

  8. The role of objects and effects in action imitation: Comparing the imitation of object-related actions vs. gestures in 18-month-old infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Ziyon; Óturai, Gabriella; Király, Ildikó; Knopf, Monika

    2015-11-01

    This study aimed to systematically investigate 18-month-old infants' imitation of object-related actions compared to motorically similar gestures. An additional goal of the study was to examine the role of action effects on infants' imitation of target actions. One group of infants (n=17) observed object-related actions and gestures leading to salient effects (sounds or visual resp. social effects), and the other group (n=16) watched the same actions without effects. Furthermore, this study examined whether infants show a consistent imitation ability for object-related actions and gestures. First, the present study showed that 18-month-old infants imitated object-related actions more frequently than gestures. Second, the presence of an effect significantly increased the imitation rate of object-related actions; however, this difference was not found for gestures. Third, indications for a general imitation ability were found as results on an individual level showed that object-related action imitation significantly correlated with gesture imitation. Implications of the results for theory and future studies are discussed with a focus on the role of objects and effects in 18-month-old infants' action imitation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Innovate or imitate? Behavioural technological change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hommes, C.; Zeppini, P.

    2013-01-01

    We propose a behavioural model of technological change with evolutionary switching between boundedly rational costly innovators and free imitators, and study the endogenous interplay of innovation decisions, market price dynamics and technological progress. Innovation and imitation are strategic

  10. Innovate or imitate? Behavioural technological change

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hommes, C.; Zeppini, P.

    2014-01-01

    We propose a behavioural model of technological change with evolutionary switching between costly innovators and free imitators, and study the endogenous interplay of innovation decisions, market price dynamics and technological progress. Innovation and imitation are strategic substitutes and

  11. Neural correlates of phonetic convergence and speech imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garnier, Maëva; Lamalle, Laurent; Sato, Marc

    2013-01-01

    Speakers unconsciously tend to mimic their interlocutor's speech during communicative interaction. This study aims at examining the neural correlates of phonetic convergence and deliberate imitation, in order to explore whether imitation of phonetic features, deliberate, or unconscious, might reflect a sensory-motor recalibration process. Sixteen participants listened to vowels with pitch varying around the average pitch of their own voice, and then produced the identified vowels, while their speech was recorded and their brain activity was imaged using fMRI. Three degrees and types of imitation were compared (unconscious, deliberate, and inhibited) using a go-nogo paradigm, which enabled the comparison of brain activations during the whole imitation process, its active perception step, and its production. Speakers followed the pitch of voices they were exposed to, even unconsciously, without being instructed to do so. After being informed about this phenomenon, 14 participants were able to inhibit it, at least partially. The results of whole brain and ROI analyses support the fact that both deliberate and unconscious imitations are based on similar neural mechanisms and networks, involving regions of the dorsal stream, during both perception and production steps of the imitation process. While no significant difference in brain activation was found between unconscious and deliberate imitations, the degree of imitation, however, appears to be determined by processes occurring during the perception step. Four regions of the dorsal stream: bilateral auditory cortex, bilateral supramarginal gyrus (SMG), and left Wernicke's area, indeed showed an activity that correlated significantly with the degree of imitation during the perception step.

  12. Nurturance and Imitation: The Mediating Role of Attraction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parton, David A.; Siebold, James R.

    1975-01-01

    Describes two experiments which examine the relationship between nurturance, attraction, and imitation. The results showed a significant relationship between nurturance and attraction and no relationship between nurturance and imitation. This suggests that positive relationships between nurturance and imitation are mediated by the child's…

  13. The influence of group membership on cross-contextual imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Genschow, Oliver; Schindler, Simon

    2016-08-01

    Research on mimicry has demonstrated that individuals imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. In the present study, we tested whether such top-down modulation also applies for more extreme forms of direct mapping, such as for cross-contextual imitation settings, in which individuals imitate others' movements without sharing a common goal or context. Models on self-other control suggest that top-down modulations are based merely on a direct link between social sensory processing and imitation. That is, perceived similarities between oneself and another person is sufficient to amplify a shared representation between own and others' actions, which then trigger imitation. However, motivational accounts explain such findings with the assumption that individuals are motivated to affiliate with others. Because imitation is linked to positive social consequences, individuals should imitate in-group members more strongly than out-group members. We tested these two theoretical accounts against each other by applying a cross-contextual imitation paradigm. The results demonstrate that in-group members are more strongly cross-contextually imitated than out-group members the higher individuals' motivation to affiliate with the in-group is. This supports motivational models but not self-other control accounts. Further theoretical implications are discussed.

  14. Action perception and imitation : a tutorial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bekkering, H; Wohlschlager, A; Prinz, W; Hommel, B

    2002-01-01

    Currently, imitation, or performing an act after perceiving it, is in the focus of attention of researchers from many different disciplines. Although this tutorial attempts to provide some interdisciplinary background, it will concentrate on possible cognitive mechanisms that underlie imitation

  15. On the Evolution of Behaviors through Embodied Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erbas, Mehmet D; Bull, Larry; Winfield, Alan F T

    2015-01-01

    This article describes research in which embodied imitation and behavioral adaptation are investigated in collective robotics. We model social learning in artificial agents with real robots. The robots are able to observe and learn each others' movement patterns using their on-board sensors only, so that imitation is embodied. We show that the variations that arise from embodiment allow certain behaviors that are better adapted to the process of imitation to emerge and evolve during multiple cycles of imitation. As these behaviors are more robust to uncertainties in the real robots' sensors and actuators, they can be learned by other members of the collective with higher fidelity. Three different types of learned-behavior memory have been experimentally tested to investigate the effect of memory capacity on the evolution of movement patterns, and results show that as the movement patterns evolve through multiple cycles of imitation, selection, and variation, the robots are able to, in a sense, agree on the structure of the behaviors that are imitated.

  16. What's Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subiaul, Francys

    2016-07-07

    What, if anything, is special about human imitation? An evaluation of enculturated apes' imitation skills, a "best case scenario" of non-human apes' imitation performance, reveals important similarities and differences between this special population of apes and human children. Candidates for shared imitation mechanisms include the ability to imitate various familiar transitive responses and object-object actions that involve familiar tools. Candidates for uniquely derived imitation mechanisms include: imitating novel transitive actions and novel tool-using responses as well as imitating opaque or intransitive gestures, regardless of familiarity. While the evidence demonstrates that enculturated apes outperform non-enculturated apes and perform more like human children, all apes, regardless of rearing history, generally excel at imitating familiar, over-rehearsed responses and are poor, relative to human children, at imitating novel, opaque or intransitive responses. Given the similarities between the sensory and motor systems of preschool age human children and non-human apes, it is unlikely that differences in sensory input and/or motor-output alone explain the observed discontinuities in imitation performance. The special rearing history of enculturated apes-including imitation-specific training-further diminishes arguments suggesting that differences are experience-dependent. Here, it is argued that such differences are best explained by distinct, specialized mechanisms that have evolved for copying rules and responses in particular content domains. Uniquely derived social and imitation learning mechanisms may represent adaptations for learning novel communicative gestures and complex tool-use. Given our species' dependence on both language and tools, mechanisms that accelerated learning in these domains are likely to have faced intense selective pressures, starting with the earliest of human ancestors.

  17. Imitation in Fragile X Syndrome: Implications for Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macedoni-Luksic, Marta; Greiss-Hess, Laura; Rogers, Sally J.; Gosar, David; Lemons-Chitwood, Kerrie; Hagerman, Randi

    2009-01-01

    To address the specific impairment of imitation in autism, the imitation abilities of 22 children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) with and without autism were compared. Based on previous research, we predicted that children with FXS and autism would have significantly more difficulty with non-meaningful imitation tasks. After controlling for…

  18. A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Children's Imitative Flexibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clegg, Jennifer M.; Legare, Cristine H.

    2016-01-01

    Recent research with Western populations has demonstrated that children use imitation flexibly to engage in both instrumental and conventional learning. Evidence for children's imitative flexibility in non-Western populations is limited, however, and has only assessed imitation of instrumental tasks. This study (N = 142, 6- to 8-year-olds)…

  19. Promoting Imitation in Young Children with Autism: A Comparison of Reciprocal Imitation Training and Video Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardon, Teresa A.; Wilcox, M. Jeanne

    2011-01-01

    The inability to imitate is a salient diagnostic marker for autism. It has been suggested that for children with autism, imitation may be a prerequisite skill that can assist in the development of various skills. Using a multiple baseline design across subjects, the purpose of this research was to determine if two interventions, reciprocal…

  20. 16 CFR 304.5 - Marking requirements for imitation political items.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marking requirements for imitation political... imitation political items. (a) An imitation political item which is manufactured in the United States, or...) An imitation political item of incusable material shall be incused with the calendar year in sans...

  1. 16 CFR 304.6 - Marking requirements for imitation numismatic items.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 16 Commercial Practices 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Marking requirements for imitation... for imitation numismatic items. (a) An imitation numismatic item which is manufactured in the United... the item. (3) An imitation numismatic item of incusable material shall be incused with the word “COPY...

  2. Imitation in Undergraduate Teaching and Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Jiangyuan; Guo, Wei

    2016-01-01

    Research in developmental psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated the critical role of imitation in human learning. Self-report questionnaires collected from 456 undergraduate students in two U.S. institutions and one Chinese institution demonstrated that undergraduate students from both U.S. and Chinese cultures used various imitations in…

  3. The Neural Basis of Vocal Pitch Imitation in Humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belyk, Michel; Pfordresher, Peter Q; Liotti, Mario; Brown, Steven

    2016-04-01

    Vocal imitation is a phenotype that is unique to humans among all primate species, and so an understanding of its neural basis is critical in explaining the emergence of both speech and song in human evolution. Two principal neural models of vocal imitation have emerged from a consideration of nonhuman animals. One hypothesis suggests that putative mirror neurons in the inferior frontal gyrus pars opercularis of Broca's area may be important for imitation. An alternative hypothesis derived from the study of songbirds suggests that the corticostriate motor pathway performs sensorimotor processes that are specific to vocal imitation. Using fMRI with a sparse event-related sampling design, we investigated the neural basis of vocal imitation in humans by comparing imitative vocal production of pitch sequences with both nonimitative vocal production and pitch discrimination. The strongest difference between these tasks was found in the putamen bilaterally, providing a striking parallel to the role of the analogous region in songbirds. Other areas preferentially activated during imitation included the orofacial motor cortex, Rolandic operculum, and SMA, which together outline the corticostriate motor loop. No differences were seen in the inferior frontal gyrus. The corticostriate system thus appears to be the central pathway for vocal imitation in humans, as predicted from an analogy with songbirds.

  4. Imitation inhibition in children with Tourette syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandt, Valerie Cathérine; Moczydlowski, Agnes; Jonas, Melanie; Boelmans, Kai; Bäumer, Tobias; Brass, Marcel; Münchau, Alexander

    2017-08-12

    Echopraxia, that is, the open and automatic imitation of other peoples' actions, is common in patients with Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and also those with frontal lobe lesions. While systematic reaction time tasks have confirmed increased automatic imitation in the latter two groups, adult patients with Tourette syndrome appear to compensate for automatic imitation tendencies by an overall slowing in response times. However, whether children with Tourette syndrome are already able to inhibit automatic imitation tendencies has not been investigated. Fifteen children with Tourette syndrome and 15 healthy children (aged 7-12 years) performed an imitation inhibition paradigm. Participants were asked to respond to an auditory cue by lifting their index finger or their little finger. Participants were simultaneously presented with either compatible or incompatible visual stimuli. Overall responses in children with Tourette syndrome were slower than in healthy children. Although responses were faster in compatible than in incompatible trials in both groups, this 'interference effect' was smaller in children with Tourette syndrome. Children with Tourette syndrome have a smaller interference effect than healthy children, indicating an enhanced ability to behaviourally control automatic imitation tendencies at the cost of reacting slower. The results suggest that children with Tourette syndrome already employ different or additional inhibition strategies compared to healthy children. © 2017 The British Psychological Society.

  5. Cooperation under indirect reciprocity and imitative trust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saavedra, Serguei; Smith, David; Reed-Tsochas, Felix

    2010-10-27

    Indirect reciprocity, a key concept in behavioral experiments and evolutionary game theory, provides a mechanism that allows reciprocal altruism to emerge in a population of self-regarding individuals even when repeated interactions between pairs of actors are unlikely. Recent empirical evidence show that humans typically follow complex assessment strategies involving both reciprocity and social imitation when making cooperative decisions. However, currently, we have no systematic understanding of how imitation, a mechanism that may also generate negative effects via a process of cumulative advantage, affects cooperation when repeated interactions are unlikely or information about a recipient's reputation is unavailable. Here we extend existing evolutionary models, which use an image score for reputation to track how individuals cooperate by contributing resources, by introducing a new imitative-trust score, which tracks whether actors have been the recipients of cooperation in the past. We show that imitative trust can co-exist with indirect reciprocity mechanisms up to a threshold and then cooperation reverses -revealing the elusive nature of cooperation. Moreover, we find that when information about a recipient's reputation is limited, trusting the action of third parties towards her (i.e. imitating) does favor a higher collective cooperation compared to random-trusting and share-alike mechanisms. We believe these results shed new light on the factors favoring social imitation as an adaptive mechanism in populations of cooperating social actors.

  6. Cooperation under indirect reciprocity and imitative trust.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Serguei Saavedra

    Full Text Available Indirect reciprocity, a key concept in behavioral experiments and evolutionary game theory, provides a mechanism that allows reciprocal altruism to emerge in a population of self-regarding individuals even when repeated interactions between pairs of actors are unlikely. Recent empirical evidence show that humans typically follow complex assessment strategies involving both reciprocity and social imitation when making cooperative decisions. However, currently, we have no systematic understanding of how imitation, a mechanism that may also generate negative effects via a process of cumulative advantage, affects cooperation when repeated interactions are unlikely or information about a recipient's reputation is unavailable. Here we extend existing evolutionary models, which use an image score for reputation to track how individuals cooperate by contributing resources, by introducing a new imitative-trust score, which tracks whether actors have been the recipients of cooperation in the past. We show that imitative trust can co-exist with indirect reciprocity mechanisms up to a threshold and then cooperation reverses -revealing the elusive nature of cooperation. Moreover, we find that when information about a recipient's reputation is limited, trusting the action of third parties towards her (i.e. imitating does favor a higher collective cooperation compared to random-trusting and share-alike mechanisms. We believe these results shed new light on the factors favoring social imitation as an adaptive mechanism in populations of cooperating social actors.

  7. Investigating the Relationship between Stable Personality Characteristics and Automatic Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Emily E; Ward, Robert; Ramsey, Richard

    2015-01-01

    Automatic imitation is a cornerstone of nonverbal communication that fosters rapport between interaction partners. Recent research has suggested that stable dimensions of personality are antecedents to automatic imitation, but the empirical evidence linking imitation with personality traits is restricted to a few studies with modest sample sizes. Additionally, atypical imitation has been documented in autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, but the mechanisms underpinning these behavioural profiles remain unclear. Using a larger sample than prior studies (N=243), the current study tested whether performance on a computer-based automatic imitation task could be predicted by personality traits associated with social behaviour (extraversion and agreeableness) and with disorders of social cognition (autistic-like and schizotypal traits). Further personality traits (narcissism and empathy) were assessed in a subsample of participants (N=57). Multiple regression analyses showed that personality measures did not predict automatic imitation. In addition, using a similar analytical approach to prior studies, no differences in imitation performance emerged when only the highest and lowest 20 participants on each trait variable were compared. These data weaken support for the view that stable personality traits are antecedents to automatic imitation and that neural mechanisms thought to support automatic imitation, such as the mirror neuron system, are dysfunctional in autism spectrum disorders or schizophrenia. In sum, the impact that personality variables have on automatic imitation is less universal than initial reports suggest.

  8. Investigating the Relationship between Stable Personality Characteristics and Automatic Imitation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily E Butler

    Full Text Available Automatic imitation is a cornerstone of nonverbal communication that fosters rapport between interaction partners. Recent research has suggested that stable dimensions of personality are antecedents to automatic imitation, but the empirical evidence linking imitation with personality traits is restricted to a few studies with modest sample sizes. Additionally, atypical imitation has been documented in autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, but the mechanisms underpinning these behavioural profiles remain unclear. Using a larger sample than prior studies (N=243, the current study tested whether performance on a computer-based automatic imitation task could be predicted by personality traits associated with social behaviour (extraversion and agreeableness and with disorders of social cognition (autistic-like and schizotypal traits. Further personality traits (narcissism and empathy were assessed in a subsample of participants (N=57. Multiple regression analyses showed that personality measures did not predict automatic imitation. In addition, using a similar analytical approach to prior studies, no differences in imitation performance emerged when only the highest and lowest 20 participants on each trait variable were compared. These data weaken support for the view that stable personality traits are antecedents to automatic imitation and that neural mechanisms thought to support automatic imitation, such as the mirror neuron system, are dysfunctional in autism spectrum disorders or schizophrenia. In sum, the impact that personality variables have on automatic imitation is less universal than initial reports suggest.

  9. The role of imitation in video-based interventions for children with autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindsay, C J; Moore, D W; Anderson, A; Dillenburger, K

    2013-08-01

    The aim of this paper is to bridge the gap between the corpus of imitation research and video-based intervention (VBI) research, and consider the impact imitation skills may be having on VBI outcomes and highlight potential areas for improving efficacy. A review of the imitation literature was conducted focusing on imitation skill deficits in children with autism followed by a critical review of the video modelling literature focusing on pre-intervention assessment of imitation skills and the impact imitation deficits may have on VBI outcomes. Children with autism have specific imitation deficits, which may impact VBI outcomes. Imitation training or procedural modifications made to videos may accommodate for these deficits. There are only six studies where VBI researchers have taken pre-intervention imitation assessments using an assortment of imitation measures. More research is required to develop a standardised multi-dimensional imitation assessment battery that can better inform VBI.

  10. Understanding and imitating unfamiliar actions: distinct underlying mechanisms.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joana C Carmo

    Full Text Available The human "mirror neuron system" has been proposed to be the neural substrate that underlies understanding and, possibly, imitating actions. However, since the brain activity with mirror properties seems insufficient to provide a good description for imitation of actions outside one's own repertoire, the existence of supplementary processes has been proposed. Moreover, it is unclear whether action observation requires the same neural mechanisms as the explicit access to their meaning. The aim of this study was two-fold as we investigated whether action observation requires different processes depending on 1 whether the ultimate goal is to imitate or understand the presented actions and 2 whether the to-be-imitated actions are familiar or unfamiliar to the subject. Participants were presented with both meaningful familiar actions and meaningless unfamiliar actions that they had to either imitate or discriminate later. Event-related Potentials were used as differences in brain activity could have been masked by the use of other techniques with lower temporal resolution. In the imitation task, a sustained left frontal negativity was more pronounced for meaningless actions than for meaningful ones, starting from an early time-window. Conversely, observing unfamiliar versus familiar actions with the intention of discriminating them led to marked differences over right centro-posterior scalp regions, in both middle and latest time-windows. These findings suggest that action imitation and action understanding may be sustained by dissociable mechanisms: while imitation of unfamiliar actions activates left frontal processes, that are likely to be related to learning mechanisms, action understanding involves dedicated operations which probably require right posterior regions, consistent with their involvement in social interactions.

  11. Imitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legare, Cristine H; Nielsen, Mark

    2015-11-01

    Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of how the unique demands of acquiring instrumental skills and cultural conventions provide insight into when children imitate, when they innovate, and to what degree. For instrumental learning, with an increase in experience, high fidelity imitation decreases and innovation increases. By contrast, for conventional learning, imitative fidelity stays high, regardless of experience, and innovation stays low. We synthesize cutting edge research on the development of imitative flexibility and innovation to provide insight into the social learning mechanisms underpinning the uniquely human mind. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Performance of motor imitation in children with and without dyspraxia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruttanathantong, Korrawan; Siritaratiwat, Wantana; Sriphetcharawut, Sarinya; Emasithi, Alongkot; Saengsuwan, Jiamjit; Saengsuwan, Jittima

    2013-07-01

    Motor imitation is truly essential for young children to learn new motor skills, social behavior and skilled acts or praxis. The present study aimed to investigate motor imitation ability between typically-developing children and dyspraxic children and to examine the development trends in both children groups. The comparison ofmotor imitation was studied in 55 typically-developing children and 59 dyspraxic children aged 5 to 8 years. The Motor Imitation subtest consisted of two sections, imitation of postures and imitation of verbal instructions. Typically-developing children and dyspraxic children were examined for developmental trends. The independent samples t-test was used to analyze the differences between both groups. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze inter-age differences for each age group. The results revealed significant differences between dyspraxic and typically-developing children. Both typically-developing and dyspraxic children demonstrated age trends. The older children scored higher than younger children. Imitation is a primary learning strategy of young children. It is essential that children with dyspraxia receive early detection and need effective intervention. Typically-developing children and dyspraxic children showed higher mean score on the Imitation of Posture section than the Verbal Instructions section. Motor imitation competency, therefore, changes and improves with age.

  13. On imitation among young and blind children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Rita Campello Rodrigues

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available This article investigates the imitation among young and blind children. The survey was conducted as a mosaic in the time since the field considerations were taken from two areas: a professional experience with early stimulation of blind babies and a workshop with blind and low vision young between 13-18 years. By statingthe situated trace of knowledge, theresearch indicates that imitation among blind young people can be one of the ways of creating a common world among young blind and sighted people. Imitation among blind young is a multi-sensory process that requires a body experience, including both blind and people who see. The paper concludes with an indication of the unique character of imitation and at the same time, with the affirmation of its relevance to the development and inclusion process of both the child and the young blind.

  14. What’s Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subiaul, Francys

    2016-01-01

    What, if anything, is special about human imitation? An evaluation of enculturated apes’ imitation skills, a “best case scenario” of non-human apes’ imitation performance, reveals important similarities and differences between this special population of apes and human children. Candidates for shared imitation mechanisms include the ability to imitate various familiar transitive responses and object–object actions that involve familiar tools. Candidates for uniquely derived imitation mechanisms include: imitating novel transitive actions and novel tool-using responses as well as imitating opaque or intransitive gestures, regardless of familiarity. While the evidence demonstrates that enculturated apes outperform non-enculturated apes and perform more like human children, all apes, regardless of rearing history, generally excel at imitating familiar, over-rehearsed responses and are poor, relative to human children, at imitating novel, opaque or intransitive responses. Given the similarities between the sensory and motor systems of preschool age human children and non-human apes, it is unlikely that differences in sensory input and/or motor-output alone explain the observed discontinuities in imitation performance. The special rearing history of enculturated apes—including imitation-specific training—further diminishes arguments suggesting that differences are experience-dependent. Here, it is argued that such differences are best explained by distinct, specialized mechanisms that have evolved for copying rules and responses in particular content domains. Uniquely derived social and imitation learning mechanisms may represent adaptations for learning novel communicative gestures and complex tool-use. Given our species’ dependence on both language and tools, mechanisms that accelerated learning in these domains are likely to have faced intense selective pressures, starting with the earliest of human ancestors. PMID:27399786

  15. What’s Special about Human Imitation? A Comparison with Enculturated Apes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francys Subiaul

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available What, if anything, is special about human imitation? An evaluation of enculturated apes’ imitation skills, a “best case scenario” of non-human apes’ imitation performance, reveals important similarities and differences between this special population of apes and human children. Candidates for shared imitation mechanisms include the ability to imitate various familiar transitive responses and object–object actions that involve familiar tools. Candidates for uniquely derived imitation mechanisms include: imitating novel transitive actions and novel tool-using responses as well as imitating opaque or intransitive gestures, regardless of familiarity. While the evidence demonstrates that enculturated apes outperform non-enculturated apes and perform more like human children, all apes, regardless of rearing history, generally excel at imitating familiar, over-rehearsed responses and are poor, relative to human children, at imitating novel, opaque or intransitive responses. Given the similarities between the sensory and motor systems of preschool age human children and non-human apes, it is unlikely that differences in sensory input and/or motor-output alone explain the observed discontinuities in imitation performance. The special rearing history of enculturated apes—including imitation-specific training—further diminishes arguments suggesting that differences are experience-dependent. Here, it is argued that such differences are best explained by distinct, specialized mechanisms that have evolved for copying rules and responses in particular content domains. Uniquely derived social and imitation learning mechanisms may represent adaptations for learning novel communicative gestures and complex tool-use. Given our species’ dependence on both language and tools, mechanisms that accelerated learning in these domains are likely to have faced intense selective pressures, starting with the earliest of human ancestors.

  16. Shadow-Reading: Affordances for Imitation in the Language Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Guerrero, María C. M.; Commander, Millie

    2013-01-01

    Imitation has a fundamental role in learning and development within Vygotskyan sociocultural theory. In this study, we adopt a sociocultural theory view of imitation as an intentional, meaningful, and transformative process leading learners to higher developmental levels. The study centers on instances of imitation that occurred as adult learners…

  17. Imitation of Para-Phonological Detail Following Left Hemisphere Lesions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kappes, Juliane; Baumgaertner, Annette; Peschke, Claudia; Goldenberg, Georg; Ziegler, Wolfram

    2010-01-01

    Imitation in speech refers to the unintentional transfer of phonologically irrelevant acoustic-phonetic information of auditory input into speech motor output. Evidence for such imitation effects has been explained within the framework of episodic theories. However, it is largely unclear, which neural structures mediate speech imitation and how…

  18. Is selective attention the basis for selective imitation in infants? An eye-tracking study of deferred imitation with 12-month-olds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kolling, Thorsten; Oturai, Gabriella; Knopf, Monika

    2014-08-01

    Infants and children do not blindly copy every action they observe during imitation tasks. Research demonstrated that infants are efficient selective imitators. The impact of selective perceptual processes (selective attention) for selective deferred imitation, however, is still poorly described. The current study, therefore, analyzed 12-month-old infants' looking behavior during demonstration of two types of target actions: arbitrary versus functional actions. A fully automated remote eye tracker was used to assess infants' looking behavior during action demonstration. After a 30-min delay, infants' deferred imitation performance was assessed. Next to replicating a memory effect, results demonstrate that infants do imitate significantly more functional actions than arbitrary actions (functionality effect). Eye-tracking data show that whereas infants do not fixate significantly longer on functional actions than on arbitrary actions, amount of fixations and amount of saccades differ between functional and arbitrary actions, indicating different encoding mechanisms. In addition, item-level findings differ from overall findings, indicating that perceptual and conceptual item features influence looking behavior. Looking behavior on both the overall and item levels, however, does not relate to deferred imitation performance. Taken together, the findings demonstrate that, on the one hand, selective imitation is not explainable merely by selective attention processes. On the other hand, notwithstanding this reasoning, attention processes on the item level are important for encoding processes during target action demonstration. Limitations and future studies are discussed. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. A specific deficit of imitation in autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stewart, Hannah J; McIntosh, Rob D; Williams, Justin H G

    2013-12-01

    Imitation is a potentially crucial aspect of social cognitive development. Although deficits in imitation ability have been widely demonstrated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the specificity and significance of the findings is unclear, due largely to methodological limitations. We developed a novel assessment of imitation ability, using objective movement parameters (path length and action duration) derived from a touch-sensitive tablet laptop during drawing actions on an identical tablet. By direct comparison of the kinematics of a model's actions with those of the participant who observed them, measures of imitation accuracy were obtained. By replaying the end-point of the movement as a spot on the screen, imitation accuracy was compared against a "ghost control" condition, with no human actor but only the end-point of the movement seen [object movement reenactment (OMR)]. Hence, demands of the control task were closely matched to the experimental task with respect to motor, memory, and attentional abilities. Adolescents with ASD showed poorer accuracy for copying object size and action duration on both the imitation and OMR tasks, but were significantly more impaired for imitation of object size. Our results provide evidence that some of the imitation deficit in ASD is specific to a self-other mapping problem, and cannot be explained by general factors such as memory, spatial reasoning, motor control, or attention, nor related to the social demands of the testing situation. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Investigating the Relationship between Stable Personality Characteristics and Automatic Imitation

    OpenAIRE

    Butler, Emily E.; Ward, Robert; Ramsey, Richard

    2015-01-01

    Automatic imitation is a cornerstone of nonverbal communication that fosters rapport between interaction partners. Recent research has suggested that stable dimensions of personality are antecedents to automatic imitation, but the empirical evidence linking imitation with personality traits is restricted to a few studies with modest sample sizes. Additionally, atypical imitation has been documented in autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia, but the mechanisms underpinning these behaviour...

  1. Homo imitans? Seven reasons why imitation couldn't possibly be associative.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heyes, Cecilia

    2016-01-19

    Many comparative and developmental psychologists believe that we are Homo imitans; humans are more skilled and prolific imitators than other animals, because we have a special, inborn 'intermodal matching' mechanism that integrates representations of others with representations of the self. In contrast, the associative sequence learning (ASL) model suggests that human infants learn to imitate using mechanisms that they share with other animals, and the rich resources provided by their sociocultural environments. This article answers seven objections to the ASL model: (i) it presents evidence that newborns do not imitate; (ii) argues that infants receive a plentiful supply of the kind of experience necessary for learning to imitate; (iii) suggests that neither infants nor adults can imitate elementally novel actions; (iv) explains why non-human animals have a limited capacity for imitation; (v) discusses the goal-directedness of imitation; (vi) presents evidence that improvement in imitation depends on visual feedback; and (vii) reflects on the view that associative theories steal 'the soul of imitation'. The empirical success of the ASL model indicates that the mechanisms which make imitation possible, by aligning representations of self with representations of others, have been tweaked by cultural evolution, not built from scratch by genetic evolution. © 2015 The Author(s).

  2. Mirroring "meaningful" actions: sensorimotor learning modulates imitation of goal-directed actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Catmur, Caroline; Heyes, Cecilia

    2017-06-19

    Imitation is important in the development of social and technological skills throughout the lifespan. Experiments investigating the acquisition and modulation of imitation (and of its proposed neural substrate, the mirror neuron system) have produced evidence that the capacity for imitation depends on associative learning in which connections are formed between sensory and motor representations of actions. However, evidence that the development of imitation depends on associative learning has been found only for non-goal-directed actions. One reason for the lack of research on goal-directed actions is that imitation of such actions is commonly confounded with the tendency to respond in a spatially compatible manner. However, since the most prominent account of mirror neuron function, and hence of imitation, suggests that these cells encode goal-directed actions, it is important to establish whether sensorimotor learning can also modulate imitation of goal-directed actions. Experiment 1 demonstrated that imitation of goal-directed grasping can be measured while controlling for spatial compatibility, and Experiment 2 showed that this imitation effect can be modulated by sensorimotor training. Together these data support the hypothesis that the capacity for behavioural imitation, and the properties of the mirror neuron system, are constructed in the course of development through associative learning.

  3. Enhancing voluntary imitation through attention and motor imagery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bek, Judith; Poliakoff, Ellen; Marshall, Hannah; Trueman, Sophie; Gowen, Emma

    2016-07-01

    Action observation activates brain areas involved in performing the same action and has been shown to increase motor learning, with potential implications for neurorehabilitation. Recent work indicates that the effects of action observation on movement can be increased by motor imagery or by directing attention to observed actions. In voluntary imitation, activation of the motor system during action observation is already increased. We therefore explored whether imitation could be further enhanced by imagery or attention. Healthy participants observed and then immediately imitated videos of human hand movement sequences, while movement kinematics were recorded. Two blocks of trials were completed, and after the first block participants were instructed to imagine performing the observed movement (Imagery group, N = 18) or attend closely to the characteristics of the movement (Attention group, N = 15), or received no further instructions (Control group, N = 17). Kinematics of the imitated movements were modulated by instructions, with both Imagery and Attention groups being closer in duration, peak velocity and amplitude to the observed model compared with controls. These findings show that both attention and motor imagery can increase the accuracy of imitation and have implications for motor learning and rehabilitation. Future work is required to understand the mechanisms by which these two strategies influence imitation accuracy.

  4. Kinematic Measures of Imitation Fidelity in Primary School Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Justin H. G.; Casey, Jackie M.; Braadbaart, Lieke; Culmer, Peter R.; Mon-Williams, Mark

    2014-01-01

    We sought to develop a method for measuring imitation accuracy objectively in primary school children. Children imitated a model drawing shapes on the same computer-tablet interface they saw used in video clips, allowing kinematics of model and observers' actions to be directly compared. Imitation accuracy was reported as a correlation reflecting…

  5. ‘Speaking Truth’ Protects Underrepresented Minorities’ Intellectual Performance and Safety in STEM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ben-Zeev, Avi; Paluy, Yula; Milless, Katlyn L.; Goldstein, Emily J.; Wallace, Lyndsey; Márquez-Magaña, Leticia; Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten; Estrada, Mica

    2017-01-01

    We offer and test a brief psychosocial intervention, Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP), designed to protect underrepresented minorities’ (URMs) intellectual performance and safety in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). STEP takes a ‘knowledge as power’ approach by: (a) providing a tutorial on stereotype threat (i.e., a social contextual phenomenon, implicated in underperformance and early exit) and (b) encouraging URMs to use lived experiences for generating be-prepared coping strategies. Participants were 670 STEM undergraduates [URMs (Black/African American and Latina/o) and non-URMs (White/European American and Asian/Asian American)]. STEP protected URMs’ abstract reasoning and class grades (adjusted for grade point average [GPA]) as well as decreased URMs’ worries about confirming ethnic/racial stereotypes. STEP’s two-pronged approach—explicating the effects of structural ‘isms’ while harnessing URMs’ existing assets—shows promise in increasing diversification and equity in STEM. PMID:28835879

  6. ‘Speaking Truth’ Protects Underrepresented Minorities’ Intellectual Performance and Safety in STEM

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Avi Ben-Zeev

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available We offer and test a brief psychosocial intervention, Speaking Truth to EmPower (STEP, designed to protect underrepresented minorities’ (URMs intellectual performance and safety in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM. STEP takes a ‘knowledge as power’ approach by: (a providing a tutorial on stereotype threat (i.e., a social contextual phenomenon, implicated in underperformance and early exit and (b encouraging URMs to use lived experiences for generating be-prepared coping strategies. Participants were 670 STEM undergraduates [URMs (Black/African American and Latina/o and non-URMs (White/European American and Asian/Asian American]. STEP protected URMs’ abstract reasoning and class grades (adjusted for grade point average [GPA] as well as decreased URMs’ worries about confirming ethnic/racial stereotypes. STEP’s two-pronged approach—explicating the effects of structural ‘isms’ while harnessing URMs’ existing assets—shows promise in increasing diversification and equity in STEM.

  7. Self-Imitation and Environmental Scaffolding for Robot Teaching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joe Saunders

    2007-03-01

    Full Text Available Imitative learning and learning by observation are social mechanisms that allow a robot to acquire knowledge from a human or another robot. However to be able to obtain skills in this way the robot faces many complex issues, one of which is that of finding solutions to the correspondence problem. Evolutionary predecessors to observational imitation may have been self-imitation where an agent avoids the complexities of the correspondence problem by learning and replicating actions it has experienced through the manipulation of its body. We investigate how a robotic control and teaching system using self-imitation can be constructed with reference to psychological models of motor control and ideas from social scaffolding seen in animals. Within these scaffolded environments sets of competencies can be built by constructing hierarchical state/action memory maps of the robot's interaction within that environment. The scaffolding process provides a mechanism to enable learning to be scaled up. The resulting system allows a human trainer to teach a robot new skills and modify skills that the robot may possess. Additionally the system allows the robot to notify the trainer when it is being taught skills it already has in its repertoire and to direct and focus its attention and sensor resources to relevant parts of the skill being executed. We argue that these mechanisms may be a first step towards the transformation from self-imitation to observational imitation. The system is validated on a physical pioneer robot that is taught using self-imitation to track, follow and point to a patterned object.

  8. Self-imitation and Environmental Scaffolding for Robot Teaching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chrystopher L. Nehaniv

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available Imitative learning and learning by observation are social mechanisms that allow a robot to acquire knowledge from a human or another robot. However to be able to obtain skills in this way the robot faces many complex issues, one of which is that of finding solutions to the correspondence problem. Evolutionary predecessors to observational imitation may have been self-imitation where an agent avoids the complexities of the correspondence problem by learning and replicating actions it has experienced through the manipulation of its body. We investigate how a robotic control and teaching system using self-imitation can be constructed with reference to psychological models of motor control and ideas from social scaffolding seen in animals. Within these scaffolded environments sets of competencies can be built by constructing hierarchical state/action memory maps of the robot's interaction within that environment. The scaffolding process provides a mechanism to enable learning to be scaled up. The resulting system allows a human trainer to teach a robot new skills and modify skills that the robot may possess. Additionally the system allows the robot to notify the trainer when it is being taught skills it already has in its repertoire and to direct and focus its attention and sensor resources to relevant parts of the skill being executed. We argue that these mechanisms may be a first step towards the transformation from self-imitation to observational imitation. The system is validated on a physical pioneer robot that is taught using self-imitation to track, follow and point to a patterned object.

  9. Infants Show Stability of Goal-Directed Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakkalou, Elena; Ellis-Davies, Kate; Fowler, Nia C.; Hilbrink, Elma E.; Gattis, Merideth

    2013-01-01

    Previous studies have reported that infants selectively reproduce observed actions and have argued that this selectivity reflects understanding of intentions and goals, or goal-directed imitation. We reasoned that if selective imitation of goal-directed actions reflects understanding of intentions, infants should demonstrate stability across…

  10. How and why do infants imitate? An ideomotor approach to social and imitative learning in infancy (and beyond).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulus, Markus

    2014-10-01

    It has been proposed that already in infancy, imitative learning plays a pivotal role in the acquisition of knowledge and abilities. Yet the cognitive mechanisms underlying the acquisition of novel action knowledge through social learning have remained unclear. The present contribution presents an ideomotor approach to imitative learning (IMAIL) in infancy (and beyond) that draws on the ideomotor theory of action control and on recent findings of perception-action matching. According to IMAIL, the central mechanism of imitative and social learning is the acquisition of cascading bidirectional action-effect associations through observation of own and others' actions. First, the observation of the visual effect of own actions leads to the acquisition of first-order action-effect associations, linking motor codes to the action's typical visual effects. Second, observing another person's action leads to motor activation (i.e., motor resonance) due to the first-order associations. This activated motor code then becomes linked to the other salient effects produced by the observed action, leading to the acquisition of (second-order) action-effect associations. These novel action-effect associations enable later imitation of the observed actions. The article reviews recent behavioral and neurophysiological studies with infants and adults that provide empirical support for the model. Furthermore, it is discussed how the model relates to other approaches on social-cognitive development and how developmental changes in imitative abilities can be conceptualized.

  11. The shared neural basis of empathy and facial imitation accuracy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Braadbaart, L; de Grauw, H; Perrett, D I; Waiter, G D; Williams, J H G

    2014-01-01

    Empathy involves experiencing emotion vicariously, and understanding the reasons for those emotions. It may be served partly by a motor simulation function, and therefore share a neural basis with imitation (as opposed to mimicry), as both involve sensorimotor representations of intentions based on perceptions of others' actions. We recently showed a correlation between imitation accuracy and Empathy Quotient (EQ) using a facial imitation task and hypothesised that this relationship would be mediated by the human mirror neuron system. During functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), 20 adults observed novel 'blends' of facial emotional expressions. According to instruction, they either imitated (i.e. matched) the expressions or executed alternative, pre-prescribed mismatched actions as control. Outside the scanner we replicated the association between imitation accuracy and EQ. During fMRI, activity was greater during mismatch compared to imitation, particularly in the bilateral insula. Activity during imitation correlated with EQ in somatosensory cortex, intraparietal sulcus and premotor cortex. Imitation accuracy correlated with activity in insula and areas serving motor control. Overlapping voxels for the accuracy and EQ correlations occurred in premotor cortex. We suggest that both empathy and facial imitation rely on formation of action plans (or a simulation of others' intentions) in the premotor cortex, in connection with representations of emotional expressions based in the somatosensory cortex. In addition, the insula may play a key role in the social regulation of facial expression. © 2013.

  12. Virtual Battlespace Behavior Generation Through Class Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-01

    to improve believability in an empirically measurable way, we focus on incorporating verifiability into our agent behaviors. Throughout the rest of...accuracy for low values of α. 39 The “Stealth” class imitation accuracies are also interesting. Not only is it inca - pable of imitating the appropriate

  13. A meta-analysis of imitation abilities in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Laura A

    2014-06-01

    Although imitation impairments are often reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), previous work has not yet determined whether these impairments are significant, specific to ASD, and present across the entire spectrum. This report of 53 studies on imitation in ASD seeks to determine whether individuals with ASD show significant imitation deficits, the magnitude of these deficits, and whether they are specific to ASD. Using standard meta-analytic techniques in a random-effects model, the data reviewed suggest that individuals with ASD show deficits in imitation, performing on average 0.81 SDs below individuals without ASD on imitation tasks. This deficit was specific to the condition of having ASD. Moderator analyses revealed that the average Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores of groups of ASD participants were significantly and strongly negatively associated with the imitation abilities of these subjects, but average participant IQ was not associated with imitation abilities. Study setting, novelty of actions, format of imitation tasks (live vs. not), number of actions to imitate, or verbal prompts were not found to significantly affect the sizes of the imitation differences between individuals with and without ASD. The manner in which imitation was operationalized, however, had significant effects on whether imitation deficits were found between individuals with and without ASD. In tests that measured imitation of both form and end points, participants with ASD showed significant deficits compared with those without ASD; on tests of end point emulation only, individuals with ASD showed no deficits. © 2014 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  14. CORRELATION BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataliia Shust

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The article is dedicated to the analysis of legal nature and peculiarities of optimal correlation between the notions of intellectual property and scientific activity. Nowadays intellectual property as institution goes through the period of establishment in Ukraine. As the Soviet system of civil law was based on recognition and regulation of authors’ rights for the authors of scientific works, discoveries, inventions and innovation proposals as the ones having mainly relative, i.e. legally mandatory, but not absolute character.  Getting started to define the notion of intellectual property and intellectual property right in the system of interaction with scientific activity, it is important to say that such notion as “intellectual property” still needs enhancement. Its imperfection is due to the fact that this kind of property implies being formed by intellectual efforts of the author of scientific work, but legally it is processed with the help of documents that guarantee property right. Methods. General scientific method, philosophical method, specially-legal method of scientific research, system analysis method. Results: It is important to emphasize that not every result of scientific or creative work can become the object of intellectual property right, but the one that corresponds with law. Any scientific work falls within the purview of law if it corresponds with law demands. Scientific and technical results obtain legal protection only in case of appropriate qualification established by specific agency of State administration and issuement of law-enforcement document being limited by the territory of Ukraine. Protection of rights on the territory of other countries is realized only on the basis of correspondent international conventions and treaties. Discussion: Advanced modern countries realized the meaning and importance of usage and proper protection of creative and scientific work results known as “intellectual

  15. Methodological issues in measures of imitative reaction times.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aicken, Michael D; Wilson, Andrew D; Williams, Justin H G; Mon-Williams, Mark

    2007-04-01

    Ideomotor (IM) theory suggests that observing someone else perform an action activates an internal motor representation of that behaviour within the observer. Evidence supporting the case for an ideomotor theory of imitation has come from studies that show imitative responses to be faster than the same behavioural measures performed in response to spatial cues. In an attempt to replicate these findings, we manipulated the salience of the visual cue and found that we could reverse the advantage of the imitative cue over the spatial cue. We suggest that participants utilised a simple visuomotor mechanism to perform all aspects of this task, with performance being driven by the relative visual salience of the stimuli. Imitation is a more complex motor skill that would constitute an inefficient strategy for rapid performance.

  16. Defining Elemental Imitation Mechanisms: A Comparison of Cognitive and Motor-Spatial Imitation Learning across Object- and Computer-Based Tasks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Subiaul, Francys; Zimmermann, Laura; Renner, Elizabeth; Schilder, Brian; Barr, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    During the first 5 years of life, the versatility, breadth, and fidelity with which children imitate change dramatically. Currently, there is no model to explain what underlies such significant changes. To that end, the present study examined whether task-independent but domain-specific--elemental--imitation mechanism explains performance across…

  17. Imitation of snack food intake among normal-weight and overweight children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bevelander, Kirsten E; Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Anna; Anschütz, Doeschka J; Hermans, Roel C J; Engels, Rutger C M E

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated whether social modeling of palatable food intake might partially be explained by the direct imitation of a peer reaching for snack food and further, assessed the role of the children's own weight status on their likelihood of imitation during the social interaction. Real-time observations during a 10-min play situation in which 68 participants (27.9% overweight) interacted with normal-weight confederates (instructed peers) were conducted. Children's imitated and non-imitated responses to the confederate's food picking movements were compared using a paired sample t-test. In addition, the pattern of likelihood of imitation was tested using multilevel proportional hazard models in a survival analysis framework. Children were more likely to eat after observing a peer reaching for snack food than without such a cue [t (67) = 5.69, P imitation responses during a social interaction based on their weight status (HR = 2.6, P = 0.03, 95% CI = 1.09-6.20). Overweight children were almost twice as likely to imitate, whereas normal-weight children had a smaller chance to imitate at the end of the interaction. Further, the mean difference in the likelihood of imitation suggest that overweight children might be less likely to imitate in the beginning of the interaction than normal-weight children. The findings provide preliminary evidence that children's imitation food picking movements may partly contribute to social modeling effects on palatable food intake. That is, a peer reaching for food is likely to trigger children's snack intake. However, the influence of others on food intake is a complex process that might be explained by different theoretical perspectives.

  18. Does Immediate Imitation Influence Long-Term Memory for Observed Actions?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abravanel, Eugene

    1991-01-01

    Describes research on young children's long-term memory under 2 conditions of acquisition: direct imitation followed by a 10-minute delay, or deferred imitation. Children were able to encode and retain as much from visual pickup of modeled acts as from feedback obtained through imitation. (Author/GH)

  19. The Influence of Facial Signals on the Automatic Imitation of Hand Actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Emily E; Ward, Robert; Ramsey, Richard

    2016-01-01

    Imitation and facial signals are fundamental social cues that guide interactions with others, but little is known regarding the relationship between these behaviors. It is clear that during expression detection, we imitate observed expressions by engaging similar facial muscles. It is proposed that a cognitive system, which matches observed and performed actions, controls imitation and contributes to emotion understanding. However, there is little known regarding the consequences of recognizing affective states for other forms of imitation, which are not inherently tied to the observed emotion. The current study investigated the hypothesis that facial cue valence would modulate automatic imitation of hand actions. To test this hypothesis, we paired different types of facial cue with an automatic imitation task. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that a smile prompted greater automatic imitation than angry and neutral expressions. Additionally, a meta-analysis of this and previous studies suggests that both happy and angry expressions increase imitation compared to neutral expressions. By contrast, Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that invariant facial cues, which signal trait-levels of agreeableness, had no impact on imitation. Despite readily identifying trait-based facial signals, levels of agreeableness did not differentially modulate automatic imitation. Further, a Bayesian analysis showed that the null effect was between 2 and 5 times more likely than the experimental effect. Therefore, we show that imitation systems are more sensitive to prosocial facial signals that indicate "in the moment" states than enduring traits. These data support the view that a smile primes multiple forms of imitation including the copying actions that are not inherently affective. The influence of expression detection on wider forms of imitation may contribute to facilitating interactions between individuals, such as building rapport and affiliation.

  20. Consumer evaluation of copycat brands : The effect of imitation type

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Horen, F.; Pieters, R.

    2012-01-01

    Copycat brands imitate the trade dress of a leader brand to free ride on the latter's equity. Copycats can imitate the distinctive perceptual features of the leader brand, such as the lilac color of the Milka chocolate brand, or they can imitate the underlying meaning or theme of the leader brand,

  1. Consumer evaluation of copycat brands: The effect of imitation type

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Horen, F.; Pieters, R.

    2012-01-01

    Copycat brands imitate the trade dress of a leader brand to free ride on the latter's equity. Copycats can imitate the distinctive perceptual features of the leader brand, such as the lilac color of the Milka chocolate brand, or they can imitate the underlying meaning or theme of the leader brand,

  2. Imitation and Creativity: Beneficial Effects of Propulsion Strategies and Specificity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mecca, Jensen T.; Mumford, Michael D.

    2014-01-01

    Prior studies examining imitation of exemplar solutions have produced a mixed pattern of findings with some studies indicating that exemplar imitation contributes to creative problem-solving and other studies indicating that it may inhibit creative problem-solving. In the present effort, it is argued that the effects of exemplar imitation on…

  3. Impact of imitation processes on the effectiveness of ring vaccination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wells, Chad R; Tchuenche, Jean M; Meyers, Lauren Ancel; Galvani, Alison P; Bauch, Chris T

    2011-11-01

    Ring vaccination can be a highly effective control strategy for an emerging disease or in the final phase of disease eradication, as witnessed in the eradication of smallpox. However, the impact of behavioural dynamics on the effectiveness of ring vaccination has not been explored in mathematical models. Here, we analyze a series of stochastic models of voluntary ring vaccination. Contacts of an index case base vaccinating decisions on their own individual payoffs to vaccinate or not vaccinate, and they can also imitate the behaviour of other contacts of the index case. We find that including imitation changes the probability of containment through ring vaccination considerably. Imitation can cause a strong majority of contacts to choose vaccination in some cases, or to choose non-vaccination in other cases-even when the equivalent solution under perfectly rational (non-imitative) behaviour yields mixed choices. Moreover, imitation processes can result in very different outcomes in different stochastic realizations sampled from the same parameter distributions, by magnifying moderate tendencies toward one behaviour or the other: in some realizations, imitation causes a strong majority of contacts not to vaccinate, while in others, imitation promotes vaccination and reduces the number of secondary infections. Hence, the effectiveness of ring vaccination can depend significantly and unpredictably on imitation processes. Therefore, our results suggest that risk communication efforts should be initiated early in an outbreak when ring vaccination is to be applied, especially among subpopulations that are heavily influenced by peer opinions.

  4. Robots Learn to Recognize Individuals from Imitative Encounters with People and Avatars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boucenna, Sofiane; Cohen, David; Meltzoff, Andrew N.; Gaussier, Philippe; Chetouani, Mohamed

    2016-02-01

    Prior to language, human infants are prolific imitators. Developmental science grounds infant imitation in the neural coding of actions, and highlights the use of imitation for learning from and about people. Here, we used computational modeling and a robot implementation to explore the functional value of action imitation. We report 3 experiments using a mutual imitation task between robots, adults, typically developing children, and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We show that a particular learning architecture - specifically one combining artificial neural nets for (i) extraction of visual features, (ii) the robot’s motor internal state, (iii) posture recognition, and (iv) novelty detection - is able to learn from an interactive experience involving mutual imitation. This mutual imitation experience allowed the robot to recognize the interactive agent in a subsequent encounter. These experiments using robots as tools for modeling human cognitive development, based on developmental theory, confirm the promise of developmental robotics. Additionally, findings illustrate how person recognition may emerge through imitative experience, intercorporeal mapping, and statistical learning.

  5. 25 CFR 304.1 - Penalties for imitation or unauthorized use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Penalties for imitation or unauthorized use. 304.1... SILVER, USE OF GOVERNMENT MARK § 304.1 Penalties for imitation or unauthorized use. The use of Government trade-marks in an unauthorized manner, or the colorable imitation of such marks, is subject to the...

  6. Nonverbal imitation skills in children with specific language delay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dohmen, Andrea; Chiat, Shula; Roy, Penny

    2013-10-01

    Research in children with language problems has focussed on verbal deficits, and we have less understanding of children's deficits with nonverbal sociocognitive skills which have been proposed to be important for language acquisition. This study was designed to investigate elicited nonverbal imitation in children with specific language delay (SLD). It is argued that difficulties in nonverbal imitation, which do not involve the processing of structural aspects of language, may be indicative of sociocognitive deficits. Participants were German-speaking typically developing children (n=60) and children with SLD (n=45) aged 2-3 ½ years. A novel battery of tasks measured their ability to imitate a range of nonverbal target acts that to a greater or lesser extent involve sociocognitive skills (body movements, instrumental acts on objects, pretend acts). Significant group differences were found for all body movement and pretend act tasks, but not for the instrumental act tasks. The poorer imitative performance of the SLD sample was not explained by motor or nonverbal cognitive skills. Thus, it appeared that the nature of the task affected children's imitation performance. It is argued that the ability to establish a sense of connectedness with the demonstrator was at the core of children's imitation difficulty in the SLD sample. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Goal-Directed and Goal-Less Imitation in Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wild, Kelly S.; Poliakoff, Ellen; Jerrison, Andrew; Gowen, Emma

    2012-01-01

    To investigate how people with Autism are affected by the presence of goals during imitation, we conducted a study to measure movement kinematics and eye movements during the imitation of goal-directed and goal-less hand movements. Our results showed that a control group imitated changes in movement kinematics and increased the level that they…

  8. Do People with Intellectual Disability Require Special Human Subjects Research Protections? The Interplay of History, Ethics, and Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feudtner, Chris; Brosco, Jeffrey P.

    2011-01-01

    People with intellectual disability (ID) have a long history of discrimination and stigmatization, and a more recent history of pride and self-advocacy. The early history suggests that people with ID are a vulnerable population and deserve special research protections as do some other groups; the disability rights movement of the late 20th century…

  9. Neural processing of race during imitation: self-similarity versus social status

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reynolds Losin, Elizabeth A.; Cross, Katy A.; Iacoboni, Marco; Dapretto, Mirella

    2017-01-01

    People preferentially imitate others who are similar to them or have high social status. Such imitative biases are thought to have evolved because they increase the efficiency of cultural acquisition. Here we focused on distinguishing between self-similarity and social status as two candidate mechanisms underlying neural responses to a person’s race during imitation. We used fMRI to measure neural responses when 20 African American (AA) and 20 European American (EA) young adults imitated AA, EA and Chinese American (CA) models and also passively observed their gestures and faces. We found that both AA and EA participants exhibited more activity in lateral fronto-parietal and visual regions when imitating AAs compared to EAs or CAs. These results suggest that racial self-similarity is not likely to modulate neural responses to race during imitation, in contrast with findings from previous neuroimaging studies of face perception and action observation. Furthermore, AA and EA participants associated AAs with lower social status than EAs or CAs, suggesting that the social status associated with different racial groups may instead modulate neural activity during imitation of individuals from those groups. Taken together, these findings suggest that neural responses to race during imitation are driven by socially-learned associations rather than self-similarity. This may reflect the adaptive role of imitation in social learning, where learning from higher-status models can be more beneficial. This study provides neural evidence consistent with evolutionary theories of cultural acquisition. PMID:23813738

  10. Teaching Imitation to Young Children with Disabilities: A Review of the Literature

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ledford, Jennifer R.; Wolery, Mark

    2011-01-01

    Imitation is a primary means through which children learn new skills. Most children learn to imitate without being taught but some children with disabilities fail to develop or use imitation in the absence of direct instruction. The importance of teaching imitation to children with disabilities has been acknowledged, with studies appearing as…

  11. The imitator of nuclear explosion signals for field operations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Lusong; Xie Yujun; Tan Youjin; Wang Liping

    1999-01-01

    According to the present system of the nuclear explosion monitoring equipment (NEME), the imitator of nuclear explosion signals for field operation is urgently needed by NEME, which has been fitted out to the army and some new types that will be finalized soon. The authors have made the imitator for the equipment, and as the cause of this research, it can be used not only in training and maintenance for army but also in research and production for scientific research institutions and industrial enterprise. Function of this imitator is to imitate the NEMP, the light and shock wave signals of nuclear explosion in proper order. The time difference of the process accords with the true location of nuclear explosion. This research is of great military importance

  12. Imitation Learning Errors Are Affected by Visual Cues in Both Performance and Observation Phases.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mizuguchi, Takashi; Sugimura, Ryoko; Shimada, Hideaki; Hasegawa, Takehiro

    2017-08-01

    Mechanisms of action imitation were examined. Previous studies have suggested that success or failure of imitation is determined at the point of observing an action. In other words, cognitive processing after observation is not related to the success of imitation; 20 university students participated in each of three experiments in which they observed a series of object manipulations consisting of four elements (hands, tools, object, and end points) and then imitated the manipulations. In Experiment 1, a specific intially observed element was color coded, and the specific manipulated object at the imitation stage was identically color coded; participants accurately imitated the color coded element. In Experiment 2, a specific element was color coded at the observation but not at the imitation stage, and there were no effects of color coding on imitation. In Experiment 3, participants were verbally instructed to attend to a specific element at the imitation stage, but the verbal instructions had no effect. Thus, the success of imitation may not be determined at the stage of observing an action and color coding can provide a clue for imitation at the imitation stage.

  13. MITIGATING INNOVATION RISKS CONCERNING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INSTRUMENTS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andreea DUMITRESCU

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available As protection of innovation is possible using a variety of intellectual property instruments, the current paper aims at emphasizing the vulnerabilities of these instruments in order to facilitate the right choice in terms of protection, exploitation and dissemination of innovation. Based on a review of the intellectual property instruments and their related risk factors, the study identifies and formulates specific proactive strategies which arise from the fact that an instrument alone does not allow for effective protection, exploitation and dissemination and oftentimes the owners of innovation should combine traditional and alternative instruments. Therefore, the results of this analysis represent a helpful tool for managers in the decisional process.

  14. Reinforcement of Infant Vocalizations through Contingent Vocal Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelaez, Martha; Virues-Ortega, Javier; Gewirtz, Jacob L.

    2011-01-01

    Maternal vocal imitation of infant vocalizations is highly prevalent during face-to-face interactions of infants and their caregivers. Although maternal vocal imitation has been associated with later verbal development, its potentially reinforcing effect on infant vocalizations has not been explored experimentally. This study examined the…

  15. Intellectual Property Rights and The Classroom: What Teachers Can Do

    Science.gov (United States)

    Falcon, Raymond

    2010-01-01

    Intellectual property rights restrict teachers' and students' ability to freely explore the intellectual realms of the classroom. Copyright laws protect the author and their work but disable other intellectuals from investigating probable learning environments. This paper will look at key issues where educational institutions are conflicting with…

  16. Identification of Imitation Cheese and Imitation Ice Cream Based on Vegetable Fat Using NMR Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yulia B. Monakhova

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Vegetable oils and fats may be used as cheap substitutes for milk fat to manufacture imitation cheese or imitation ice cream. In this study, 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR spectroscopy of the fat fraction of the products was used in the context of food surveillance to validate the labeling of milk-based products. For sample preparation, the fat was extracted using an automated Weibull-Stoldt methodology. Using principal component analysis (PCA, imitation products can be easily detected. In both cheese and ice cream, a differentiation according to the type of raw material (milk fat and vegetable fat was possible. The loadings plot shows that imitation products were distinguishable by differences in their fatty acid ratios. Furthermore, a differentiation of several types of cheese (Edamer, Gouda, Emmentaler, and Feta was possible. Quantitative data regarding the composition of the investigated products can also be predicted from the same spectra using partial least squares (PLS regression. The models obtained for 13 compounds in cheese (R2 0.75–0.95 and 17 compounds in ice cream (R2 0.83–0.99 (e.g., fatty acids and esters were suitable for a screening analysis. NMR spectroscopy was judged as suitable for the routine analysis of dairy products based on milk or on vegetable fat substitutes.

  17. Identification of Imitation Cheese and Imitation Ice Cream Based on Vegetable Fat Using NMR Spectroscopy and Chemometrics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monakhova, Yulia B.; Godelmann, Rolf; Andlauer, Claudia; Kuballa, Thomas; Lachenmeier, Dirk W.

    2013-01-01

    Vegetable oils and fats may be used as cheap substitutes for milk fat to manufacture imitation cheese or imitation ice cream. In this study, 400 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of the fat fraction of the products was used in the context of food surveillance to validate the labeling of milk-based products. For sample preparation, the fat was extracted using an automated Weibull-Stoldt methodology. Using principal component analysis (PCA), imitation products can be easily detected. In both cheese and ice cream, a differentiation according to the type of raw material (milk fat and vegetable fat) was possible. The loadings plot shows that imitation products were distinguishable by differences in their fatty acid ratios. Furthermore, a differentiation of several types of cheese (Edamer, Gouda, Emmentaler, and Feta) was possible. Quantitative data regarding the composition of the investigated products can also be predicted from the same spectra using partial least squares (PLS) regression. The models obtained for 13 compounds in cheese (R 2 0.75–0.95) and 17 compounds in ice cream (R 2 0.83–0.99) (e.g., fatty acids and esters) were suitable for a screening analysis. NMR spectroscopy was judged as suitable for the routine analysis of dairy products based on milk or on vegetable fat substitutes. PMID:26904597

  18. Study on ancient Chinese imitated GE ware by INAA and WDXRF

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Guoxi; Feng Songlin; Feng Xiangqian; Wang Yanqing; Zhu Jihao; Yan Lingtong; Li Yongqiang; Han Hongye

    2007-01-01

    Imitated GE ware was one of the most famous products of Jingdezhen porcelain field in Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The exterior features of its body and glaze are very marvelous. Black foot, purple mouth and crazing glaze are the main features of imitated GE ware. Until now, the key conditions of resulting these features are not clearly identified. In order to find the critical elements for firing these features, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) were used to determine the element abundance patterns of imitated GE ware body and glaze. The experimental data was compared with that of imitated Longquan celadon and of Longquan celadon. The analytical results indicated that Fe, Ti and Na were the critical elements. The body of imitated GE ware which contains high Fe and Ti are the basic conditions of firing its black body, black foot and purple mouth. The glaze of imitated GE ware which contains high Na is the main condition of producing its crazing glaze. Na is the critical element which enlarges the difference in expansion coefficients between the glaze and body of imitated GE ware. Furthermore, Zijin soil was added into kaolin to make the body rich in Fe and Ti. And something which was rich in Na was used to produce crazing glaze in the manufacturing process of imitated GE ware

  19. Study on ancient Chinese imitated GE ware by INAA and WDXRF

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Guoxi; Feng, Songlin; Feng, Xiangqian; Wang, Yanqing; Zhu, Jihao; Yan, Lingtong; Li, Yongqiang; Han, Hongye

    2007-11-01

    Imitated GE ware was one of the most famous products of Jingdezhen porcelain field in Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The exterior features of its body and glaze are very marvelous. Black foot, purple mouth and crazing glaze are the main features of imitated GE ware. Until now, the key conditions of resulting these features are not clearly identified. In order to find the critical elements for firing these features, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) were used to determine the element abundance patterns of imitated GE ware body and glaze. The experimental data was compared with that of imitated Longquan celadon and of Longquan celadon. The analytical results indicated that Fe, Ti and Na were the critical elements. The body of imitated GE ware which contains high Fe and Ti are the basic conditions of firing its black body, black foot and purple mouth. The glaze of imitated GE ware which contains high Na is the main condition of producing its crazing glaze. Na is the critical element which enlarges the difference in expansion coefficients between the glaze and body of imitated GE ware. Furthermore, Zijin soil was added into kaolin to make the body rich in Fe and Ti. And something which was rich in Na was used to produce crazing glaze in the manufacturing process of imitated GE ware.

  20. Study on ancient Chinese imitated GE ware by INAA and WDXRF

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xie Guoxi [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yu Quan Lu, Beijing 100049 (China); Graduated University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Feng Songlin [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yu Quan Lu, Beijing 100049 (China)], E-mail: fengsl@ihep.ac.cn; Feng Xiangqian; Wang Yanqing; Zhu Jihao; Yan Lingtong [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yu Quan Lu, Beijing 100049 (China); Li Yongqiang; Han Hongye [Beijing Institute of Cultural Relics, Beijing 100009 (China)

    2007-11-15

    Imitated GE ware was one of the most famous products of Jingdezhen porcelain field in Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644). The exterior features of its body and glaze are very marvelous. Black foot, purple mouth and crazing glaze are the main features of imitated GE ware. Until now, the key conditions of resulting these features are not clearly identified. In order to find the critical elements for firing these features, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) were used to determine the element abundance patterns of imitated GE ware body and glaze. The experimental data was compared with that of imitated Longquan celadon and of Longquan celadon. The analytical results indicated that Fe, Ti and Na were the critical elements. The body of imitated GE ware which contains high Fe and Ti are the basic conditions of firing its black body, black foot and purple mouth. The glaze of imitated GE ware which contains high Na is the main condition of producing its crazing glaze. Na is the critical element which enlarges the difference in expansion coefficients between the glaze and body of imitated GE ware. Furthermore, Zijin soil was added into kaolin to make the body rich in Fe and Ti. And something which was rich in Na was used to produce crazing glaze in the manufacturing process of imitated GE ware.

  1. Prediction and imitation in speech

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    Chiara eGambi

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available It has been suggested that intra- and inter-speaker variability in speech are correlated. Interlocutors have been shown to converge on various phonetic dimensions. In addition, speakers imitate the phonetic properties of voices they are exposed to in shadowing, repetition, and even passive listening tasks. We review three theoretical accounts of speech imitation and convergence phenomena: (i the Episodic Theory (ET of speech perception and production (Goldinger, 1998; (ii the Motor Theory (MT of speech perception (Liberman and Whalen, 2000;Galantucci et al., 2006 ; (iii Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT; Giles et al., 1991;Giles and Coupland, 1991. We argue that no account is able to explain all the available evidence. In particular, there is a need to integrate low-level, mechanistic accounts (like ET and MT and higher-level accounts (like CAT. We propose that this is possible within the framework of an integrated theory of production and comprehension (Pickering & Garrod, in press. Similarly to both ET and MT, this theory assumes parity between production and perception. Uniquely, however, it posits that listeners simulate speakers’ utterances by computing forward-model predictions at many different levels, which are then compared to the incoming phonetic input. In our account phonetic imitation can be achieved via the same mechanism that is responsible for sensorimotor adaptation; i.e. the correction of prediction errors. In addition, the model assumes that the degree to which sensory prediction errors lead to motor adjustments is context-dependent. The notion of context subsumes both the preceding linguistic input and non-linguistic attributes of the situation (e.g., the speaker’s and listener’s social identities, their conversational roles, the listener’s intention to imitate.

  2. Imitation Modeling and Institutional Studies

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    Maksim Y. Barbashin

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses the use of imitation modeling in the conduct of institutional research. The institutional approach is based on the observation of social behavior. To understand a social process means to determine the key rules that individuals use, undertaking social actions associated with this process or phenomenon. This does not mean that institutions determine behavioral reactions, although there are a number of social situations where the majority of individuals follow the dominant rules. If the main laws of development of the institutional patterns are known, one can describe most of the social processes accurately. The author believes that the main difficulty with the analysis of institutional processes is their recursive nature: from the standards of behavior one may find the proposed actions of social agents who follow, obey or violate institutions, but the possibility of reconstructive analysis is not obvious. The author demonstrates how the institutional approach is applied to the analysis of social behavior. The article describes the basic principles and methodology of imitation modeling. Imitation modeling reveals the importance of institutions in structuring social transactions. The article concludes that in the long term institutional processes are not determined by initial conditions.

  3. The relationship between attention and deferred imitation in 12-month-old infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zmyj, Norbert; Schölmerich, Axel; Daum, Moritz M

    2017-08-01

    Imitation is a frequent behavior in the first years of life, and serves both a social function (e.g., to interact with others) and a cognitive function (e.g., to learn a new skill). Infants differ in their temperament, and temperament might be related to the dominance of one function of imitation. In this study, we investigated whether temperament and deferred imitation are related in 12-month-old infants. Temperament was measured via the Infant Behavior Questionnaire Revised (IBQ-R) and parts of the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery (Lab-TAB). Deferred imitation was measured via the Frankfurt Imitation Test for 12-month-olds (FIT-12). Regression analyses revealed that the duration of orienting (IBQ-R) and the latency of the first look away in the Task Orientation task (Lab-TAB) predicted the infants' imitation score. These results suggest that attention-related processes may play a major role when infants start to imitate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. An exploration of imitation recognition in young children with autism spectrum disorders.

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    Berger, Natalie I; Ingersoll, Brooke

    2013-10-01

    The ability to recognize when one is being imitated has been hypothesized to be an important developmental process related to the emergence of more advanced social-cognitive skills. While a series of behaviors indicating progressively more mature imitation recognition (IR) skills has been assessed in typically developing children, empirical work with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has largely focused on basic social responses to an imitative adult (e.g. increases in eye contact). Limited work has explored more mature IR behaviors in this population. This study compared the degree to which children with ASD engage in different behaviors thought to be indicative of IR during a naturalistic imitation task and the relationship between different types of IR behaviors and social-cognitive skills (i.e. imitation, language, social reciprocity, and joint attention). Thirty children with ASD were administered standardized measures of cognitive level, language, joint attention, social reciprocity, and imitation. IR behaviors were observed during periods of contingent imitation by an adult. Participants engaged more frequently in less mature (e.g. looking at the experimenter's toy or face) than more mature IR behaviors (e.g. testing the experimenter's intent to imitate). After controlling for developmental level, social reciprocity, object imitation, and gesture imitation were positively correlated with more mature IR. These findings suggest that the development of more mature IR skills is related to the development of other social-cognitive skills in children with ASD and provide additional empirical support for reports of more mature IR observed in this population. , Inc. © 2013 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. A Qualitative Analysis of Imitation Performances of Preschoolers with Down Syndrome

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvuchelen, Marleen

    2016-01-01

    A number of studies suggest that imitation is a characteristic strength in children with Down Syndrome (DS). The present study aims to discover whether imitation performances are qualitatively phenotypical in DS. Eight preschoolers with DS were matched on chronological, mental, language and imitation age with 8 preschoolers with intellectual…

  6. Human infants' understanding of social imitation: Inferences of affiliation from third party observations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powell, Lindsey J; Spelke, Elizabeth S

    2018-01-01

    Imitation is ubiquitous in positive social interactions. For adult and child observers, it also supports inferences about the participants in such interactions and their social relationships, but the origins of these inferences are obscure. Do infants attach social significance to this form of interaction? Here we test 4- to 5.5-month-old infants' interpretation of imitation, asking if the imitative interactions they observe support inferences of social affiliation, across 10 experimental conditions that varied the modality of the imitation (movement vs. sound), the roles of specific characters (imitators vs. targets), the number of characters in the displays (3 vs. 5), and the number of parties initiating affiliative test events (1 vs. 2). These experiments, together with one experiment conducted with 12-month-old infants, yielded three main findings. First, infants expect that characters who engaged in imitation will approach and affiliate with the characters whom they imitated. Second, infants show no evidence of expecting that characters who were targets of imitation will approach and affiliate with their imitators. Third, analyzing imitative interactions is difficult for young infants, whose expectations vary in strength depending on the number of characters to be tracked and the number of affiliative actors to be compared. These findings have implications for our understanding of social imitation, and they provide methods for advancing understanding of other aspects of early social cognitive development. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. The effect of parental intellectual disability status on child protection service worker decision making.

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    Proctor, S N; Azar, S T

    2013-12-01

    There is evidence to suggest that parents with an intellectual disability (ID) constitute a higher proportion of child-protective services (CPS) cases than would be expected based on the prevalence of ID in the general population. Researchers have suggested that the stereotypic assumptions and expectations that CPS workers have about parents with an ID might influence decisions and responses made to such parents. This study examined whether parental ID (having an ID vs. not) had an effect on CPS workers' emotional reactions, attributions and decisions about risk to the child, whether to remove the child and workers' general willingness to help the parent. Two hundred and twelve CPS workers read vignettes describing parents who were labelled as either having or not having an ID. Workers responded to the vignettes by making ratings of their emotional reactions, attributions and decisions regarding risk, removal and helping. CPS workers made significantly higher ratings of pity, willingness to help and risk for parents with an ID than for parents without an ID. Lower ratings of anger and disgust were found for parents with an ID than for parents without an ID. Parents' intellectual status did not have a direct effect on workers' attributions or removal decisions. The results show evidence for the influence of stereotypes regarding parental ID due to its differential effect on CPS workers' emotional reactions and decisions about child risk and their willingness to help. © 2012 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd, MENCAP & IASSID.

  8. A Bayesian Developmental Approach to Robotic Goal-Based Imitation Learning.

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    Michael Jae-Yoon Chung

    Full Text Available A fundamental challenge in robotics today is building robots that can learn new skills by observing humans and imitating human actions. We propose a new Bayesian approach to robotic learning by imitation inspired by the developmental hypothesis that children use self-experience to bootstrap the process of intention recognition and goal-based imitation. Our approach allows an autonomous agent to: (i learn probabilistic models of actions through self-discovery and experience, (ii utilize these learned models for inferring the goals of human actions, and (iii perform goal-based imitation for robotic learning and human-robot collaboration. Such an approach allows a robot to leverage its increasing repertoire of learned behaviors to interpret increasingly complex human actions and use the inferred goals for imitation, even when the robot has very different actuators from humans. We demonstrate our approach using two different scenarios: (i a simulated robot that learns human-like gaze following behavior, and (ii a robot that learns to imitate human actions in a tabletop organization task. In both cases, the agent learns a probabilistic model of its own actions, and uses this model for goal inference and goal-based imitation. We also show that the robotic agent can use its probabilistic model to seek human assistance when it recognizes that its inferred actions are too uncertain, risky, or impossible to perform, thereby opening the door to human-robot collaboration.

  9. Imitation of the characteristics of the wind turbine based on DC motor

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    LIU Qihui; HE Yikang; ZHAO Rende

    2007-01-01

    This paper analyzed the operating principles and power and torque characteristics of the wind turbine and the direct current motor(DC motor),and investigated the operating characteristics of the wind turbine compared to that of the DC motor.The torque imitation scheme,which has good performance and high feasibility,together with the whole wind turbine imitation system,was provided.The wind turbine imitation system includes not only a hardware platform composed of PC,data-collection board and thyristor-based velocity-regulator,but also monitor software of wind turbine imitation.The experimental results of different occasions verify the correctness and feasibility of the wind turbine imitation scheme proposed in this paper,which provided a valid idea for wind turbine imitation and investigation of wind power generation techniques in the laboratory.

  10. A kinematic study on (unintentional imitation in bottlenose dolphins

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    Luisa eSartori

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of observing other’s movements on subsequent performance in bottlenose dolphins. The imitative ability of non-human animals has intrigued a number of researchers. So far, however, studies in dolphins have been confined to intentional imitation concerned with the explicit request to imitate other agents. In the absence of instruction to imitate, do dolphins (unintentionally replicate other’s movement features? To test this, dolphins were filmed while reaching and touching a stimulus before and after observing another dolphin (i.e., model performing the same action. All videos were reviewed and segmented in order to extract the relevant movements. A marker was inserted post-hoc via software on the videos upon the anatomical landmark of interest (i.e. rostrum and was tracked throughout the time course of the movement sequence. The movement was analyzed using an in-house software developed to perform two-dimensional (2D post-hoc kinematic analysis. The results indicate that dolphins’ kinematics is sensitive to other’s movement features. Movements performed for the ‘visuomotor priming’ condition were characterized by a kinematic pattern similar to that performed by the observed dolphin (i.e., model. Addressing the issue of spontaneous imitation in bottlenose dolphins might allow ascertaining whether the potential or impulse to produce an imitative action is generated, not just when they intend to imitate, but whenever they watch another conspecific’s behavior. In closing, this will clarify whether motor representational capacity is a by-product of factors specific to humans or whether more general characteristics such as processes of associative learning prompted by high level of encephalization could help to explain the evolution of this ability.

  11. Methodological Issues in Measures of Imitative Reaction Times

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    Aicken, Michael D.; Wilson, Andrew D.; Williams, Justin H. G.; Mon-Williams, Mark

    2007-01-01

    Ideomotor (IM) theory suggests that observing someone else perform an action activates an internal motor representation of that behaviour within the observer. Evidence supporting the case for an ideomotor theory of imitation has come from studies that show imitative responses to be faster than the same behavioural measures performed in response to…

  12. Imitation in Infancy: The Wealth of the Stimulus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ray, Elizabeth; Heyes, Cecilia

    2011-01-01

    Imitation requires the imitator to solve the correspondence problem--to translate visual information from modelled action into matching motor output. It has been widely accepted for some 30 years that the correspondence problem is solved by a specialized, innate cognitive mechanism. This is the conclusion of a poverty of the stimulus argument,…

  13. Ritual, Imitation and Education in R. S. Peters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warnick, Bryan R.

    2009-01-01

    This article reconstructs R. S. Peters' underlying theory of ritual in education, highlighting his proposed link between ritual and the imitation of teachers. Rituals set the stage for the imitation of teachers and they invite students to experience practices whose value is not easily discernable from the outside. For Peters, rituals facilitate…

  14. Imitation of live and televised models by children one to three years of age.

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    McCall, R B; Parke, R D; Kavanaugh, R D

    1977-01-01

    The results of these studies indicated that children younger than 1 year possess the cognitive capability of translating a perception of a novel action into their own behavior. However, the likelihood of imitation varied as a function of the nature of the target behavior. For example, actions requiring direct social commerce with the examiner were imitated less frequently than simple motor behaviors with objects, and reproducing gestures was more common than vocalizations. Moreover, imitation seemed to depend upon the child's level of mental development--the imitation of coordinated sequences, which requires the child to associate two external events, lagged behind the imitation of single-unit behaviors. There was no evidence for individual traits of general imitativeness, at least not until symbolic relations were involved. Live models were imitated more than TV models but only prior to age 3. While children under 2 years of age were not facile at imitating sequences of behaviors or delaying performance at short time after modeling, older toddlers readily and accurately imitated televised sequences even after a 24-hour delay. Whereas socially extroverted and fearless children imitated live models more than shy children, TV imitation was not related to temperament, home TV viewing habits, or parental education. Finally, the experience of being imitated may facilitate the social cognition of influencing another person.

  15. Exploring Spontaneous Imitation in Infancy: A Three Generation Inter-Familial Study

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    Theano Kokkinaki

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available With the aim to advance our understanding regarding the role of the extended family interactional context for early mother-infant communication, we compared spontaneous early imitative exchanges in dyadic interactions between mothers and infants (Group 1, N = 26 who had no frequent contact with maternal grandmothers, to imitations in two familial subgroups (Group 2, N = 48: (a dyadic interactions of infants with their mothers, and (b with their grandmothers–persons who had frequent contact with the infant. Spontaneous dyadic interactions of infants with their mothers and grandmothers were video-recorded at home from the 2nd to the 10th month of their life. Both comparisons provided evidence of similar frequency of imitative exchanges and developmental trajectories of infant imitations, but also differences in the structure of imitation, the kinds of imitated behaviors and the temporal patterns of imitative components. In the frame of the theory of Innate Intersubjectivity, we assume that differential early family interaction may be related to variations in three fundamental dimensions of infant-significant other communication: “kinematics” (temporal patterns, “physiognomics” (spatial patterns or forms and “energetics” (force or effort. These variations may affect the child’s ability for regulation and negotiation of interpersonal challenges within and outside the family context.

  16. The role of communication and imitation in limit order markets

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    Tedeschi, G.; Iori, G.; Gallegati, M.

    2009-10-01

    In this paper we develop an order driver market model with heterogeneous traders that imitate each other on different network structures. We assess how imitations among otherway noise traders, can give rise to well known stylized facts such as fat tails and volatility clustering. We examine the impact of communication and imitation on the statistical properties of prices and order flows when changing the networks' structure, and show that the imitation of a given, fixed agent, called “guru", can generate clustering of volatility in the model. We also find a positive correlation between volatility and bid-ask spread, and between fat-tailed fluctuations in asset prices and gap sizes in the order book. in here

  17. Influence of Action-Effect Associations Acquired by Ideomotor Learning on Imitation

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    Bunlon, Frédérique; Marshall, Peter J.; Quandt, Lorna C.; Bouquet, Cedric A.

    2015-01-01

    According to the ideomotor theory, actions are represented in terms of their perceptual effects, offering a solution for the correspondence problem of imitation (how to translate the observed action into a corresponding motor output). This effect-based coding of action is assumed to be acquired through action-effect learning. Accordingly, performing an action leads to the integration of the perceptual codes of the action effects with the motor commands that brought them about. While ideomotor theory is invoked to account for imitation, the influence of action-effect learning on imitative behavior remains unexplored. In two experiments, imitative performance was measured in a reaction time task following a phase of action-effect acquisition. During action-effect acquisition, participants freely executed a finger movement (index or little finger lifting), and then observed a similar (compatible learning) or a different (incompatible learning) movement. In Experiment 1, finger movements of left and right hands were presented as action-effects during acquisition. In Experiment 2, only right-hand finger movements were presented during action-effect acquisition and in the imitation task the observed hands were oriented orthogonally to participants’ hands in order to avoid spatial congruency effects. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that imitative performance was improved after compatible learning, compared to incompatible learning. In Experiment 2, although action-effect learning involved perception of finger movements of right hand only, imitative capabilities of right- and left-hand finger movements were equally affected. These results indicate that an observed movement stimulus processed as the effect of an action can later prime execution of that action, confirming the ideomotor approach to imitation. We further discuss these findings in relation to previous studies of action-effect learning and in the framework of current ideomotor approaches to imitation. PMID:25793755

  18. IMITATION STRATEGIES FOR SME’S LEARNING PROCESS TOWARDS INNOVATION STRATEGIES

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    Rina Sulistiyani

    2013-01-01

    The research results are as follow: the learning experience to use imitation strategy which covers stages of imitation, research, development and  creation. This learning process is the result of interaction between personal and behavior factors, as well as the enabler and barriers. The owners of leather small industries which leave the imitation strategy and switch to innovation strategy are craftsmen who have an entrepreneurial spirit. they are able to balance entrepreneurial and business aspects.

  19. Enactivism and neonatal imitation: conceptual and empirical considerations and clarifications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lodder, Paul; Rotteveel, Mark; van Elk, Michiel

    2014-01-01

    Recently within social cognition it has been argued that understanding others is primarily characterized by dynamic and second person interactive processes, rather than by taking a third person observational stance. Within this enactivist view of intersubjective understanding, researchers differ in their claims regarding the innateness of such processes. Here we proposed to distinguish nativist enactivists-who argue that studies on neonatal imitation support the view that infants already have a non-mentalistic embodied form of intersubjective understanding present at birth-from empiricist enactivists, who claim that those intersubjective processes are learned through social interaction. In this article, we critically examine the empirical studies on neonate imitation and conclude that the available evidence is at least mixed for most types of specific gesture imitations. In the end, only the tongue protrusion imitation appears to be consistent across different studies. If neonates imitate only one single gesture, then a more parsimonious explanation for the tongue protrusion effect could be put forward. Consequently, the nativist enactivist claim that understanding others depends on second person interactive processes already present at birth seems no longer plausible. Although other strands of evidence provide converging evidence for the importance of intersubjective processes in adult social cognition, the available evidence on neonatal imitation calls for a more careful view on the innateness of such processes and suggests that this way of interacting needs to be learned over time. Therefore the available empirical evidence on neonate imitation is in our view compatible with the empiricist enactivist position, but not with the nativist enactivist position.

  20. Imitation of the sequential structure of actions by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

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    Whiten, A

    1998-09-01

    Imitation was studied experimentally by allowing chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) to observe alternative patterns of actions for opening a specially designed "artificial fruit." Like problematic foods primates deal with naturally, with the test fruit several defenses had to be removed to gain access to an edible core, but the sequential order and method of defense removal could be systematically varied. Each subject repeatedly observed 1 of 2 alternative techniques for removing each defense and 1 of 2 alternative sequential patterns of defense removal. Imitation of sequential organization emerged after repeated cycles of demonstration and attempts at opening the fruit. Imitation in chimpanzees may thus have some power to produce cultural convergence, counter to the supposition that individual learning processes corrupt copied actions. Imitation of sequential organization was accompanied by imitation of some aspects of the techniques that made up the sequence.

  1. A Network Model of Observation and Imitation of Speech

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mashal, Nira; Solodkin, Ana; Dick, Anthony Steven; Chen, E. Elinor; Small, Steven L.

    2012-01-01

    Much evidence has now accumulated demonstrating and quantifying the extent of shared regional brain activation for observation and execution of speech. However, the nature of the actual networks that implement these functions, i.e., both the brain regions and the connections among them, and the similarities and differences across these networks has not been elucidated. The current study aims to characterize formally a network for observation and imitation of syllables in the healthy adult brain and to compare their structure and effective connectivity. Eleven healthy participants observed or imitated audiovisual syllables spoken by a human actor. We constructed four structural equation models to characterize the networks for observation and imitation in each of the two hemispheres. Our results show that the network models for observation and imitation comprise the same essential structure but differ in important ways from each other (in both hemispheres) based on connectivity. In particular, our results show that the connections from posterior superior temporal gyrus and sulcus to ventral premotor, ventral premotor to dorsal premotor, and dorsal premotor to primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere are stronger during imitation than during observation. The first two connections are implicated in a putative dorsal stream of speech perception, thought to involve translating auditory speech signals into motor representations. Thus, the current results suggest that flow of information during imitation, starting at the posterior superior temporal cortex and ending in the motor cortex, enhances input to the motor cortex in the service of speech execution. PMID:22470360

  2. Deferred Imitation and Social Communication in Speaking and Nonspeaking Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strid, Karin; Heimann, Mikael; Gillberg, Christopher; Smith, Lars; Tjus, Tomas

    2013-01-01

    Deferred imitation and early social communication skills were compared among speaking and nonspeaking children with autism and children developing typically. Overall, the children with autism showed a lower frequency on measures of deferred imitation and social communication compared with typically developing children. Deferred imitation was…

  3. Effects of Reinforcement on Peer Imitation in a Small Group Play Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Erin E.; Ledford, Jennifer R.

    2018-01-01

    Children with disabilities often have deficits in imitation skills, particularly in imitating peers. Imitation is considered a behavioral cusp--which, once learned, allows a child to access additional and previously unavailable learning opportunities. In the current study, researchers examined the efficacy of contingent reinforcement delivered…

  4. The effect of narrative cues on infants’ imitation from television and picture books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simcock, Gabrielle; Garrity, Kara; Barr, Rachel

    2011-01-01

    Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books; yet there has been no direct comparison of infants’ imitation from the two types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, we measured 18- and 24-month-olds’ imitation from television and picture books. Infants imitated from both media types when full narrative cues (Experiment 1; N = 76) or empty, meaningless narration (Experiment 2; N = 135) accompanied the demonstrations, but they imitated more from television than books. In Experiment 3 (N = 27), infants imitated from a book based on narration alone, without the presence of pictures. These results are discussed in relation to age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and infants’ emerging symbolic understanding. PMID:21883157

  5. EEG Mu Rhythm and Imitation Impairments in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bernier, R.; Dawson, G.; Webb, S.; Murias, M.

    2009-01-01

    Imitation ability has consistently been shown to be impaired in individuals with autism. A dysfunctional execution/observation matching system has been proposed to account for this impairment. The EEG mu rhythm is believed to reflect an underlying execution/observation matching system. This study investigated evidence of differential mu rhythm attenuation during the observation, execution, and imitation of movements and examined its relation to behaviorally assessed imitation abilities. Fourteen high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 15 IQ- and age-matched typical adults participated. On the behavioral imitation task, adults with ASD demonstrated significantly poorer performance compared to typical adults in all domains of imitation ability. On the EEG task, both groups demonstrated significant attenuation of the mu rhythm when executing an action. However, when observing movement, the individuals with ASD showed significantly reduced attenuation of the mu wave. Behaviorally assessed imitation skills were correlated with degree of mu wave attenuation during observation of movement. These findings suggest that there is execution/observation matching system dysfunction in individuals with autism and that this matching system is related to degree of impairment in imitation abilities. PMID:17451856

  6. An Analysis of British Tourists’ Purchasing Behavior of Imitation Products: A Case of Fethiye

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aydan Bekar

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The trade of imitation products is increasing rapidly in global scale due to some reasons such as globalization and branding, advancing production technology, high-profit, low risk and low legal sanctions. Manufacturers of imitation products use the advantages of the brand name they produce without a budget of development and promotion activities. Tourists are among consumer group of imitation products. In Fethiye where this study was conducted, it was observed that the number of stores and markets in which imitation products were sold increased with the beginning of holiday season and this number decreased with the end of the season. This observation led to the thought that the target group of dealers of imitation products was foreign tThis study was carried out with 109 British tourists taking their holiday in Fethiye, to examine their purchase behavior towards imitation products. The research data was collected by a questionnaire. According to the study results, it was determined that price was an important factor in tourists’ purchasing imitation products; more than half of the tourists thought imitation products would contribute to the economy of Turkey; that they approved trade of imitation products and they were satisfied with the quality of imitation products

  7. The association between imitation recognition and socio-communicative competencies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, Sarah M; Russell, Jamie L; Hopkins, William D

    2015-01-01

    Imitation recognition provides a viable platform from which advanced social cognitive skills may develop. Despite evidence that non-human primates are capable of imitation recognition, how this ability is related to social cognitive skills is unknown. In this study, we compared imitation recognition performance, as indicated by the production of testing behaviors, with performance on a series of tasks that assess social and physical cognition in 49 chimpanzees. In the initial analyses, we found that males were more responsive than females to being imitated and engaged in significantly greater behavior repetitions and testing sequences. We also found that subjects who consistently recognized being imitated performed better on social but not physical cognitive tasks, as measured by the Primate Cognitive Test Battery. These findings suggest that the neural constructs underlying imitation recognition are likely associated with or among those underlying more general socio-communicative abilities in chimpanzees. Implications regarding how imitation recognition may facilitate other social cognitive processes, such as mirror self-recognition, are discussed.

  8. Thermal imitators with single directional invisibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ruizhe; Xu, Liujun; Huang, Jiping

    2017-12-01

    Thermal metamaterials have been intensively studied during the past years to achieve the long-standing dream of invisibility, illusion, and other inconceivable thermal phenomena. However, many thermal metamaterials can only exhibit omnidirectional thermal response, which take on the distinct feature of geometrical isotropy. In this work, we theoretically design and experimentally fabricate a pair of thermal imitators by applying geometrical anisotropy provided by elliptical/ellipsoidal particles and layered structures. This pair of thermal imitators possesses thermal invisibility in one direction, while having thermal opacity in other directions. This work may open a gate in designing direction-dependent thermal metamaterials.

  9. Developing an effective IM/IT strategy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kramer, Sarah; Walker, Joanne; Falk, Will

    2009-01-01

    Healthcare organizations and systems around the world lag far behind banking, manufacturing, travel and other industries in their use of information management/information technology (IM/IT) to deliver high-quality products and services. Across Canada, healthcare organizations, as well as governments, understand that information and information technology are needed to deliver quality care and to sustain our publicly funded health system. However, insufficient funding, few experienced resources, lack of strong leadership and absence of clear business/clinical rationale have restricted innovation and advancement in the use of IM/IT to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

  10. Neonatal Imitation: Theory, Experimental Design, and Significance for the Field of Social Cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vincini, Stefano; Jhang, Yuna; Buder, Eugene H; Gallagher, Shaun

    2017-01-01

    Neonatal imitation has rich implications for neuroscience, developmental psychology, and social cognition, but there is little consensus about this phenomenon. The primary empirical question, whether or not neonatal imitation exists, is not settled. Is it possible to give a balanced evaluation of the theories and methodologies at stake so as to facilitate real progress with respect to the primary empirical question? In this paper, we address this question. We present the operational definition of differential imitation and discuss why it is important to keep it in mind. The operational definition indicates that neonatal imitation may not look like prototypical imitation and sets non-obvious requirements on what can count as evidence for imitation. We also examine the principal explanations for the extant findings and argue that two theories, the arousal hypothesis and the Association by Similarity Theory, which interprets neonatal imitation as differential induction of spontaneous behavior through similarity, offer better explanations than the others. With respect to methodology, we investigate what experimental design can best provide evidence for imitation, focusing on how differential induction may be maximized and detected. Finally, we discuss the significance of neonatal imitation for the field of social cognition. Specifically, we propose links with theories of social interaction and direct social perception. Overall, our goals are to help clarify the complex theoretical issues at stake and suggest fruitful guidelines for empirical research.

  11. Neonatal Imitation: Theory, Experimental Design, and Significance for the Field of Social Cognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefano Vincini

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Neonatal imitation has rich implications for neuroscience, developmental psychology, and social cognition, but there is little consensus about this phenomenon. The primary empirical question, whether or not neonatal imitation exists, is not settled. Is it possible to give a balanced evaluation of the theories and methodologies at stake so as to facilitate real progress with respect to the primary empirical question? In this paper, we address this question. We present the operational definition of differential imitation and discuss why it is important to keep it in mind. The operational definition indicates that neonatal imitation may not look like prototypical imitation and sets non-obvious requirements on what can count as evidence for imitation. We also examine the principal explanations for the extant findings and argue that two theories, the arousal hypothesis and the Association by Similarity Theory, which interprets neonatal imitation as differential induction of spontaneous behavior through similarity, offer better explanations than the others. With respect to methodology, we investigate what experimental design can best provide evidence for imitation, focusing on how differential induction may be maximized and detected. Finally, we discuss the significance of neonatal imitation for the field of social cognition. Specifically, we propose links with theories of social interaction and direct social perception. Overall, our goals are to help clarify the complex theoretical issues at stake and suggest fruitful guidelines for empirical research.

  12. From self-observation to imitation: visuomotor association on a robotic hand.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaminade, Thierry; Oztop, Erhan; Cheng, Gordon; Kawato, Mitsuo

    2008-04-15

    Being at the crux of human cognition and behaviour, imitation has become the target of investigations ranging from experimental psychology and neurophysiology to computational sciences and robotics. It is often assumed that the imitation is innate, but it has more recently been argued, both theoretically and experimentally, that basic forms of imitation could emerge as a result of self-observation. Here, we tested this proposal on a realistic experimental platform, comprising an associative network linking a 16 degrees of freedom robotic hand and a simple visual system. We report that this minimal visuomotor association is sufficient to bootstrap basic imitation. Our results indicate that crucial features of human imitation, such as generalization to new actions, may emerge from a connectionist associative network. Therefore, we suggest that a behaviour as complex as imitation could be, at the neuronal level, founded on basic mechanisms of associative learning, a notion supported by a recent proposal on the developmental origin of mirror neurons. Our approach can be applied to the development of realistic cognitive architectures for humanoid robots as well as to shed new light on the cognitive processes at play in early human cognitive development.

  13. Voluntary Imitation in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisio, Ambra; Casteran, Matthieu; Ballay, Yves; Manckoundia, Patrick; Mourey, France; Pozzo, Thierry

    2016-01-01

    Although Alzheimer’s disease (AD) primarily manifests as cognitive deficits, the implicit sensorimotor processes that underlie social interactions, such as automatic imitation, seem to be preserved in mild and moderate stages of the disease, as is the ability to communicate with other persons. Nevertheless, when AD patients face more challenging tasks, which do not rely on automatic processes but on explicit voluntary mechanisms and require the patient to pay attention to external events, the cognitive deficits resulting from the disease might negatively affect patients’ behavior. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether voluntary motor imitation, i.e., a volitional mechanism that involves observing another person’s action and translating this perception into one’s own action, was affected in patients with AD. Further, we tested whether this ability was modulated by the nature of the observed stimulus by comparing the ability to reproduce the kinematic features of a human demonstrator with that of a computerized-stimulus. AD patients showed an intact ability to reproduce the velocity of the observed movements, particularly when the stimulus was a human agent. This result suggests that high-level cognitive processes involved in voluntary imitation might be preserved in mild and moderate stages of AD and that voluntary imitation abilities might benefit from the implicit interpersonal communication established between the patient and the human demonstrator. PMID:27014056

  14. Voluntary imitation in Alzheimer’s disease patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ambra eBisio

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Although Alzheimer's disease (AD primarily manifests as cognitive deficits, the implicit sensorimotor processes that underlie social interactions, such as automatic imitation, seem to be preserved in mild and moderate stages of the disease, as is the ability to communicate with other persons. Nevertheless, when AD patients face more challenging tasks, which do not rely on automatic processes but on explicit voluntary mechanisms and require the patient to pay attention to external events, the cognitive deficits resulting from the disease might negatively affect patients’ behaviour. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether voluntary motor imitation, i.e. a volitional mechanism that involves observing another person’s action and translating this perception into one’s own action, was affected in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Further, we tested whether this ability was modulated by the nature of the observed stimulus by comparing the ability to reproduce the kinematic features of a human demonstrator with that of a computerized-stimulus. AD patients showed an intact ability to reproduce the velocity of the observed movements, particularly when the stimulus was a human agent. This result suggests that high-level cognitive processes involved in voluntary imitation might be preserved in mild and moderate stages of AD and that voluntary imitation abilities might benefit from the implicit interpersonal communication established between the patient and the human demonstrator.

  15. Imitative learning as a connector of collective brains.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José F Fontanari

    Full Text Available The notion that cooperation can aid a group of agents to solve problems more efficiently than if those agents worked in isolation is prevalent in computer science and business circles. Here we consider a primordial form of cooperation - imitative learning - that allows an effective exchange of information between agents, which are viewed as the processing units of a social intelligence system or collective brain. In particular, we use agent-based simulations to study the performance of a group of agents in solving a cryptarithmetic problem. An agent can either perform local random moves to explore the solution space of the problem or imitate a model agent - the best performing agent in its influence network. There is a trade-off between the number of agents N and the imitation probability p, and for the optimal balance between these parameters we observe a thirtyfold diminution in the computational cost to find the solution of the cryptarithmetic problem as compared with the independent search. If those parameters are chosen far from the optimal setting, however, then imitative learning can impair greatly the performance of the group.

  16. Imitation, Sign Language Skill and the Developmental Ease of Language Understanding (D-ELU) Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holmer, Emil; Heimann, Mikael; Rudner, Mary

    2016-01-01

    Imitation and language processing are closely connected. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) pre-existing mental representation of lexical items facilitates language understanding. Thus, imitation of manual gestures is likely to be enhanced by experience of sign language. We tested this by eliciting imitation of manual gestures from deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) signing and hearing non-signing children at a similar level of language and cognitive development. We predicted that the DHH signing children would be better at imitating gestures lexicalized in their own sign language (Swedish Sign Language, SSL) than unfamiliar British Sign Language (BSL) signs, and that both groups would be better at imitating lexical signs (SSL and BSL) than non-signs. We also predicted that the hearing non-signing children would perform worse than DHH signing children with all types of gestures the first time (T1) we elicited imitation, but that the performance gap between groups would be reduced when imitation was elicited a second time (T2). Finally, we predicted that imitation performance on both occasions would be associated with linguistic skills, especially in the manual modality. A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that DHH signers imitated manual gestures with greater precision than non-signing children when imitation was elicited the second but not the first time. Manual gestures were easier to imitate for both groups when they were lexicalized than when they were not; but there was no difference in performance between familiar and unfamiliar gestures. For both groups, language skills at T1 predicted imitation at T2. Specifically, for DHH children, word reading skills, comprehension and phonological awareness of sign language predicted imitation at T2. For the hearing participants, language comprehension predicted imitation at T2, even after the effects of working memory capacity and motor skills were taken into

  17. Imitation, sign language skill and the Developmental Ease of Language Understanding (D-ELU model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emil eHolmer

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Imitation and language processing are closely connected. According to the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU model (Rönnberg et al., 2013 pre-existing mental representation of lexical items facilitates language understanding. Thus, imitation of manual gestures is likely to be enhanced by experience of sign language. We tested this by eliciting imitation of manual gestures from deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH signing and hearing non-signing children at a similar level of language and cognitive development. We predicted that the DHH signing children would be better at imitating gestures lexicalized in their own sign language (Swedish Sign Language, SSL than unfamiliar British Sign Language (BSL signs, and that both groups would be better at imitating lexical signs (SSL and BSL than non-signs. We also predicted that the hearing non-signing children would perform worse than DHH signing children with all types of gestures the first time (T1 we elicited imitation, but that the performance gap between groups would be reduced when imitation was elicited a second time (T2. Finally, we predicted that imitation performance on both occasions would be associated with linguistic skills, especially in the manual modality. A split-plot repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that DHH signers imitated manual gestures with greater precision than non-signing children when imitation was elicited the second but not the first time. Manual gestures were easier to imitate for both groups when they were lexicalized than when they were not; but there was no difference in performance between familiar and unfamiliar gestures. For both groups, language skills at the T1 predicted imitation at T2. Specifically, for DHH children, word reading skills, comprehension and phonological awareness of sign language predicted imitation at T2. For the hearing participants, language comprehension predicted imitation at T2, even after the effects of working memory capacity and motor skills

  18. The Imitation Game: Alan Turings enigmatiske imitationsspil

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bentzen, Martin Mose

    2015-01-01

    Alan Turing revolutionerede computervidenskaben og modtog først verdens anerkendelse længe efter sin død. Nu sætter filmen 'The Imitation Game', der har premiere i Danmark 29. januar 2015, fokus på det oversete geni.......Alan Turing revolutionerede computervidenskaben og modtog først verdens anerkendelse længe efter sin død. Nu sætter filmen 'The Imitation Game', der har premiere i Danmark 29. januar 2015, fokus på det oversete geni....

  19. Comprehensive Longitudinal Study Challenges the Existence of Neonatal Imitation in Humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oostenbroek, Janine; Suddendorf, Thomas; Nielsen, Mark; Redshaw, Jonathan; Kennedy-Costantini, Siobhan; Davis, Jacqueline; Clark, Sally; Slaughter, Virginia

    2016-05-23

    Human children copy others' actions with high fidelity, supporting early cultural learning and assisting in the development and maintenance of behavioral traditions [1]. Imitation has long been assumed to occur from birth [2-4], with influential theories (e.g., [5-7]) placing an innate imitation module at the foundation of social cognition (potentially underpinned by a mirror neuron system [8, 9]). Yet, the very phenomenon of neonatal imitation has remained controversial. Empirical support is mixed and interpretations are varied [10-16], potentially because previous investigations have relied heavily on cross-sectional designs with relatively small samples and with limited controls [17, 18]. Here, we report surprising results from the most comprehensive longitudinal study of neonatal imitation to date. We presented infants (n = 106) with nine social and two non-social models and scored their responses at 1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks of age. Longitudinal analyses indicated that the infants did not imitate any of the models, as they were just as likely to produce the gestures in response to control models as they were to matching models. Previous positive findings were replicated in limited cross-sections of the data, but the overall analyses confirmed these findings to be mere artifacts of restricted comparison conditions. Our results undermine the idea of an innate imitation module and suggest that earlier studies reporting neonatal imitation were methodologically limited. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. The Development of Imitation in Children 1-3 Years Old. Final Report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCall, Robert B.; And Others

    Five studies investigated the development of imitation in children 1-3 years old. Results indicated that children as young as 12 months possess the cognitive capability of translating a perception of an action into their own behavior, but imitation varies as actions requiring direct social commerce with the examiner are imitated less frequently…

  1. The history of imitation in learning theory: the language acquisition process.

    OpenAIRE

    Kymissis, E; Poulson, C L

    1990-01-01

    The concept of imitation has undergone different analyses in the hands of different learning theorists throughout the history of psychology. From Thorndike's connectionism to Pavlov's classical conditioning, Hull's monistic theory, Mowrer's two-factor theory, and Skinner's operant theory, there have been several divergent accounts of the conditions that produce imitation and the conditions under which imitation itself may facilitate language acquisition. In tracing the roots of the concept of...

  2. Phonetic and phonological imitation of intonation in two varieties of Italian

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mariapaola eD'Imperio

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this study was to test whether both phonetic and phonological representations of intonation can be rapidly modified when imitating utterances belonging to a different regional variety of the same language. Our main hypothesis was that tonal alignment, just as other phonetic features of speech, would be rapidly modified by Italian speakers when imitating pitch accents of a different (Southern variety of Italian. In particular, we tested whether Bari Italian speakers would produce later peaks for their native rising L+H* (question pitch accent in the process of imitating Neapolitan Italian rising L*+H accents. Also, we tested whether BI speakers are able to modify other phonetic properties (pitch level as well as phonological characteristics (changes in tonal composition of the same contour. In a follow-up study, we tested if the reverse was also true, i.e. whether NI speakers would produce earlier peaks within the L*+H accent in the process of imitating the L+H* of BI questions, despite the presence of a contrast between two rising accents in this variety. Our results show that phonetic detail of tonal alignment can be successfully modified by both BI and NI speakers when imitating a model speaker of the other variety. The hypothesis of a selective imitation process preventing alignment modifications in NI was hence not supported. Moreover the effect was significantly stronger for low frequency words. Participants were also able to imitate other phonetic cues, in that they modified global utterance pitch level. Concerning phonological convergence, speakers modified the tonal specification of the edge tones in order to resemble that of the other variety by either suppressing or increasing the presence of a final H%. Hence, our data show that intonation imitation leads to fast modification of both phonetic and phonological intonation representations including detail of tonal alignment and pitch scaling.

  3. The effect of narrative cues on infants' imitation from television and picture books.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simcock, Gabrielle; Garrity, Kara; Barr, Rachel

    2011-01-01

    Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books, yet there has been no direct comparison of infants' imitation from the 2 types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, the current experiments measured 18- and 24-month-olds' imitation from television and picture books. Infants imitated from both media types when full narrative cues (Experiment 1; N = 76) or empty, meaningless narration (Experiment 2; N = 135) accompanied the demonstrations, but they imitated more from television than books. In Experiment 3 (N = 27), infants imitated from a book based on narration alone, without the presence of pictures. These results are discussed in relation to age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and infants' emerging symbolic understanding. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

  4. An Evaluation of Imitation Recognition Abilities in Typically Developing Children and Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, Natalie I; Ingersoll, Brooke

    2015-08-01

    Previous work has indicated that both typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display a range of imitation recognition behaviors in response to a contingent adult imitator. However, it is unknown how the two groups perform comparatively on this construct. In this study, imitation recognition behaviors for children with ASD and typically developing children were observed during periods of contingent imitation imbedded in a naturalistic imitation task. Results from this study indicate that children with ASD are impaired in their ability to recognize being imitated relative to typically developing peers as demonstrated both by behaviors representing basic social attention and more mature imitation recognition. Display of imitation recognition behaviors was independent of length of contingent imitation period in typically developing children, but rate of engagement in imitation recognition behaviors was positively correlated with length of contingent imitation period in children with ASD. Exploratory findings also suggest a link between the ability to demonstrate recognition of being imitated and ASD symptom severity, language, and object imitation for young children with ASD. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  5. Effects of imitating gestures during encoding or during retrieval of novel verbs on children's test performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Nooijer, Jacqueline A; van Gog, Tamara; Paas, Fred; Zwaan, Rolf A

    2013-09-01

    Research has shown that observing and imitating gestures can foster word learning and that imitation might be more beneficial than observation, which is in line with theories of Embodied Cognition. This study investigated when imitation of gestures is most effective, using a 2×2×2×3 mixed design with between-subjects factors Imitation during Encoding (IE; Yes/No) and Imitation during Retrieval (IR; Yes/No), and within-subjects factors Time of Testing (Immediate/Delayed) and Verb Type (Object manipulation/Locomotion/Abstract). Primary school children (N=115) learned 15 novel verbs (five of each type). They were provided with a verbal definition and a video of the gesture. Depending on assigned condition, they additionally received no imitation instructions, instructions to imitate the gesture immediately (i.e., during encoding; IE), instructions to imitate (from memory) during the first posttest (i.e., during retrieval; IR), or both (IE-IR). Based on the literature, all three imitation conditions could be predicted to be more effective than no imitation. On an immediate and delayed posttest, only the object-manipulation verbs were differentially affected by instructional method, with IE and IR being more effective than no imitation on the immediate test; IE-IR and no imitation did not differ significantly. After a one week delay, only IR was more effective than no imitation, suggesting that imitation during retrieval is most effective for learning object-manipulation words. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. Atypical Social Modulation of Imitation in Autism Spectrum Conditions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Jennifer L.; Bird, Geoffrey

    2012-01-01

    Appropriate modulation of imitation according to social context is important for successful social interaction. In the present study we subliminally primed high-functioning adults with ASC and age- and IQ-matched controls with either a pro- or non- social attitude. Following priming, an automatic imitation paradigm was used to acquire an index of…

  7. Interrogated with Intellectual Disabilities: The Risks of False Confession.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schatz, Samson J

    2018-02-01

    False confessions happen. At least 245 people have been exonerated from convictions in cases featuring confessions that were simply not true. Confessions offer a narrative that allows law enforcement, and society in general, to neatly resolve cases with apparent clarity and closure. And yet the pressures officers place on suspects to provide that closure weigh disproportionately on the vulnerable, including individuals with intellectual disabilities. These individuals are disadvantaged at every step of the custodial interrogation, and they face heightened risks of falsely confessing. Moreover, the principal judicial safeguards against false confessions--assessing a suspect's Miranda waiver and determining whether a confession was voluntarily given within the bounds of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause--provide little protection for the innocent with intellectual disabilities. Few pieces of scholarship focus specifically on the heightened risks faced by individuals with intellectual disabilities throughout the process of police interrogation. This Note describes the various ways these individuals are disadvantaged. And it offers an additional data point illustrating the vulnerability of people with intellectual disabilities. This Note analyzes the 245 individuals (as of June 2, 2017) on the National Registry of Exonerations who have falsely confessed. Over one-quarter of them display indicia of intellectual disability. This percentage dwarfs the prevalence of people with intellectual disabilities in the general population and even exceeds most estimates of the proportion of the prison population suffering from intellectual disabilities. This Note concludes with several policy and doctrinal suggestions to better protect individuals with intellectual disabilities from the risks of false confession.

  8. A Comparative Approach to the Protection of Fashion Innovations

    OpenAIRE

    Wulf, Alexander

    2016-01-01

    This paper determines the relevance of industrial property rights to the development of innovations in the fashion industry. It examines how the level of innovation can remain high despite a free exchange of intellectual property – fashion designs – within the industry: The importance of innovation for a fashion business in the industry is determined by the choice of it’s competitive strategy. That is, either to be an innovator who creates fashion innovations or to be an imitator who...

  9. The Role of Modality and Register in Imitation by Adults and Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Nancy Ann

    2013-01-01

    Research has shown that both adults and children will imitate acoustic properties of the speech around them. In fact, studies on adults have shown that this convergence occurs even when the subject simply sees, but does not hear, the interlocutor. Not only does visual speech elicit imitation on its own, but also imitation is greater for…

  10. Training Social Cognition: From Imitation to Theory of Mind

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santiesteban, Idalmis; White, Sarah; Cook, Jennifer; Gilbert, Sam J.; Heyes, Cecilia; Bird, Geoffrey

    2012-01-01

    Evidence for successful socio-cognitive training in typical adults is rare. This study attempted to improve Theory of Mind (ToM) and visual perspective taking in healthy adults by training participants to either imitate or to inhibit imitation. Twenty-four hours after training, all participants completed tests of ToM and visual perspective taking.…

  11. The diverging force of imitation: integrating cognitive science and hermeneutics

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Keestra, M.

    2008-01-01

    Recent research on infant and animal imitation and on mirror neuron systems has brought imitation back in focus in psychology and cognitive science. This topic has always been important for philosophical hermeneutics as well, focusing on theory and method of understanding. Unfortunately, relations

  12. Preference reversal for copycat brands: Uncertainty makes imitation feel good

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Van Horen, F.; Pieters, R.

    2013-01-01

    Copycat brands try to entice consumers by imitating the trade-dress of leading brands. Recent research suggests that preferences for copycat brands relative to more differentiated brands are generally lower. That is, consumers tend to dislike such "imitation" brands, because of psychological

  13. Neural activation during imitation with or without performance feedback: An fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Kaihua; Wang, Hui; Dong, Guangheng; Wang, Mengxing; Zhang, Jilei; Zhang, Hui; Meng, Weixia; Du, Xiaoxia

    2016-08-26

    In our daily lives, we often receive performance feedback (PF) during imitative learning, and we adjust our behaviors accordingly to improve performance. However, little is known regarding the neural mechanisms underlying this learning process. We hypothesized that appropriate PF would enhance neural activation or recruit additional brain areas during subsequent action imitation. Pictures of 20 different finger gestures without any social meaning were shown to participants from the first-person perspective. Imitation with or without PF was investigated by functional magnetic resonance imaging in 30 healthy subjects. The PF was given by a real person or by a computer. PF from a real person induced hyperactivation of the parietal lobe (precuneus and cuneus), cingulate cortex (posterior and anterior), temporal lobe (superior and transverse temporal gyri), and cerebellum (posterior and anterior lobes) during subsequent imitation. The positive PF and negative PF from a real person, induced the activation of more brain areas during the following imitation. The hyperactivation of the cerebellum, posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and cuneus suggests that the subjects exhibited enhanced motor control and visual attention during imitation after PF. Additionally, random PF from a computer had a small effect on the next imitation. We suggest that positive and accurate PF may be helpful for imitation learning. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. The Left, The Better: White-Matter Brain Integrity Predicts Foreign Language Imitation Ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaquero, Lucía; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Reiterer, Susanne M

    2017-08-01

    Speech imitation is crucial for language acquisition and second-language learning. Interestingly, large individual differences regarding the ability in imitating foreign-language sounds have been observed. The origin of this interindividual diversity remains unknown, although it might be partially explained by structural predispositions. Here we correlated white-matter structural properties of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) with the performance of 52 German-speakers in a Hindi sentence- and word-imitation task. First, a manual reconstruction was performed, permitting us to extract the mean values along the three branches of the AF. We found that a larger lateralization of the AF volume toward the left hemisphere predicted the performance of our participants in the imitation task. Second, an automatic reconstruction was carried out, allowing us to localize the specific region within the AF that exhibited the largest correlation with foreign language imitation. Results of this reconstruction also showed a left lateralization trend: greater fractional anisotropy values in the anterior half of the left AF correlated with the performance in the Hindi-imitation task. From the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that foreign language imitation aptitude is tested using a more ecological imitation task and correlated with DTI tractography, using both a manual and an automatic method. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  15. Age-related changes in learning across early childhood: a new imitation task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickerson, Kelly; Gerhardstein, Peter; Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

    2013-11-01

    Imitation plays a critical role in social and cognitive development, but the social learning mechanisms contributing to the development of imitation are not well understood. We developed a new imitation task designed to examine social learning mechanisms across the early childhood period. The new task involves assembly of abstract-shaped puzzle pieces in an arbitrary sequence on a magnet board. Additionally, we introduce a new scoring system that extends traditional goal-directed imitation scoring to include measures of both children's success at copying gestures (sliding the puzzle pieces) and goals (connecting the puzzle pieces). In Experiment 1, we demonstrated an age-invariant baseline from 1.5 to 3.5 years of age, accompanied by age-related changes in success at copying goals and gestures from a live demonstrator. In Experiment 2, we applied our new task to learning following a video demonstration. Imitation performance in the video demonstration group lagged behind that of the live demonstration group, showing a protracted video deficit effect. Across both experiments, children were more likely to copy gestures at earlier ages, suggesting mimicry, and only later copy both goals and gestures, suggesting imitation. Taken together, the findings suggest that different social learning strategies may predominate in imitation learning dependent upon the degree of object affordance, task novelty, and task complexity. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  16. Preserved Imitation of Known Gestures in Children with High-Functioning Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carmo, Joana C.; Rumiati, Raffaella I.; Siugzdaite, Roma; Brambilla, Paolo

    2013-01-01

    It has been suggested that children with autism are particularly deficient at imitating novel gestures or gestures without goals. In the present study, we asked high-functioning autistic children and age-matched typically developing children to imitate several types of gestures that could be either already known or novel to them. Known gestures either conveyed a communicative meaning (i.e., intransitive) or involved the use of objects (i.e., transitive). We observed a significant interaction between gesture type and group of participants, with children with autism performing known gestures better than novel gestures. However, imitation of intransitive and transitive gestures did not differ across groups. These findings are discussed in light of a dual-route model for action imitation. PMID:24062956

  17. Object words modulate the activity of the mirror neuron system during action imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Haiyan; Tang, Honghong; Ge, Yue; Yang, Suyong; Mai, Xiaoqin; Luo, Yue-Jia; Liu, Chao

    2017-11-01

    Although research has demonstrated that the mirror neuron system (MNS) plays a crucial role in both action imitation and action-related semantic processing, whether action-related words can inversely modulate the MNS activity remains unclear. Here, three types of task-irrelevant words (body parts, verbs, and manufactured objects) were presented to examine the modulation effect of these words on the MNS activity during action observation and imitation. Twenty-two participants were recruited for the fMRI scanning and remaining data from 19 subjects were reported here. Brain activity results showed that word types elicited different modulation effects over nodes of the MNS (i.e., the right inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, inferior parietal lobule, and STS), especially during the imitation stage. Compared with other word conditions, action imitation following manufactured objects words induced stronger activation in these brain regions during the imitation stage. These results were consistent in both task-dependent and -independent ROI analysis. Our findings thus provide evidence for the unique effect of object words on the MNS during imitation of action, which may also confirm the key role of goal inference in action imitation.

  18. Knowledge Protection and Input Complexity Arising from Open Innovation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Peeters, Thijs; Sofka, Wolfgang

    Controlling unique knowledge is of increasing importance to firms. Therefore, firms use knowledge protection mechanisms to prevent competitors from imitating their knowledge. We study the effects of the complexity of knowledge inputs that arises from open innovation on the importance of two widely...... used protection mechanisms: patents and trademarks. We argue that this complexity makes the threat of imitation less predictable, and thus makes knowledge protection more important. By analyzing survey data of 938 German firms, we find that patents are more important for firms in industries with higher...... knowledge input complexity. Furthermore, we show that the dynamics and not the level of knowledge input complexity positively affect the importance of trademarks....

  19. Anatomical and spatial matching in imitation: Evidence from left and right brain-damaged patients.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mengotti, Paola; Ripamonti, Enrico; Pesavento, Valentina; Rumiati, Raffaella Ida

    2015-12-01

    Imitation is a sensorimotor process whereby the visual information present in the model's movement has to be coupled with the activation of the motor system in the observer. This also implies that greater the similarity between the seen and the produced movement, the easier it will be to execute the movement, a process also known as ideomotor compatibility. Two components can influence the degree of similarity between two movements: the anatomical and the spatial component. The anatomical component is present when the model and imitator move the same body part (e.g., the right hand) while the spatial component is present when the movement of the model and that of the imitator occur at the same spatial position. Imitation can be achieved by relying on both components, but typically the model's and imitator's movements are matched either anatomically or spatially. The aim of this study was to ascertain the contribution of the left and right hemisphere to the imitation accomplished either with anatomical or spatial matching (or with both). Patients with unilateral left and right brain damage performed an ideomotor task and a gesture imitation task. Lesions in the left and right hemispheres gave rise to different performance deficits. Patients with lesions in the left hemisphere showed impaired imitation when anatomical matching was required, and patients with lesions in the right hemisphere showed impaired imitation when spatial matching was required. Lesion analysis further revealed a differential involvement of left and right hemispheric regions, such as the parietal opercula, in supporting imitation in the ideomotor task. Similarly, gesture imitation seemed to rely on different regions in the left and right hemisphere, such as parietal regions in the left hemisphere and premotor, somatosensory and subcortical regions in the right hemisphere. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Reafferent copies of imitated actions in the right superior temporal cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iacoboni, Marco; Koski, Lisa M.; Brass, Marcel; Bekkering, Harold; Woods, Roger P.; Dubeau, Marie-Charlotte; Mazziotta, John C.; Rizzolatti, Giacomo

    2001-01-01

    Imitation is a complex phenomenon, the neural mechanisms of which are still largely unknown. When individuals imitate an action that already is present in their motor repertoire, a mechanism matching the observed action onto an internal motor representation of that action should suffice for the purpose. When one has to copy a new action, however, or to adjust an action present in one's motor repertoire to a different observed action, an additional mechanism is needed that allows the observer to compare the action made by another individual with the sensory consequences of the same action made by himself. Previous experiments have shown that a mechanism that directly matches observed actions on their motor counterparts exists in the premotor cortex of monkeys and humans. Here we report the results of functional magnetic resonance experiments, suggesting that in the superior temporal sulcus, a higher order visual region, there is a sector that becomes active both during hand action observation and during imitation even in the absence of direct vision of the imitator's hand. The motor-related activity is greater during imitation than during control motor tasks. This newly identified region has all the requisites for being the region at which the observed actions, and the reafferent motor-related copies of actions made by the imitator, interact. PMID:11717457

  1. Automatic imitation of pro- and antisocial gestures: Is implicit social behavior censored?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cracco, Emiel; Genschow, Oliver; Radkova, Ina; Brass, Marcel

    2018-01-01

    According to social reward theories, automatic imitation can be understood as a means to obtain positive social consequences. In line with this view, it has been shown that automatic imitation is modulated by contextual variables that constrain the positive outcomes of imitation. However, this work has largely neglected that many gestures have an inherent pro- or antisocial meaning. As a result of their meaning, antisocial gestures are considered taboo and should not be used in public. In three experiments, we show that automatic imitation of symbolic gestures is modulated by the social intent of these gestures. Experiment 1 (N=37) revealed reduced automatic imitation of antisocial compared with prosocial gestures. Experiment 2 (N=118) and Experiment 3 (N=118) used a social priming procedure to show that this effect was stronger in a prosocial context than in an antisocial context. These findings were supported in a within-study meta-analysis using both frequentist and Bayesian statistics. Together, our results indicate that automatic imitation is regulated by internalized social norms that act as a stop signal when inappropriate actions are triggered. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. The Intersubjective and Transitional Function of Imitation in Early Grandparent-Infant Grandchild Interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kokkinaki, Theano; Pratikaki, Anastasia

    2014-01-01

    Primary objective: Research has provided evidence of the intersubjective function of imitation in grandparent-infant interaction based on the basic aspects of imitation. This lacks the systematic investigation of behaviour dynamics framing spontaneous imitation. The aim of this study was to compare the dyadic expressive behaviours (vocal, kinetic…

  3. The intellectual property cookbook: a guide for the novice health-care telemedicine provider working with industry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Beauregard, D; Beauregard, G

    2000-01-01

    Telemedicine is a new field and many health-care providers are developing their own products with the help of industry. Most practitioners are novices in the legal tools necessary to protect their own work with regard to any future commercialization. To summarize these issues for the telemedicine practitioner, a review of intellectual property protection has been performed. Intellectual property can be protected by tools such as copyrights, patents, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, integrated circuit topographies and industrial design. Knowledge of the intellectual property background should allow telemedicine providers to protect their own work when working with industry.

  4. Out-of-category brand imitation : Product categorization determines copycat evaluation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Horen, F.; Pieters, Rik

    2017-01-01

    Copycat brands imitate the trade dress of other brands, such as their brand name, logo, and packaging design. Copycats typically operate in the core product category of the imitated brand under the assumption that such “in-category imitation” is most effective. In contrast, four experiments

  5. Do people with intellectual disability require special human subjects research protections? The interplay of history, ethics, and policy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feudtner, Chris; Brosco, Jeffrey P

    2011-01-01

    People with intellectual disability (ID) have a long history of discrimination and stigmatization, and a more recent history of pride and self-advocacy. The early history suggests that people with ID are a vulnerable population and deserve special research protections as do some other groups; the disability rights movement of the late 20th century aligns people with ID more closely with the principle of autonomy that has guided clinical and research ethics for the last 40 years. In examining the history of people with ID and the prevailing framework of human subjects research protections in the United States, we conclude that people with ID do not require special protection in human subjects research. The protections that have already been put in place for all individuals, if conscientiously and effectively implemented, achieve the right balance between safeguarding the interest of human research subjects and empowering individuals who choose to do so to participate in research. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Motor facilitation during real-time movement imitation in Parkinson's disease: a virtual reality study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robles-García, Verónica; Arias, Pablo; Sanmartín, Gabriel; Espinosa, Nelson; Flores, Julian; Grieve, Kenneth L; Cudeiro, Javier

    2013-12-01

    Impaired temporal stability and poor motor unit recruitment are key impairments in Parkinsonian motor control during a whole spectrum of rhythmic movements, from simple finger tapping to gait. Therapies based on imitation can be designed for patients with motor impairments and virtual-reality (VR) offers a new perspective. Motor actions are known to depend upon the dopaminergic system, whose involvement in imitation is unknown. We sought to understand this role and the underlying possibilities for motor rehabilitation, by observing the execution of different motor-patterns during imitation in a VR environment in subjects with and without dopaminergic deficits. 10 OFF-dose idiopathic Parkinson's Disease patients (PD), 9 age-matched and 9 young-subjects participated. Subjects performed finger-tapping at their "comfort" and "slow-comfort" rates, while immersed in VR presenting their "avatar" in 1st person perspective. Imitation was evaluated by asking subjects to replicate finger-tapping patterns different to their natural one. The finger-pattern presented matched their comfort and comfort-slow rates, but without a pause on the table (continuously moving). Patients were able to adapt their finger-tapping correctly, showing that in comparison with the control groups, the dopaminergic deficiency of PD did not impair imitation. During imitation the magnitude of EMG increased and the temporal variability of movement decreased. PD-patients have unaltered ability to imitate instructed motor-patterns, suggesting that a fully-functional dopaminergic system is not essential for such imitation. It should be further investigated if imitation training over a period of time induces positive off-line motor adaptations with transfer to non-imitation tasks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Phonetic imitation from an individual-difference perspective: subjective attitude, personality and "autistic" traits.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Alan C L; Abrego-Collier, Carissa; Sonderegger, Morgan

    2013-01-01

    Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon of phonetic imitation: the process by which the production patterns of an individual become more similar on some phonetic or acoustic dimension to those of her interlocutor. Though social factors have been suggested as a motivator for imitation, few studies has established a tight connection between language-external factors and a speaker's likelihood to imitate. The present study investigated the phenomenon of phonetic imitation using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework. Participants were administered a phonetic imitation task, which included two speech production tasks separated by a perceptual learning task, and a battery of measures assessing traits associated with Autism-Spectrum Condition, working memory, and personality. To examine the effects of subjective attitude on phonetic imitation, participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions, where the perceived sexual orientation of the narrator (homosexual vs. heterosexual) and the outcome (positive vs. negative) of the story depicted in the exposure materials differed. The extent of phonetic imitation by an individual is significantly modulated by the story outcome, as well as by the participant's subjective attitude toward the model talker, the participant's personality trait of openness and the autistic-like trait associated with attention switching.

  8. Phonetic imitation from an individual-difference perspective: subjective attitude, personality and "autistic" traits.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alan C L Yu

    Full Text Available Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon of phonetic imitation: the process by which the production patterns of an individual become more similar on some phonetic or acoustic dimension to those of her interlocutor. Though social factors have been suggested as a motivator for imitation, few studies has established a tight connection between language-external factors and a speaker's likelihood to imitate. The present study investigated the phenomenon of phonetic imitation using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework. Participants were administered a phonetic imitation task, which included two speech production tasks separated by a perceptual learning task, and a battery of measures assessing traits associated with Autism-Spectrum Condition, working memory, and personality. To examine the effects of subjective attitude on phonetic imitation, participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions, where the perceived sexual orientation of the narrator (homosexual vs. heterosexual and the outcome (positive vs. negative of the story depicted in the exposure materials differed. The extent of phonetic imitation by an individual is significantly modulated by the story outcome, as well as by the participant's subjective attitude toward the model talker, the participant's personality trait of openness and the autistic-like trait associated with attention switching.

  9. 'Justice Be Our Shield and Defender': An Intellectual Property Rights ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Protecting intellectual property rights has become essential in encouraging cutting-edge scholarship that advances the frontiers of knowledge. For a long time, the majority of Africa's intelligentsia has worked in local and international environments that have exploited the continent's intellectual capital. Even in contexts where ...

  10. The Effect of Narrative Cues on Infants' Imitation from Television and Picture Books

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simcock, Gabrielle; Garrity, Kara; Barr, Rachel

    2011-01-01

    Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books, yet there has been no direct comparison of infants' imitation from the 2 types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, the current experiments measured 18- and 24-month-olds' imitation from television and picture books. Infants…

  11. 25 CFR 141.27 - Trade in imitation Indian crafts prohibited.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Trade in imitation Indian crafts prohibited. 141.27 Section 141.27 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES BUSINESS PRACTICES ON THE NAVAJO, HOPI AND ZUNI RESERVATIONS General Business Practices § 141.27 Trade in imitation...

  12. Protecting knowledge

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sofka, Wolfgang; de Faria, Pedro; Shehu, Edlira

    2018-01-01

    Most firms use secrecy to protect their knowledge from potential imitators. However, the theoretical foundations for secrecy have not been well explored. We extend knowledge protection literature and propose theoretical mechanisms explaining how information visibility influences the importance...... of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument. Building on mechanisms from information economics and signaling theory, we postulate that secrecy is more important for protecting knowledge for firms that have legal requirements to reveal information to shareholders. Furthermore, we argue that this effect...... and a firm's investment in fixed assets. Our findings inform both academics and managers on how firms balance information disclosure requirements with the use of secrecy as a knowledge protection instrument....

  13. Doing Justice to the Imitation Game

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lassègue, Jean

    My claim in this article is that the 1950 paper in which Turing describes the world-famous set-up of the Imitation Game is much richer and intriguing than the formalist ersatz coined in the early 1970s under the name "Turing Test". Therefore, doing justice to the Imitation Game implies showing first, that the formalist interpretation misses some crucial points in Turing's line of thought and second, that the 1950 paper should not be understood as the Magna Chartaof strong Artificial Intelligence (AI) but as a work in progressfocused on the notion of Form. This has unexpected consequences about the status of Mind, and from a more general point of view, about the way we interpret the notions of Science and Language.

  14. Reality check: Prior exposure facilitates picture book imitation by 15-month-old infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simcock, Gabrielle; Heron-Delaney, Michelle

    2016-11-01

    We examined whether 15-month-olds could imitate a novel action sequence from a picture book, and whether or not pre-exposure to the objects before reading the book would facilitate imitation. We found that infants only imitated from a picture book above baseline when they had previously interacted with the objects. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  15. Effects of movement imitation training in Parkinson's disease: A virtual reality pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robles-García, Verónica; Corral-Bergantiños, Yoanna; Espinosa, Nelson; García-Sancho, Carlos; Sanmartín, Gabriel; Flores, Julián; Cudeiro, Javier; Arias, Pablo

    2016-05-01

    Hypometria is a clinical motor sign in Parkinson's disease. Its origin likely emerges from basal ganglia dysfunction, leading to an impaired control of inhibitory intracortical motor circuits. Some neurorehabilitation approaches include movement imitation training; besides the effects of motor practice, there might be a benefit due to observation and imitation of un-altered movement patterns. In this sense, virtual reality facilitates the process by customizing motor-patterns to be observed and imitated. To evaluate the effect of a motor-imitation therapy focused on hypometria in Parkinson's disease using virtual reality. We carried out a randomized controlled pilot-study. Sixteen patients were randomly assigned in experimental and control groups. Groups underwent 4-weeks of training based on finger-tapping with the dominant hand, in which imitation was the differential factor (only the experimental group imitated). We evaluated self-paced movement features and cortico-spinal excitability (recruitment curves and silent periods in both hemispheres) before, immediately after, and two weeks after the training period. Movement amplitude increased significantly after the therapy in the experimental group for the trained and un-trained hands. Motor thresholds and silent periods evaluated with transcranial magnetic stimulation were differently modified by training in the two groups; although the changes in the input-output recruitment were similar. This pilot study suggests that movement imitation therapy enhances the effect of motor practice in patients with Parkinson's disease; imitation-training might be helpful for reducing hypometria in these patients. These results must be clarified in future larger trials. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Video stimuli reduce object-directed imitation accuracy: a novel two-person motion-tracking approach.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reader, Arran T; Holmes, Nicholas P

    2015-01-01

    Imitation is an important form of social behavior, and research has aimed to discover and explain the neural and kinematic aspects of imitation. However, much of this research has featured single participants imitating in response to pre-recorded video stimuli. This is in spite of findings that show reduced neural activation to video vs. real life movement stimuli, particularly in the motor cortex. We investigated the degree to which video stimuli may affect the imitation process using a novel motion tracking paradigm with high spatial and temporal resolution. We recorded 14 positions on the hands, arms, and heads of two individuals in an imitation experiment. One individual freely moved within given parameters (moving balls across a series of pegs) and a second participant imitated. This task was performed with either simple (one ball) or complex (three balls) movement difficulty, and either face-to-face or via a live video projection. After an exploratory analysis, three dependent variables were chosen for examination: 3D grip position, joint angles in the arm, and grip aperture. A cross-correlation and multivariate analysis revealed that object-directed imitation task accuracy (as represented by grip position) was reduced in video compared to face-to-face feedback, and in complex compared to simple difficulty. This was most prevalent in the left-right and forward-back motions, relevant to the imitator sitting face-to-face with the actor or with a live projected video of the same actor. The results suggest that for tasks which require object-directed imitation, video stimuli may not be an ecologically valid way to present task materials. However, no similar effects were found in the joint angle and grip aperture variables, suggesting that there are limits to the influence of video stimuli on imitation. The implications of these results are discussed with regards to previous findings, and with suggestions for future experimentation.

  17. Imitation and Education: A Philosophical Inquiry into Learning by Example

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warnick, Bryan R.

    2008-01-01

    "Imitation and Education" provides an in-depth reassessment of learning by example that places imitation in a larger social context. It is the first book to bring together ancient educational thought and startling breakthroughs in the fields of cognitive science, psychology, and philosophy to reconsider how we learn from the lives of…

  18. Automatic imitation effects are influenced by experience of synchronous action in children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Sullivan, Eoin P; Bijvoet-van den Berg, Simone; Caldwell, Christine A

    2018-07-01

    By their fourth year of life, children are expert imitators, but it is unclear how this ability develops. One approach suggests that certain types of experience might forge associations between the sensory and motor representations of an action that may facilitate imitation at a later time. Sensorimotor experience of this sort may occur when an infant's action is imitated by a caregiver or when socially synchronous action occurs. This learning approach, therefore, predicts that the strength of sensory-motor associations should depend on the frequency and quality of previous experience. Here, we tested this prediction by examining automatic imitation, that is, the tendency of an action stimulus to facilitate the performance of that action and interfere with the performance of an incompatible action. We required children (aged between 3 years 8 months and 7 years 11 months) to respond to actions performed by an experimenter (e.g., two hands clapping) with both compatible actions (i.e., two hands clapping) and incompatible actions (i.e., two hands waving) at different stages in the experimental procedure. As predicted by a learning account, actions thought to be performed in synchrony (i.e., clapping/waving) produced stronger automatic imitation effects when compared with actions where previous sensorimotor experience is likely to be more limited (e.g., pointing/hand closing). Furthermore, these automatic imitation effects were not found to vary with age, with both compatible and incompatible responses quickening with age. These findings suggest a role for sensorimotor experience in the development of imitative ability. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. The temporal relationship between reduction of early imitative responses and the development of attention mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benga Oana

    2003-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background To determine whether early imitative responses fade out following the maturation of attentional mechanisms, the relationship between primitive imitation behaviors and the development of attention was examined in 4-month-old infants. They were divided into high and low imitators, based on an index of imitation. The status of attention was assessed by studying inhibition of return (IOR. Nine-month-old infants were also tested to confirm the hypothesis. Results The IOR latency data replicate previous results that infants get faster to produce a covert shift of attention with increasing age. However, those 4-month-olds who showed less imitation had more rapid saccades to the cue before target presentation. Conclusion The cortical control of saccade planning appears to be related to an apparent drop in early imitation. We interpret the results as suggesting a relationship between the status of imitation and the neural development of attention-related eye movement.

  20. Intact Automatic Imitation and Typical Spatial Compatibility in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Challenging the Broken Mirror Theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sowden, Sophie; Koehne, Svenja; Catmur, Caroline; Dziobek, Isabel; Bird, Geoffrey

    2016-02-01

    A lack of imitative behavior is frequently described as a core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and is consistent with claims of mirror neuron system dysfunction in these individuals. Previous research has questioned this characterization of ASD however, arguing that when tests of automatic imitation are used--which do not require higher-level cognitive processing--imitative behavior is intact or even enhanced in individuals with ASD. In Experiment 1, 60 adult individuals with ASD and a matched Control group completed an automatic imitation task in which they were required to perform an index or a middle finger lift while observing a hand making either the same, or the alternate, finger movement. Both groups demonstrated a significant imitation effect whereby actions were executed faster when preceded by observation of the same action, than when preceded by the alternate action. The magnitude of this "imitation effect" was statistically indistinguishable in the ASD and Control groups. Experiment 2 utilized an improved automatic imitation paradigm to demonstrate that, when automatic imitation effects are isolated from those due to spatial compatibility, increasing autism symptom severity is associated with an increased tendency to imitate. Notably, there was no association between autism symptom severity and spatial compatibility, demonstrating the specificity of the link between ASD symptoms and increased imitation. These results provide evidence against claims of a lack of imitative behavior in ASD, and challenge the "Broken Mirror Theory of Autism." © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  1. Imitation and matching of meaningless gestures: distinct involvement from motor and visual imagery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lesourd, Mathieu; Navarro, Jordan; Baumard, Josselin; Jarry, Christophe; Le Gall, Didier; Osiurak, François

    2017-05-01

    The aim of the present study was to understand the underlying cognitive processes of imitation and matching of meaningless gestures. Neuropsychological evidence obtained in brain damaged patients, has shown that distinct cognitive processes supported imitation and matching of meaningless gestures. Left-brain damaged (LBD) patients failed to imitate while right-brain damaged (RBD) patients failed to match meaningless gestures. Moreover, other studies with brain damaged patients showed that LBD patients were impaired in motor imagery while RBD patients were impaired in visual imagery. Thus, we hypothesize that imitation of meaningless gestures might rely on motor imagery, whereas matching of meaningless gestures might be based on visual imagery. In a first experiment, using a correlational design, we demonstrated that posture imitation relies on motor imagery but not on visual imagery (Experiment 1a) and that posture matching relies on visual imagery but not on motor imagery (Experiment 1b). In a second experiment, by manipulating directly the body posture of the participants, we demonstrated that such manipulation evokes a difference only in imitation task but not in matching task. In conclusion, the present study provides direct evidence that the way we imitate or we have to compare postures depends on motor imagery or visual imagery, respectively. Our results are discussed in the light of recent findings about underlying mechanisms of meaningful and meaningless gestures.

  2. Authenticity and Imitation in Translating Exposition: A Corpus-Based Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elmgrab, Ramadan Ahmed

    2015-01-01

    Many Western scholars such as Dryden show little interest in imitations, and express their preference for translations, i.e. paraphrases that are faithful to the sense of the source text. However, they consider imitations as a viable category of translation. It is the degree of freedom, or departure from the original, that differentiates a…

  3. Imitation, Objects, Tools, and the Rudiments of Language in Human Ontogeny

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, A. N.

    2013-01-01

    Human beings are imitative generalists. We can immediately imitate a wide range of behaviors with great facility, whether they be vocal maneuvers, body postures, or actions on objects. The ontogeny of this skill has been an enduring question in developmental psychology. Classical theory holds that the ability to imitate facial gestures is a milestone that is passed at about one year. Before this time infants are thought to lack the perceptual-cognitive sophistication necessary to match a gesture they can see with one they cannot see themselves perform. A second developmental milestone is the capacity for deferred imitation, i.e. imitation of an absent model. This is said to emerge at about 18 months, in close synchrony with other higher-order activities such as object permanence and tool use, as part of a general cognitive shift from a purely sensory-motor level of functioning to one that allows language. Research suggests that the imitative capacity of young infants has been underestimated. Human infants are capable of imitating facial gestures at birth, with infants less than one day old manifesting this skill. Moreover recent experiments have established deferred imitation well before the predicted age of 18 months. Studies discussed here show that 9-month-olds can duplicate acts after a delay of 24 hours, and that 14-month-olds can retain and duplicate as many as five actions over a 1-week delay. These new findings re-raise questions about the relation between nonverbal cognitive development and language development: What aspects, if any, of these two domains are linked? A hypothesis is delineated that predicts certain very specific relations between particular cognitive and semantic achievements during the one-word stage, and data are reported supporting this hypothesis. Specifically, relations are reported between: (a) the development of object permanence and the use of words encoding disappearance, (b) means-ends understanding (as manifest in tool use) and

  4. Associations between United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) and Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) scores.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonald, Furman S; Zeger, Scott L; Kolars, Joseph C

    2008-07-01

    Little is known about the associations of previous standardized examination scores with scores on subsequent standardized examinations used to assess medical knowledge in internal medicine residencies. To examine associations of previous standardized test scores on subsequent standardized test scores. Retrospective cohort study. One hundred ninety-five internal medicine residents. Bivariate associations of United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Steps and Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) scores were determined. Random effects analysis adjusting for repeated administrations of the IM-ITE and other variables known or hypothesized to affect IM-ITE score allowed for discrimination of associations of individual USMLE Step scores on IM-ITE scores. In bivariate associations, USMLE scores explained 17% to 27% of the variance in IME-ITE scores, and previous IM-ITE scores explained 66% of the variance in subsequent IM-ITE scores. Regression coefficients (95% CI) for adjusted associations of each USMLE Step with IM-ITE scores were USMLE-1 0.19 (0.12, 0.27), USMLE-2 0.23 (0.17, 0.30), and USMLE-3 0.19 (0.09, 0.29). No single USMLE Step is more strongly associated with IM-ITE scores than the others. Because previous IM-ITE scores are strongly associated with subsequent IM-ITE scores, appropriate modeling, such as random effects methods, should be used to account for previous IM-ITE administrations in studies for which IM-ITE score is an outcome.

  5. Rational over-imitation: Preschoolers consider material costs and copy causally irrelevant actions selectively.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keupp, Stefanie; Bancken, Christin; Schillmöller, Jelka; Rakoczy, Hannes; Behne, Tanya

    2016-02-01

    Children's strong tendency to over-imitate - i.e., to reproduce causally irrelevant actions - presents a well-documented, yet puzzling, phenomenon. On first sight this instrumentally inefficient behavior seems maladaptive and different accounts have been put forward to explain it. Causal accounts claim that children are misled by an adult's demonstration, mistake the superfluous actions as causally necessary, and therefore imitate them. Other accounts emphasize cognitive-motivational aspects underlying over-imitation, e.g. social motivations to affiliate with the model, or to adhere to normative conventions. Since all accounts predict the occurrence of over-imitation under typical conditions, different parameters and circumstances have to be considered to distinguish between them. Thus, we investigated children's over-imitation and their spontaneous verbal reactions to a puppet's behavior, in contexts in which a causally irrelevant action either led to the destruction of a valuable object belonging to the experimenter, or not. In addition, children saw the full action sequence being demonstrated either with an instrumental or a conventional focus. Causal accounts predict no flexibility across these contexts, because over-imitation is said to occur automatically. Normative accounts claim that different normative considerations affect children's behavior and action parsing, and therefore predict different response patterns across conditions. We found that over-imitation was less frequent in costly and instrumental conditions. Children criticized the puppet for omitting irrelevant actions more often in the non-costly condition, but criticized her more often for performing irrelevant actions in the costly condition, often expressing their moral concern. The results support the rational normative action interpretation account of over-imitation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. The Role of Elicited Verbal Imitation in Toddlers' Word Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodges, Rosemary; Munro, Natalie; Baker, Elise; McGregor, Karla; Docking, Kimberley; Arciuli, Joanne

    2016-01-01

    This study is about the role of elicited verbal imitation in toddler word learning. Forty-eight toddlers were taught eight nonwords linked to referents. During training, they were asked to imitate the nonwords. Naming of the referents was tested at three intervals (one minute later [uncued], five minutes, and 1-7 days later [cued]) and recognition…

  7. Neonatal imitation and an epigenetic account of mirror neuron development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, Elizabeth A; Fox, Nathan A; Tramacere, Antonella; Ferrari, Pier F

    2014-04-01

    Neonatal imitation should not exclusively be considered at the population-level; instead, we propose that inconsistent findings regarding its occurrence result from important individual differences in imitative responses. We also highlight what we consider to be a false dichotomy of genetic versus learning accounts of the development of mirror neurons, and instead suggest a more parsimonious epigenetic perspective.

  8. Direct and octave-shifted pitch matching during nonword imitations in men, women, and children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peter, Beate; Foster, Bronsyn; Haas, Heather; Middleton, Kyle; McKibben, Kiersten

    2015-03-01

    To evaluate whether children, women, and men match the speaker's fundamental frequency (F0) during nonword imitation directly when the target F0 is within the responders' vocal ranges and at octave-shifted levels when the target is outside their vocal ranges, and to evaluate the role of a history of speech sound disorder (SSD) in the adult participants. Observational. Nonword sets spoken by a man and a woman were imitated by 14 men, 21 women, and 19 children. Approximately half of the adults and two-thirds of the children had a history of SSD. F0 in the imitations was compared with that in the targets and in the participants' nonimitated control word productions. When the target F0 was within the responders' vocal ranges, the imitations approximated the target F0. Men imitating a woman's voice approximated F0 levels one octave below the target F0. Children imitating a man's voice approximated F0 levels one octave above the target F0. Women imitating a man's voice approximated the target F0 at a ratio of 1.5 known as the perfect fifth in music. A history of SSD did not influence the results. This study replicates previous findings showing that target F0 was a salient aspect of the stimuli that was imitated along with the targets' segmental and prosodic components without explicit prompting. It is the first to show F0 convergence not only directly but also at relevant target/imitation intervals including the octave interval. Copyright © 2015 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Task-dependent and distinct roles of the temporoparietal junction and inferior frontal cortex in the control of imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hogeveen, Jeremy; Obhi, Sukhvinder S; Banissy, Michael J; Santiesteban, Idalmis; Press, Clare; Catmur, Caroline; Bird, Geoffrey

    2015-07-01

    The control of neurological networks supporting social cognition is crucially important for social interaction. In particular, the control of imitation is directly linked to interaction quality, with impairments associated with disorders characterized by social difficulties. Previous work suggests inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) are involved in controlling imitation, but the functional roles of these areas remain unclear. Here, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was used to enhance cortical excitability at IFC and the TPJ prior to the completion of three tasks: (i) a naturalistic social interaction during which increased imitation is known to improve rapport, (ii) a choice reaction time task in which imitation needs to be inhibited for successful performance and (iii) a non-imitative control task. Relative to sham stimulation, stimulating IFC improved the context-dependent control of imitation-participants imitated more during the social interaction and less during the imitation inhibition task. In contrast, stimulating the TPJ reduced imitation in the inhibition task without affecting imitation during social interaction. Neither stimulation site affected the non-imitative control task. These data support a model in which IFC modulates imitation directly according to task demands, whereas TPJ controls task-appropriate shifts in attention toward representation of the self or the other, indirectly impacting upon imitation. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press.

  10. Relations between 18-month-olds' gaze pattern and target action performance: a deferred imitation study with eye tracking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Óturai, Gabriella; Kolling, Thorsten; Knopf, Monika

    2013-12-01

    Deferred imitation studies are used to assess infants' declarative memory performance. These studies have found that deferred imitation performance improves with age, which is usually attributed to advancing memory capabilities. Imitation studies, however, are also used to assess infants' action understanding. In this second research program it has been observed that infants around the age of one year imitate selectively, i.e., they imitate certain kinds of target actions and omit others. In contrast to this, two-year-olds usually imitate the model's exact actions. 18-month-olds imitate more exactly than one-year-olds, but more selectively than two-year-olds, a fact which makes this age group especially interesting, since the processes underlying selective vs. exact imitation are largely debated. The question, for example, if selective attention to certain kinds of target actions accounts for preferential imitation of these actions in young infants is still open. Additionally, relations between memory capabilities and selective imitation processes, as well as their role in shaping 18-month-olds' neither completely selective, nor completely exact imitation have not been thoroughly investigated yet. The present study, therefore, assessed 18-month-olds' gaze toward two types of actions (functional vs. arbitrary target actions) and the model's face during target action demonstration, as well as infants' deferred imitation performance. Although infants' fixation times to functional target actions were not longer than to arbitrary target actions, they imitated the functional target actions more frequently than the arbitrary ones. This suggests that selective imitation does not rely on selective gaze toward functional target actions during the demonstration phase. In addition, a post hoc analysis of interindividual differences suggested that infants' attention to the model's social-communicative cues might play an important role in exact imitation, meaning the imitation

  11. Imitation, mirror neurons and autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, J H; Whiten, A; Suddendorf, T; Perrett, D I

    2001-06-01

    Various deficits in the cognitive functioning of people with autism have been documented in recent years but these provide only partial explanations for the condition. We focus instead on an imitative disturbance involving difficulties both in copying actions and in inhibiting more stereotyped mimicking, such as echolalia. A candidate for the neural basis of this disturbance may be found in a recently discovered class of neurons in frontal cortex, 'mirror neurons' (MNs). These neurons show activity in relation both to specific actions performed by self and matching actions performed by others, providing a potential bridge between minds. MN systems exist in primates without imitative and 'theory of mind' abilities and we suggest that in order for them to have become utilized to perform social cognitive functions, sophisticated cortical neuronal systems have evolved in which MNs function as key elements. Early developmental failures of MN systems are likely to result in a consequent cascade of developmental impairments characterised by the clinical syndrome of autism.

  12. Are you a good mimic? Neuro-acoustic signatures for speech imitation ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susanne Maria Reiterer

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available We investigated individual differences in speech imitation ability in late bilinguals using a neuro-acoustic approach. 138 German-English bilinguals matched on various behavioral measures were tested for speech imitation ability in a foreign language, Hindi, and categorised into high and low ability groups. Brain activations and speech recordings were obtained from 26 participants from the two extreme groups as they performed a functional neuroimaging experiment which required them to imitate sentences in three conditions: (A German, (B English and (C German with fake English accent. We used recently developed novel acoustic analysis, namely the ‘articulation space’ as a metric to compare speech imitation abilities of the two groups. Across all three conditions, direct comparisons between the two groups, revealed brain activations (FWE corrected, p< 0.05 that were more widespread with significantly higher peak activity in the left supramarginal gyrus and postcentral areas for the low ability group. The high ability group, on the other hand showed significantly larger articulation space in all three conditions. In addition, articulation space also correlated positively with imitation ability (Pearson’s r=0.7, p<0.01. Our results suggest that an expanded articulation space for high ability individuals allows access to a larger repertoire of sounds, thereby providing skilled imitators greater flexibility in pronunciation and language learning.

  13. Effects of reputational sanctions on the competitive imitation of design innovations

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gemser, G.; Wijnberg, N.M.

    2001-01-01

    This study examines whether and under what conditions reputational sanctions are a strong deterrent to imitative firm behaviour. Results indicate that reputational sanctions can be an effective barrier to imitation, in particular when firms perceive a reputation for innovation to be a factor in

  14. Imitation and "Theory of Mind" Competencies in Discrimination of Autism from Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perra, Oliver; Williams, Justin H. G.; Whiten, Andrew; Fraser, Lesley; Benzie, Helen; Perrett, David I.

    2008-01-01

    Several studies have reported imitative deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it is still debated if imitative deficits are specific to ASD or shared with clinical groups with similar mental impairment and motor difficulties. We investigated whether imitative tasks can be used to discriminate ASD children from typically developing…

  15. Spatial affects and imitations in OWS and Distortion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Samson, Kristine

    the notions of affect (Thrift 2008, Ash & Amin 2002, Anderson & Holden 2008) and imitation (Tarde 1903), the paper will discuss recent urban crowd movements. OWS has spread a global social activist movement using affective bodily means of communication, whereas Distortion is a cultural street festival taking...... manner. For instance, both crowds do not merely gather and organize in terms of verbal communication, rather they organize virally, visually and through bodily affects and imitation. In that sense they appropriate urban space and its architectural design ”like viruses that hop between people, thereby...

  16. Memory and representation in young children with Down syndrome: Exploring deferred imitation and object permanence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rast, Mechthild; Meltzoff, Andrew N

    1995-01-01

    Deferred imitation and object permanence (OP) were tested in 48 young children with Down syndrome (DS), ranging from 20 to 43 months of age. Deferred imitation and high-level OP (invisible displacements) have long been held to be synchronous developments during sensory-motor "Stage 6" (18-24 months of age in unimpaired children). The results of the current study demonstrate deferred imitation in young children with DS, showing they can learn novel behaviors from observation and retain multiple models in memory. This is the first demonstration of deferred imitation in young children with DS. The average OP level passed in this sample was A-not-B, a task passed at 8-12 months of age in normally developing infants. Analyses showed that individual children who failed high-level OP (invisible displacements) could still perform deferred imitation. This indicates that deferred imitation and OP invisible displacements are not synchronous developments in children with DS. This asynchrony is compatible with new data from unimpaired children suggesting that deferred imitation and high-level OP entail separate and distinctive kinds of memory and representation.

  17. Video-based intervention for children with autism: towards improved assessment of pre-requisite imitation skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rayner, Christopher

    2015-04-01

    To explore the relationship between responses to imitation assessment and video-based intervention (VBI) in children with autism. Interview- and observation-based imitation assessments were conducted for five boys with autism prior to VBI across three studies. In two of the three studies, the boys' imitative responses to videos with an animated model and a human model were also compared. Participants who were assessed to have strong imitation skills were also those who responded more positively to VBI. No clear differences were reported in the boys' responses to the equivalent videos with the animated model and the human model. The level of imitation skills required for successful VBI is relative to the target behaviour. Revision of existing imitation assessment measures, as well as development and validation of more comprehensive measures is warranted for use in conjunction with VBI.

  18. Phonetic Imitation from an Individual-Difference Perspective: Subjective Attitude, Personality and “Autistic” Traits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Alan C. L.; Abrego-Collier, Carissa; Sonderegger, Morgan

    2013-01-01

    Numerous studies have documented the phenomenon of phonetic imitation: the process by which the production patterns of an individual become more similar on some phonetic or acoustic dimension to those of her interlocutor. Though social factors have been suggested as a motivator for imitation, few studies has established a tight connection between language-external factors and a speaker’s likelihood to imitate. The present study investigated the phenomenon of phonetic imitation using a within-subject design embedded in an individual-differences framework. Participants were administered a phonetic imitation task, which included two speech production tasks separated by a perceptual learning task, and a battery of measures assessing traits associated with Autism-Spectrum Condition, working memory, and personality. To examine the effects of subjective attitude on phonetic imitation, participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions, where the perceived sexual orientation of the narrator (homosexual vs. heterosexual) and the outcome (positive vs. negative) of the story depicted in the exposure materials differed. The extent of phonetic imitation by an individual is significantly modulated by the story outcome, as well as by the participant’s subjective attitude toward the model talker, the participant’s personality trait of openness and the autistic-like trait associated with attention switching. PMID:24098665

  19. GENERAL GUIDELINES CONCERNING THE RELATION INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BUSINESS VERSUS HUMAN RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Speriusi-Vlad Alin

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Today, the intellectual property protection is no longer an absolute social and legal that justifies adoption of any measures necessary to protect it. Initially seen as the prerequisite for sustainable development, implementation of new technologies, and encouragement of international trade, the intellectual property, especially prior to ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement international trial implementation, and also thereafter, was increasingly identified as a source of violation of fundamental rights and civil liberties, i.e. the right to protection of personal data, the right to privacy, freedom to send and receive information freedom of information, freedom to contract, and freedom to carry out economic activities (freedom of commerce. As far as international trade transactions have often a component of intellectual property that requires to be protected, it is necessary to identify the landmarks, the rules establishing de facto limits in order to protect the intellectual property without risk of infringement of fundamental rights and civil liberties of other persons, in particular users or potential users of goods and services incorporating intellectual property. The best guidelines in this regard may be provided by the CJEU (Court of Justice of the European Union case-law both due to its reasoning underlying the decision of the Parliament to reject ACTA ratification and the fact that the case-law of this Court, especially the most recent one, is highly complex and nuanced, not denying in any way the importance of intellectual property, and identifying certain cases where their primacy persist and whose analysis leads to laying down some general rules in the field.

  20. Own and Others' Prior Experiences Influence Children's Imitation of Causal Acts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, Rebecca A; Meltzoff, Andrew N

    2011-07-01

    Young children learn from others' examples, and they do so selectively. We examine whether the efficacy of prior experiences influences children's imitation. Thirty-six-month-olds had initial experience on a causal learning task either by performing the task themselves or by watching an adult perform it. The nature of the experience was manipulated such that the actor had either an easy or a difficult experience completing the task. Next, a second adult demonstrated an innovative technique for completing it. Children who had a difficult first-person experience, and those who had witnessed another person having difficulty, were significantly more likely to adopt and imitate the adult's innovation than those who had or witnessed an easy experience. Children who observed another were also more likely to imitate than were those who had the initial experience themselves. Imitation is influenced by prior experience, both when it is obtained through one's own hands-on motor manipulation and when it derives from observing the acts of others.

  1. Production of Imitated fish and Keeping their Quality by gamma irradiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ali, H.E.S.

    2004-01-01

    this investigation aims to the possibility of utilizing the bolti fish which obtained from high dam lake specially large size and under utilized for manufacturing imitated shellfish product and compared with natural shell fish and also, aims to study the possibility of gamma irradiation at doses 1,3,and 5 kGy for keeping the quality of imitated fish product during cold storage. therefore whole fish bolti were obtained from Misr Aswan company. the whole fish were dressed and minced. the obtained minced fish was washed three times with sodium bicarbonate (0.2%), distilled water and sodium chloride solution (0.15%). the cryoprotectant ingredient (sorbitol, sucrose and tripoli phosphate) was added to washed minced fish for producing intermediate product (surimi). the final product (imitated fish) was manufactured by adding egg white, starch, corn oil, natural color and flavor of shrimp and crab according to special formula for shrimp and crab. the imitated shrimp sample were irradiated at doses 1,3 and 5 kGy and sold stored

  2. Contingent Imitation Increases Verbal Interaction in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishizuka, Yuka; Yamamoto, Jun-ichi

    2016-01-01

    Several studies have suggested that contingent adult imitation increase nonverbal communication, such as attention and proximity to adults, in children with autism spectrum disorders. However, few studies have shown the effect of contingent imitation on verbal communication. This study examined whether children with autism were able to promote…

  3. The Ghost Condition: Imitation Versus Emulation in Young Children's Observational Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Doreen E.; Russell, James

    2004-01-01

    Although observational learning by children may occur through imitating a modeler's actions, it can also occur through learning about an object's dynamic affordances- a process that M. Tomasello (1996) calls "emulation." The relative contributions of imitation and emulation within observational learning were examined in a study with 14- to…

  4. The Impact of Object and Gesture Imitation Training on Language Use in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingersoll, Brooke; Lalonde, Katherine

    2010-01-01

    Purpose: "Reciprocal imitation training" (RIT) is a naturalistic behavioral intervention that teaches imitation to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) within a social-communicative context. RIT has been shown to be effective at teaching spontaneous, generalized object and gesture imitation. In addition, improvements in imitation are…

  5. Stationary plasma source of heavy ions for imitating research at the separator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuferov, V.B.; Sharyj, S.V.; Seroshtanov, V.A.

    2008-01-01

    The imitation gas mix choice for experimenting on the demonstration imitation separator have been grounded. The construction of plasma source is changed. The research of operating conditions and contrastive analysis of received characteristics have been carry out

  6. Experience of developing the imitators of the fuel element for the WWER reactors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balashov, S.M.; Boltenko, Eh.A.; Vinogradov, V.A.

    1998-01-01

    Peculiarities of designs of fuel elements imitators for the WWER-type reactors of nominal capacity and with single-ended current feed positioning are considered. The data on the filler heat conductivity and the results of tests and application of the fuel elements imitators at various testing facilities are presented. The possibility of equipping one of the non operating WWER reactors with the fuel element imitators for conduct of large-scale experiment is indicated

  7. Intellectual Capital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snyder, Herbert W.; Pierce, Jennifer Burek

    2002-01-01

    This review focuses on intellectual capital and its relationship to information professionals. Discusses asset recognition; national practices and the acceptance of intellectual capital; definitions of intellectual capital; measuring intellectual capital, including multiple and single variable measures; managing intellectual capital; and knowledge…

  8. Imitation Pedagogy and Ethical Indoctrination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erdmann, Edward

    1993-01-01

    Examines the claim of 16th-century English humanist educators that they prepared their students for civic life by providing not only technical training in language use but ethical and moral training for negotiating basic life situations. Attempts to determine what might have been the role of imitation exercises informing students' ethical…

  9. Intellectual property

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    MSc. Shpresa Ibrahimi

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Montenue, a distinct French scholar of intellectual property, has suggested that IP is a “tool which surprisingly helps a lot”, and this definition on science, arts, culture, since the 16th century. Now, what would be the definition of intellectual property for the 21st century? Apparently not a “strange” tool, but a necessary tool, primary for enriching human knowledge, and for the new world order, especially in the global market sphere. Intellectual property is an integral part of international trade, and its importance keeps increasing, since effective use of knowledge is increasingly influencing the economic prosperity of peoples. One may say that there is little originality in the creative sphere. Naturally, this originality can only be reflected by individuality and human identity in intellectual creativity The author rights in the Kosovo legislation is a novelty, a necessity of developing a creative environment in the fields of science, arts and industrial property. First and foremost, the individual benefit, which is secured by the author as the creator of the work, is a moral and material right. Secondly, there is a need for harmonization, not only of values for the creator, but also for the development of science, culture, increased competitive advantage, and the public sphere, as a benefit for the public health and security, and the fiscal policy. The deficiency one must record is with the Office for Copy Rights, which is to play a strong role in implementing and protecting copy rights and other related rights by licensing collective management agencies, imposing administrative fines, awareness raising, provision of information, and other capacity building and educative measures. Naturally, the enactment of good legislation is a system without any meaning or sense if not associated with the court practice. Any establishment of a legal system not pursued with enforcement mechanisms remains only in legal frameworks.

  10. Re-examination of Oostenbroek et al. (2016): evidence for neonatal imitation of tongue protrusion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N; Murray, Lynne; Simpson, Elizabeth; Heimann, Mikael; Nagy, Emese; Nadel, Jacqueline; Pedersen, Eric J; Brooks, Rechele; Messinger, Daniel S; Pascalis, Leonardo De; Subiaul, Francys; Paukner, Annika; Ferrari, Pier F

    2017-09-27

    The meaning, mechanism, and function of imitation in early infancy have been actively discussed since Meltzoff and Moore's (1977) report of facial and manual imitation by human neonates. Oostenbroek et al. (2016) claim to challenge the existence of early imitation and to counter all interpretations so far offered. Such claims, if true, would have implications for theories of social-cognitive development. Here we identify 11 flaws in Oostenbroek et al.'s experimental design that biased the results toward null effects. We requested and obtained the authors' raw data. Contrary to the authors' conclusions, new analyses reveal significant tongue-protrusion imitation at all four ages tested (1, 3, 6, and 9 weeks old). We explain how the authors missed this pattern and offer five recommendations for designing future experiments. Infant imitation raises fundamental issues about action representation, social learning, and brain-behavior relations. The debate about the origins and development of imitation reflects its importance to theories of developmental science. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  11. Do as I … Did! Long-term memory of imitative actions in dogs (Canis familiaris).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fugazza, Claudia; Pogány, Ákos; Miklósi, Ádám

    2016-03-01

    This study demonstrates long-term declarative memory of imitative actions in a non-human animal species. We tested 12 pet dogs for their ability to imitate human actions after retention intervals ranging from 1 to 24 h. For comparison, another 12 dogs were tested for the same actions without delay between demonstration and recall. Our test consisted of a modified version of the Do as I Do paradigm, combined with the two-action procedure to control for non-imitative processes. Imitative performance of dogs remained consistently high independent of increasing retention intervals, supporting the idea that dogs are able to retain mental representations of human actions for an extended period of time. The ability to imitate after such delays supports the use of long-term declarative memory.

  12. Harnessing Intellectual Property for Development: Some Thoughts ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Harnessing Intellectual Property for Development: Some Thoughts on an Appropriate ... This will be achieved through the creation of an IP system that provides ... the good being protected and the manner in which the creative process unfolds.

  13. The mirror neuron system as revealed through neonatal imitation: presence from birth, predictive power and evidence of plasticity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simpson, Elizabeth A; Murray, Lynne; Paukner, Annika; Ferrari, Pier F

    2014-01-01

    There is strong evidence that neonates imitate previously unseen behaviours. These behaviours are predominantly used in social interactions, demonstrating neonates' ability and motivation to engage with others. Research on neonatal imitation can provide a wealth of information about the early mirror neuron system (MNS), namely its functional characteristics, its plasticity from birth and its relation to skills later in development. Although numerous studies document the existence of neonatal imitation in the laboratory, little is known about its natural occurrence during parent-infant interactions and its plasticity as a consequence of experience. We review these critical aspects of imitation, which we argue are necessary for understanding the early action-perception system. We address common criticisms and misunderstandings about neonatal imitation and discuss methodological differences among studies. Recent work reveals that individual differences in neonatal imitation positively correlate with later social, cognitive and motor development. We propose that such variation in neonatal imitation could reflect important individual differences of the MNS. Although postnatal experience is not necessary for imitation, we present evidence that neonatal imitation is influenced by experience in the first week of life.

  14. Relationship between motor, imitation and, early social communication skills in children with autism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    hooshang Dadgar

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Background: The aim of this study was investigation the association of motor skills and imitation ability with early social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD.Method: Twenty children with ASD aged 3-5 years (M=4.05, SD=0.55 were tested with Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2, the Motor Imitation Scale (MIS and, the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS.Results: There was significant and strong correlation between TGMD total score and imitation total score(r =.776; p <0.001.However, the relationship between MIS subscales and TGMD-2 locomotor subtest scores was not significant (P>0.05. A significant correlation was found between MIS and TGMD total scores with ESCS subscales except social interaction and responding to behavioral requests subscales.Conclusion: The results support previous studies that indicated both imitation ability and motor function have association with some early social communication skills. However, these results showed the needs for clinicians to target imitation and motor skills in early intervention programs in ASD.

  15. Vocal Imitation in Parrots Allows Addressing of Specific Individuals in a Dynamic Communication Network

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Balsby, T.J.S.; Momberg, J.V.; Dabelsteen, T.

    2012-01-01

    €“fronted conures live in fission-fusion flocks where they encounter many different individuals every day, and it is possible that their vocal imitation ability is a flexible means to address a specific individual within a flock. We tested this via playback to short-term captive wild conures. Test birds were placed...... together in pairs in outdoor aviaries to form simple flocks. To simulate imitation of a specific individual these pairs received playback of contact calls that primarily imitate one of the two birds. Overall, individuals that received simulated vocal imitations of its calls responded more frequently...... and faster than the other individual. This suggests that orange-fronted conures can use imitations of contact calls to address specific individuals of a flock. In the discussion we argue that the fission-fusion flock dynamics of many parrot species has been an important factor in evolving conures´ and other...

  16. Infant Imitation After a 1-Week Delay: Long-Term Memory for Novel Acts and Multiple Stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N

    1988-07-01

    Deferred imitation after a 1-week delay was examined in 14-month-old infants. Six actions, each using a different object, were demonstrated to each infant. One of the six actions was a novel behavior that had a zero probability of occurrence in spontaneous play. In the imitation condition, infants observed the demonstration but were not allowed to touch the objects, thus preventing any immediate imitation. After the 1-week delay, infants returned to the laboratory and their imitation of the adult's previous actions was scored. Infants in the imitation condition produced significantly more of the target actions than infants in control groups who were not exposed to the modeling; there was also strong evidence for the imitation of the novel act. From a cognitive perspective deferred imitation provides a means of assessing recall memory and representation in children. From a social-developmental viewpoint the findings illustrate that the behavioral repertoire of infants and their knowledge about objects can expand as a result of seeing the actions of others.

  17. Propriedade Intelectual: proteção e gestão estratégica do conhecimento Intellectual Property: protection and management of knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elza Fernandes Araújo

    2010-07-01

    Full Text Available Além de garantir o direito de propriedade e exclusividade ao titular da criação intelectual, a proteção da propriedade intelectual permite o avanço da inovação e a divulgação dos conhecimentos, equilibrando os interesses do titular e acarretando benefícios para a sociedade. Neste sentido, a Propriedade Intelectual é estratégica no cenário globalizado e competitivo, no qual o conhecimento e a capacidade de inovar têm papel importante para o desenvolvimento de um país. Assim, visando à gestão da propriedade intelectual, com foco na inovação, faz-se necessário incentivar a cooperação entre a ICT e a empresa, para a realização de pesquisas e desenvolvimento tecnológico conjuntos, bem como dinamizar os processos de licenciamento e transferência de tecnologia. Nesse sentido, as ICTs com o auxílio dos NITs devem adotar políticas de gestão da Propriedade Intelectual, elaborando instrumentos jurídicos adequando o ambiente acadêmico ao contexto regulatório. Cabe às ICTs, por meio do NITs, estimularem a cultura da proteção da propriedade intelectual gerada na Instituição, podendo as mesmas atuarem em rede, aprimorando e avançando na gestão da propriedade intelectual. A Propriedade Intelectual é um fator estratégico para a inovação científica e tecnológica e, no Brasil, tem-se buscado a convergência dos setores público e empresarial, com o propósito de contribuir para o desenvolvimento científico, tecnológico e social do país, por meio de um processo contínuo com ações conjuntas e coordenadas.Besides ensuring property and exclusive rights to holders of intellectual creation, intellectual property protection allows innovation and spread of knowledge, balancing the interests of the holder and the benefits to society. In this sense, Intellectual Property is strategic in the globalized and competitive world scenario, in which knowledge and innovation capacity play an important role in the development of a

  18. Neural activation differences in amputees during imitation of intact versus amputee movements

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William F Cusack

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The mirror neuron system has been attributed with increased activation in motor-related cortical areas upon viewing of another’s actions. Recent work suggests that limb movements that are similar and dissimilar in appearance to that of the viewer equivalently activate the mirror neuron system. It is unclear if this result can be observed in the action encoding areas in amputees who use prosthetic devices. Intact subjects and upper extremity amputee prosthesis users were recruited to view video demonstrations of tools being used by an intact actor and a prosthetic device user. All subjects were asked to pantomime the movements seen in the video while recording electroencephalography. Intact subjects showed equivalent left parietofrontal activity during imitation after watching the intact or prosthetic arm. Likewise, when prosthesis users imitated prosthesis demonstrations, typical left parietofrontal activation was observed during planning. When prosthesis users imitated intact actors, a new pattern was revealed which showed greater bilateral parietal and occipital activity during movement planning (p<0.001. This change may be required for prosthesis users to imitate movements in which the limb states between the observed and the observer do not match. The finding that prosthesis users imitating other prosthesis users showed typical left parietofrontal activation suggests that these subjects engage normal planning related activity when they are able to imitate a limb matching their own. This result has significant implications on rehabilitation, as standard therapy involves training with an intact occupational therapist, which could necessitate atypical planning mechanisms in amputees when learning to use their prosthesis.

  19. A Mozart is not a Pavarotti: singers outperform instrumentalists on foreign accent imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christiner, Markus; Reiterer, Susanne Maria

    2015-01-01

    Recent findings have shown that people with higher musical aptitude were also better in oral language imitation tasks. However, whether singing capacity and instrument playing contribute differently to the imitation of speech has been ignored so far. Research has just recently started to understand that instrumentalists develop quite distinct skills when compared to vocalists. In the same vein the role of the vocal motor system in language acquisition processes has poorly been investigated as most investigations (neurobiological and behavioral) favor to examine speech perception. We set out to test whether the vocal motor system can influence an ability to learn, produce and perceive new languages by contrasting instrumentalists and vocalists. Therefore, we investigated 96 participants, 27 instrumentalists, 33 vocalists and 36 non-musicians/non-singers. They were tested for their abilities to imitate foreign speech: unknown language (Hindi), second language (English) and their musical aptitude. Results revealed that both instrumentalists and vocalists have a higher ability to imitate unintelligible speech and foreign accents than non-musicians/non-singers. Within the musician group, vocalists outperformed instrumentalists significantly. First, adaptive plasticity for speech imitation is not reliant on audition alone but also on vocal-motor induced processes. Second, vocal flexibility of singers goes together with higher speech imitation aptitude. Third, vocal motor training, as of singers, may speed up foreign language acquisition processes.

  20. Screening suspected counterfeit Viagra and imitations of Viagra with near-infrared spectroscopy.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vredenbregt, M J; Blok-Tip, L; Hoogerbrugge, Ronald; Barends, D M; Kaste, D de

    2006-01-01

    We describe a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) method for fast-screening Viagra tablets, counterfeit Viagra tablets, and imitations of Viagra. The method can (1) check the homogeneity of a batch; (2) distinguish counterfeits and imitations from authentic Viagra; (3) screen for the presence of

  1. What drives young children to over-imitate? Investigating the effects of age, context, action type, and transitivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clay, Zanna; Over, Harriet; Tennie, Claudio

    2018-02-01

    Imitation underlies many traits thought to characterize our species, which includes the transmission and acquisition of language, material culture, norms, rituals, and conventions. From early childhood, humans show an intriguing willingness to imitate behaviors, even those that have no obvious function. This phenomenon, known as "over-imitation," is thought to explain some of the key differences between human cultures as compared with those of nonhuman animals. Here, we used a single integrative paradigm to simultaneously investigate several key factors proposed to shape children's over-imitation: age, context, transitivity, and action type. We compared typically developing children aged 4-6years in a task involving actions verbally framed as being instrumental, normative, or communicative in function. Within these contexts, we explored whether children were more likely to over-imitate transitive versus intransitive actions and manual versus body part actions. Results showed an interaction between age and context; as children got older, they were more likely to imitate within a normative context, whereas younger children were more likely to imitate in instrumental contexts. Younger children were more likely to imitate transitive actions (actions on objects) than intransitive actions compared with older children. Our results show that children are highly sensitive to even minimal cues to perceived context and flexibly adapt their imitation accordingly. As they get older, children's imitation appears to become less object bound, less focused on instrumental outcomes, and more sensitive to normative cues. This shift is consistent with the proposal that over-imitation becomes increasingly social in its function as children move through childhood and beyond. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. Deferred Imitation in 9-Month-Olds: How Do Model and Task Characteristics Matter across Cultures?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teiser, Johanna; Lamm, Bettina; Böning, Mirjam; Graf, Frauke; Gudi, Helene; Goertz, Claudia; Fassbender, Ina; Freitag, Claudia; Spangler, Sibylle; Teubert, Manuel; Lohaus, Arnold; Schwarzer, Gudrun; Knopf, Monika; Keller, Heidi

    2014-01-01

    Studies investigating imitation are usually conducted with adult models in Western contexts; therefore, the influence of cultural context and the model's age on infants' imitation is largely unknown. This study assessed deferred imitation in 9-month-old infants from the German middle-class ("N" = 44) and the ethnic group of Nso in rural…

  3. Brief Report: Effect of a Focused Imitation Intervention on Social Functioning in Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ingersoll, Brooke

    2012-01-01

    Imitation is an early skill thought to play a role in social development, leading some to suggest that teaching imitation to children with autism should lead to improvements in social functioning. This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a focused imitation intervention on initiation of joint attention and…

  4. A Parent-Implemented Intervention to Improve Imitation Skills by Children with Autism: A Pilot Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaghlawan, Hasan Y.; Ostrosky, Michaelene M.

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the effects of a modified reciprocal imitation training (RIT) on the imitation skills of children with autism. Two parents were trained and coached to use the modified RIT with their young children with autism in home settings. The modified RIT was composed of contingent imitation, descriptive…

  5. Reproductive isolation related to mimetic divergence in the poison frog Ranitomeya imitator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Twomey, Evan; Vestergaard, Jacob Schack; Summers, Kyle

    2014-01-01

    study the Peruvian poison frog Ranitomeya imitator, a species that has undergone a mimetic radiation into four distinct morphs. Using a combination of colour–pattern analysis, landscape genetics and mate-choice experiments, we show that a mimetic shift in R. imitator is associated with a narrow...

  6. The Gesture Imitation in Alzheimer's Disease Dementia and Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xudong; Jia, Shuhong; Zhou, Zhi; Hou, Chunlei; Zheng, Wenjing; Rong, Pei; Jiao, Jinsong

    2016-07-14

    Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD) has become an important health problem in the world. Visuospatial deficits are considered to be an early symptom besides memory disorder. The gesture imitation test was devised to detect ADD and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). A total of 117 patients with ADD, 118 with aMCI, and 95 normal controls were included in this study. All participants were administered our gesture imitation test, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR). Patients with ADD performed worse than normal controls on global scores and had a lower success rate on every item (p imitation test scores were positively correlated with the MMSE (r = 0.637, p imitation test is an easy, rapid tool for detecting ADD, and is suitable for the patients suspected of mild ADD and aMCI in outpatient clinics.

  7. Protecting intellectual property in space; Proceedings of the Aerospace Computer Security Conference, McLean, VA, March 20, 1985

    Science.gov (United States)

    1985-01-01

    The primary purpose of the Aerospace Computer Security Conference was to bring together people and organizations which have a common interest in protecting intellectual property generated in space. Operational concerns are discussed, taking into account security implications of the space station information system, Space Shuttle security policies and programs, potential uses of probabilistic risk assessment techniques for space station development, key considerations in contingency planning for secure space flight ground control centers, a systematic method for evaluating security requirements compliance, and security engineering of secure ground stations. Subjects related to security technologies are also explored, giving attention to processing requirements of secure C3/I and battle management systems and the development of the Gemini trusted multiple microcomputer base, the Restricted Access Processor system as a security guard designed to protect classified information, and observations on local area network security.

  8. Human Toddlers’ Attempts to Match Two Simple Behaviors Provide No Evidence for an Inherited, Dedicated Imitation Mechanism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Susan S.

    2012-01-01

    Influential theories of imitation have proposed that humans inherit a neural mechanism – an “active intermodal matching “ (AIM) mechanism or a mirror neuron system - that functions from birth to automatically match sensory input from others’ actions to motor programs for performing those same actions, and thus produces imitation. To test these proposals, 160 1- to 2½-year-old toddlers were asked to imitate two simple movements– bending the arm to make an elbow, and moving the bent elbow laterally. Both behaviors were almost certain to be in each child’s repertoire, and the lateral movement was goal-directed (used to hit a plastic cup). Thus, one or both behaviors should have been imitable by toddlers with a functioning AIM or mirror neuron system. Each child saw the two behaviors repeated 18 times, and was encouraged to imitate. Children were also asked to locate their own elbows. Almost no children below age 2 imitated either behavior. Instead, younger children gave clear evidence of a developmental progression, from reproducing only the outcome of the models’ movements (hitting the object), through trying (but failing) to reproduce the model’s arm posture and/or the arm-cup relations they had seen, to accurate imitation of arm bending by age 2 and of both movements by age 2½. Across age levels, almost all children who knew the word ‘elbow’ imitated both behaviors: very few who did not know the word imitated either behavior. The evidence is most consistent with a view of early imitation as the product of a complex system of language, cognitive, social, and motor competencies that develop in infancy. The findings do not rule out a role for an inherited neural mechanism, but they suggest that such a system would not by itself be sufficient to explain imitation at any age. PMID:23251500

  9. Human toddlers' attempts to match two simple behaviors provide no evidence for an inherited, dedicated imitation mechanism.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Susan S Jones

    Full Text Available Influential theories of imitation have proposed that humans inherit a neural mechanism - an "active intermodal matching " (AIM mechanism or a mirror neuron system - that functions from birth to automatically match sensory input from others' actions to motor programs for performing those same actions, and thus produces imitation. To test these proposals, 160 1- to 2½-year-old toddlers were asked to imitate two simple movements- bending the arm to make an elbow, and moving the bent elbow laterally. Both behaviors were almost certain to be in each child's repertoire, and the lateral movement was goal-directed (used to hit a plastic cup. Thus, one or both behaviors should have been imitable by toddlers with a functioning AIM or mirror neuron system. Each child saw the two behaviors repeated 18 times, and was encouraged to imitate. Children were also asked to locate their own elbows. Almost no children below age 2 imitated either behavior. Instead, younger children gave clear evidence of a developmental progression, from reproducing only the outcome of the models' movements (hitting the object, through trying (but failing to reproduce the model's arm posture and/or the arm-cup relations they had seen, to accurate imitation of arm bending by age 2 and of both movements by age 2½. Across age levels, almost all children who knew the word 'elbow' imitated both behaviors: very few who did not know the word imitated either behavior. The evidence is most consistent with a view of early imitation as the product of a complex system of language, cognitive, social, and motor competencies that develop in infancy. The findings do not rule out a role for an inherited neural mechanism, but they suggest that such a system would not by itself be sufficient to explain imitation at any age.

  10. [An investigation of the imitation skills in children with autism spectrum disorder and their association with receptive-expressive language development].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turan, Figen; Ökçün Akçamuş, Meral Çilem

    2013-01-01

    This study aimed to compare imitation skills in children with autism spectrum disorder, and age-matched typically developing children and children with developmental delay, as well as to examine the association between imitation skills, and receptive and expressive language development in children with autism spectrum disorder. Imitation skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (n=18), and age-matched children with developmental delay (n=15) and typically developing children (n= 16) were assessed using the Motor Imitation Scale and Imitation Battery, and the differences in mean imitation scores between the groups were examined. Receptive language and expressive language development in the children with autism spectrum disorder were assessed using the Turkish Communicative Development Inventory (TCDI), and their association with imitation scores was explored. The children with autism spectrum disorder had significantly lower imitation scores than the children with developmental delay and typically developing children; however, there wasn't a significant difference in imitation scores between the children with developmental delay and typically developing children. A significant association between imitation scores, and receptive and expressive language development was observed in the children with autism spectrum disorder. The present findings indicate that deficient imitation skills are a distinctive feature of children with autism spectrum disorder and that imitation skills play a crucial role in children's language development.

  11. Intellectual property rights related to the genetically modified glyphosate tolerant soybeans in Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, Roberta L; Lage, Celso L S; Vasconcellos, Alexandre G

    2011-06-01

    The present work analyzes the different modalities of protection of the intellectual creations in the biotechnology agricultural field. Regarding the Brazilian legislations related to the theme (the Industrial Property Law - no. 9. 279/96 and the Plant Variety Protection Law - no. 9. 456/97), and based in the international treaties signed by Brazil, the present work points to the inclusions of each of them, as well as to their interfaces using as reference the case study of glyphosate tolerant genetically modified soybean. For this case study, Monsanto's pipelines patents were searched and used to analyze the limits of patent protection in respect to others related to the Intellectual Property (IP) laws. Thus, it was possible to elucidate the complex scenario of the Intellectual Property of the glyphosate tolerant soybeans, since for the farmer it is hard to correlate the royalties payment with the IP enterprise's rights.

  12. Song and speech: examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christiner, Markus; Reiterer, Susanne M.

    2013-01-01

    In previous research on speech imitation, musicality, and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Forty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64% of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66% of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi) could be explained by working memory together with a singer's sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and auditory memory with singing fitting better into the category of “speech” on the productive level and “music” on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways. (1) Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. (2) Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. (3) The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory working memory. PMID:24319438

  13. Song and speech: examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christiner, Markus; Reiterer, Susanne M

    2013-01-01

    In previous research on speech imitation, musicality, and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Forty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64% of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66% of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi) could be explained by working memory together with a singer's sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and auditory memory with singing fitting better into the category of "speech" on the productive level and "music" on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways. (1) Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. (2) Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. (3) The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory working memory.

  14. Song and speech: examining the link between singing talent and speech imitation ability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Markus eChristiner

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available In previous research on speech imitation, musicality and an ability to sing were isolated as the strongest indicators of good pronunciation skills in foreign languages. We, therefore, wanted to take a closer look at the nature of the ability to sing, which shares a common ground with the ability to imitate speech. This study focuses on whether good singing performance predicts good speech imitation. Fourty-one singers of different levels of proficiency were selected for the study and their ability to sing, to imitate speech, their musical talent and working memory were tested. Results indicated that singing performance is a better indicator of the ability to imitate speech than the playing of a musical instrument. A multiple regression revealed that 64 % of the speech imitation score variance could be explained by working memory together with educational background and singing performance. A second multiple regression showed that 66 % of the speech imitation variance of completely unintelligible and unfamiliar language stimuli (Hindi could be explained by working memory together with a singer’s sense of rhythm and quality of voice. This supports the idea that both vocal behaviors have a common grounding in terms of vocal and motor flexibility, ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, neural orchestration and sound memory with singing fitting better into the category of "speech" on the productive level and "music" on the acoustic level. As a result, good singers benefit from vocal and motor flexibility, productively and cognitively, in three ways. 1. Motor flexibility and the ability to sing improve language and musical function. 2. Good singers retain a certain plasticity and are open to new and unusual sound combinations during adulthood both perceptually and productively. 3. The ability to sing improves the memory span of the auditory short term memory.

  15. Functional Specificity and Sex Differences in the Neural Circuits Supporting the Inhibition of Automatic Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Darda, Kohinoor M; Butler, Emily E; Ramsey, Richard

    2018-06-01

    Humans show an involuntary tendency to copy other people's actions. Although automatic imitation builds rapport and affiliation between individuals, we do not copy actions indiscriminately. Instead, copying behaviors are guided by a selection mechanism, which inhibits some actions and prioritizes others. To date, the neural underpinnings of the inhibition of automatic imitation and differences between the sexes in imitation control are not well understood. Previous studies involved small sample sizes and low statistical power, which produced mixed findings regarding the involvement of domain-general and domain-specific neural architectures. Here, we used data from Experiment 1 ( N = 28) to perform a power analysis to determine the sample size required for Experiment 2 ( N = 50; 80% power). Using independent functional localizers and an analysis pipeline that bolsters sensitivity, during imitation control we show clear engagement of the multiple-demand network (domain-general), but no sensitivity in the theory-of-mind network (domain-specific). Weaker effects were observed with regard to sex differences, suggesting that there are more similarities than differences between the sexes in terms of the neural systems engaged during imitation control. In summary, neurocognitive models of imitation require revision to reflect that the inhibition of imitation relies to a greater extent on a domain-general selection system rather than a domain-specific system that supports social cognition.

  16. Ambiguous Imitations: DIY Hijacking the ‘Danish Mother Seeking’ Stealth Marketing Campaign on YouTube

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carsten Stage

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of imitation as a key dimension of online DIY and participatory cultures on YouTube. The empirical point of departure is the viral stealth marketing YouTube video entitled 'Danish Mother Seeking', produced by the official national tourist organisation (Visit Denmark, and selected extracts of the online responses to this video. Framed by the notion of participatory culture (Jenkins 2006; Burgess & Green 2009 and the concept of imitation (Tarde 1895/1903, we analyse how marketing initiatives buy into and borrow energy from engaged networked produsers, but also how these produsers can criticise marketing initiatives by 're-imitating' them. Following this, we argue that the case represents an interesting and fascinating example of consumer re-sistance and bottom-up voices insisting on being heard, rather than a simple ex-ample of the breakdown of a brand strategy. Looking at the response videos they furthermore reveal that imitation can be a rather ambiguous social strategy as it is used both to transfer energy from the imitated object and to deconstruct it. As part of this argument we replace the classical concept of 'mimicry' (Bhabha 1994 with the notion of 'ambiguous imitation' to be able to describe online imitation as both an act of critical voicing and energy transmission.

  17. Immediate and Deferred Imitation in Fourteen- and Twenty-Four-Month-Old Infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    1985-01-01

    A laboratory procedure was developed for assessing imitation in the second year of life. Results demonstrate that 14- and 24-month-olds can imitate a simple action with an unfamiliar object, both immediately and after a 24-hour delay. Implications for research design and theory of infant memory are discussed. (RH)

  18. Imitation and communication skills development in children with pervasive developmental disorders

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea De Giacomo

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Andrea De Giacomo1, Claudia Portoghese1, Domenico Martinelli2, Isabella Fanizza1, Luciano L’Abate3, Lucia Margari11Child Neurological and Psychiatric Unit, Department of Neurological and Psychiatric sciences, University of Bari, Italy; 2Department of Biomedical science and Oncology, University of Bari, Italy; 3Department of Psychology, Georgia State University Abstract: This study evaluates the correlation between failure to develop spontaneous imitation and language skills in pervasive developmental disorders. Sixty-four children between the age of 3 and 8 years were assessed using the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R, the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS, and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS, as well as direct observation of imitation. The sample was subdivided into a verbal and a nonverbal group. Analysis of mean scores on the CARS “imitation” items and of ADI-R “spontaneous imitation” and “pointing to express interest” revealed a statistically significant difference between verbal and nonverbal groups, with more severe impairment/higher scores in the nonverbal than the verbal group. These results suggest that nonverbal children have specifically impaired imitation and pointing skills.Keywords: autism, imitation, communication, language, pointing

  19. Using the graphs models for evaluating in-core monitoring systems reliability by the method of imiting simulaton

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Golovanov, M.N.; Zyuzin, N.N.; Levin, G.L.; Chesnokov, A.N.

    1987-01-01

    An approach for estimation of reliability factors of complex reserved systems at early stages of development using the method of imitating simulation is considered. Different types of models, their merits and lacks are given. Features of in-core monitoring systems and advosability of graph model and graph theory element application for estimating reliability of such systems are shown. The results of investigation of the reliability factors of the reactor monitoring, control and core local protection subsystem are shown

  20. Intellectual Property Rights Management

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alkærsig, Lars; Beukel, Karin; Reichstein, Toke

    -identify with and which will allow companies to focus on the IP and IP Management issues most relevant to them. By doing so, the authors offer further insights as to the use of IP and IP management practices across firms. By looking at empirical data covering the population of firms, the findings not only pertain......Intellectual Property Rights Management explores how the entire toolbox of intellectual property (IP) protection and management are successfully combined and how firms generate value from IP. In particular, this book provides a framework of archetypes which firms will be able to self...... to large organization but also reflect the practices and operations that reside in SMEs. This volume also utilizes labor market and firm data to determine whether there is a definitive relationship between IP and economic performance on the firm level....

  1. Deep imitation learning for 3D navigation tasks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hussein, Ahmed; Elyan, Eyad; Gaber, Mohamed Medhat; Jayne, Chrisina

    2018-01-01

    Deep learning techniques have shown success in learning from raw high-dimensional data in various applications. While deep reinforcement learning is recently gaining popularity as a method to train intelligent agents, utilizing deep learning in imitation learning has been scarcely explored. Imitation learning can be an efficient method to teach intelligent agents by providing a set of demonstrations to learn from. However, generalizing to situations that are not represented in the demonstrations can be challenging, especially in 3D environments. In this paper, we propose a deep imitation learning method to learn navigation tasks from demonstrations in a 3D environment. The supervised policy is refined using active learning in order to generalize to unseen situations. This approach is compared to two popular deep reinforcement learning techniques: deep-Q-networks and Asynchronous actor-critic (A3C). The proposed method as well as the reinforcement learning methods employ deep convolutional neural networks and learn directly from raw visual input. Methods for combining learning from demonstrations and experience are also investigated. This combination aims to join the generalization ability of learning by experience with the efficiency of learning by imitation. The proposed methods are evaluated on 4 navigation tasks in a 3D simulated environment. Navigation tasks are a typical problem that is relevant to many real applications. They pose the challenge of requiring demonstrations of long trajectories to reach the target and only providing delayed rewards (usually terminal) to the agent. The experiments show that the proposed method can successfully learn navigation tasks from raw visual input while learning from experience methods fail to learn an effective policy. Moreover, it is shown that active learning can significantly improve the performance of the initially learned policy using a small number of active samples.

  2. Imitation as faithful copying of a novel technique in marmoset monkeys.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bernhard Voelkl

    Full Text Available Imitative learning has received great attention due to its supposed role in the development of culture and the cognitive demands it poses on the individual. Evidence for imitation in non-human primate species, therefore, could shed light on the early origins of proto-cultural traits in the primate order. Imitation has been defined as the learning of an act by seeing it done or, more specifically, as the copying of a novel or otherwise improbable act. But despite a century of research and the detection of mirror neurons the empirical basis for this most advanced form of observational learning is weak. Few, if any, studies have shown that the observer has learned the response topography, i.e., the specific action by which the response is made. In an experimental set-up we confronted marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus with a conspecific model that was previously trained to open a plastic box in a peculiar way. Employing detailed motion analyses we show that the observers precisely copied the movement patterns of the novel action demonstrated by the model. A discriminant analysis classified 13 out of 14 observer movements (92.86% as model movements and only one as non-observer movement. This evidence of imitation in non-human primates questions the dominant opinion that imitation is a human-specific ability. Furthermore, the high matching degree suggests that marmosets possess the neuronal mechanism to code the actions of others and to map them onto their own motor repertoire, rather than priming existing motor-templates.

  3. A Molecular Analysis of Training Multiple versus Single Manipulations to Establish a Generalized Manipulative Imitation Repertoire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartley, Breanne K.

    2009-01-01

    This study evaluates the necessity of training multiple versus single manipulative-imitations per object in order to establish generalized manipulative-imitation. Training took place in Croyden Avenue School's Early Childhood Developmental Delay preschool classroom in Kalamazoo, MI. Two groups of 3 children each were trained to imitate in order to…

  4. Deficits in motor abilities and developmental fractionation of imitation performance in high-functioning autism spectrum disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biscaldi, Monica; Rauh, Reinhold; Irion, Lisa; Jung, Nikolai H; Mall, Volker; Fleischhaker, Christian; Klein, Christoph

    2014-07-01

    The co-occurrence of motor and imitation disabilities often characterises the spectrum of deficits seen in patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Whether these seemingly separate deficits are inter-related and whether, in particular, motor deficits contribute to the expression of imitation deficits is the topic of the present study and was investigated by comparing these deficits' cross-sectional developmental trajectories. To that end, different components of motor performance assessed in the Zurich Neuromotor Assessment and imitation abilities for facial movements and non-meaningful gestures were tested in 70 subjects (aged 6-29 years), including 36 patients with high-functioning ASD and 34 age-matched typically developed (TD) participants. The results show robust deficits in probands with ASD in timed motor performance and in the quality of movement, which are all independent of age, with one exception. Only diadochokinesis improves moderately with increasing age in ASD probands. Imitation of facial movements and of non-meaningful hand, finger, hand finger gestures not related to social context or tool use is also impaired in ASD subjects, but in contrast to motor performance this deficit overall improves with age. A general imitation factor, extracted from the highly inter-correlated imitation tests, is differentially correlated with components of neuromotor performance in ASD and TD participants. By developmentally fractionating developmentally stable motor deficits from developmentally dynamic imitation deficits, we infer that imitation deficits are primarily cognitive in nature.

  5. Love and Resistance of Mothers with Intellectual Disability from Ethnocultural Communities in Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacheco, Laura; McConnell, David

    2017-01-01

    Background: Mothers with intellectual disability are thought to be passive, dependent and in need of protection. This study contributes to a nascent body of research that challenges this schema, revealing how women with intellectual disability who are mothers resist oppression. Methods: Narrative research methods underpinned by intersectionality…

  6. Conditional imitation might promote cooperation under high temptations to defect

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dai, Qionglin; Li, Haihong; Cheng, Hongyan; Qian, Xiaolan; Zhang, Mei; Yang, Junzhong

    2012-07-01

    In this paper we introduce a conditional imitation rule into an evolutionary game, in which the imitation probabilities of individuals are determined by a function of payoff difference and two crucial parameters μ and σ. The parameter μ characterizes the most adequate goal for individuals and the parameter σ characterizes the tolerance of individuals. By using the pair approximation method and numerical simulations, we find an anomalous cooperation enhancement in which the cooperation level shows a nonmonotonic variation with the increase of temptation. The parameter μ affects the regime of the payoff parameter which supports the anomalous cooperation enhancement, whereas the parameter σ plays a decisive role on the appearance of the nonmonotonic variation of the cooperation level. Furthermore, to give explicit implications for the parameters μ and σ we present an alterative form of the conditional imitation rule based on the benefit and the cost incurred to individuals during strategy updates. In this way, we also provide a phenomenological interpretation for the nonmonotonic behavior of cooperation with the increase of temptation. The results give a clue that a higher cooperation level could be obtained under adverse environments for cooperation by applying the conditional imitation rule, which is possible to be manipulated in real life. More generally, the results in this work might point out an efficient way to maintain cooperation in the risky environments to cooperators.

  7. Neuroprosthetic Decoder Training as Imitation Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Merel, Josh; Carlson, David; Paninski, Liam; Cunningham, John P

    2016-05-01

    Neuroprosthetic brain-computer interfaces function via an algorithm which decodes neural activity of the user into movements of an end effector, such as a cursor or robotic arm. In practice, the decoder is often learned by updating its parameters while the user performs a task. When the user's intention is not directly observable, recent methods have demonstrated value in training the decoder against a surrogate for the user's intended movement. Here we show that training a decoder in this way is a novel variant of an imitation learning problem, where an oracle or expert is employed for supervised training in lieu of direct observations, which are not available. Specifically, we describe how a generic imitation learning meta-algorithm, dataset aggregation (DAgger), can be adapted to train a generic brain-computer interface. By deriving existing learning algorithms for brain-computer interfaces in this framework, we provide a novel analysis of regret (an important metric of learning efficacy) for brain-computer interfaces. This analysis allows us to characterize the space of algorithmic variants and bounds on their regret rates. Existing approaches for decoder learning have been performed in the cursor control setting, but the available design principles for these decoders are such that it has been impossible to scale them to naturalistic settings. Leveraging our findings, we then offer an algorithm that combines imitation learning with optimal control, which should allow for training of arbitrary effectors for which optimal control can generate goal-oriented control. We demonstrate this novel and general BCI algorithm with simulated neuroprosthetic control of a 26 degree-of-freedom model of an arm, a sophisticated and realistic end effector.

  8. Neuroprosthetic Decoder Training as Imitation Learning.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Josh Merel

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Neuroprosthetic brain-computer interfaces function via an algorithm which decodes neural activity of the user into movements of an end effector, such as a cursor or robotic arm. In practice, the decoder is often learned by updating its parameters while the user performs a task. When the user's intention is not directly observable, recent methods have demonstrated value in training the decoder against a surrogate for the user's intended movement. Here we show that training a decoder in this way is a novel variant of an imitation learning problem, where an oracle or expert is employed for supervised training in lieu of direct observations, which are not available. Specifically, we describe how a generic imitation learning meta-algorithm, dataset aggregation (DAgger, can be adapted to train a generic brain-computer interface. By deriving existing learning algorithms for brain-computer interfaces in this framework, we provide a novel analysis of regret (an important metric of learning efficacy for brain-computer interfaces. This analysis allows us to characterize the space of algorithmic variants and bounds on their regret rates. Existing approaches for decoder learning have been performed in the cursor control setting, but the available design principles for these decoders are such that it has been impossible to scale them to naturalistic settings. Leveraging our findings, we then offer an algorithm that combines imitation learning with optimal control, which should allow for training of arbitrary effectors for which optimal control can generate goal-oriented control. We demonstrate this novel and general BCI algorithm with simulated neuroprosthetic control of a 26 degree-of-freedom model of an arm, a sophisticated and realistic end effector.

  9. The control of automatic imitation based on bottom-up and top-down cues to animacy: insights from brain and behavior.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klapper, André; Ramsey, Richard; Wigboldus, Daniël; Cross, Emily S

    2014-11-01

    Humans automatically imitate other people's actions during social interactions, building rapport and social closeness in the process. Although the behavioral consequences and neural correlates of imitation have been studied extensively, little is known about the neural mechanisms that control imitative tendencies. For example, the degree to which an agent is perceived as human-like influences automatic imitation, but it is not known how perception of animacy influences brain circuits that control imitation. In the current fMRI study, we examined how the perception and belief of animacy influence the control of automatic imitation. Using an imitation-inhibition paradigm that involves suppressing the tendency to imitate an observed action, we manipulated both bottom-up (visual input) and top-down (belief) cues to animacy. Results show divergent patterns of behavioral and neural responses. Behavioral analyses show that automatic imitation is equivalent when one or both cues to animacy are present but reduces when both are absent. By contrast, right TPJ showed sensitivity to the presence of both animacy cues. Thus, we demonstrate that right TPJ is biologically tuned to control imitative tendencies when the observed agent both looks like and is believed to be human. The results suggest that right TPJ may be involved in a specialized capacity to control automatic imitation of human agents, rather than a universal process of conflict management, which would be more consistent with generalist theories of imitative control. Evidence for specialized neural circuitry that "controls" imitation offers new insight into developmental disorders that involve atypical processing of social information, such as autism spectrum disorders.

  10. Application of imitation for energy calibration of silicon semiconductor detectors

    CERN Document Server

    Aivazyan, G M; Mikaelyan, M A

    2003-01-01

    An effective method is described for energy calibration of semiconductor detectors (SCD) with different thickness. The method is based on imitating the charge on the input of the preamplifier deposited in SCD by known energy ionizing particles, the imitation being performed by a pulser with a partial with use of alpha-active sources. The results of laboratory studies of the described method are given with detectors of either large, 50-1000 mu m, or small, 18-20 mu m, thickness

  11. Application of imitation for energy calibration of silicon semiconductor detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aivazyan, G.M.; Badalyan, H.V.; Mikaelyan, M.A.

    2003-01-01

    An effective method is described for energy calibration of semiconductor detectors (SCD) with different thickness. The method is based on imitating the charge on the input of the preamplifier deposited in SCD by known energy ionizing particles, the imitation being performed by a pulser with a partial with use of α-active sources. The results of laboratory studies of the described method are given with detectors of either large, 50-1000μm, or small, 18-20 μm, thickness

  12. Teaching UAVs to Race With Observational Imitation Learning

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Guohao; Mueller, Matthias; Casser, Vincent; Smith, Neil; Michels, Dominik L.; Ghanem, Bernard

    2018-01-01

    Recent work has tackled the problem of autonomous navigation by imitating a teacher and learning an end-to-end policy, which directly predicts controls from raw images. However, these approaches tend to be sensitive to mistakes by the teacher and do not scale well to other environments or vehicles. To this end, we propose a modular network architecture that decouples perception from control, and is trained using Observational Imitation Learning (OIL), a novel imitation learning variant that supports online training and automatic selection of optimal behavior from observing multiple teachers. We apply our proposed methodology to the challenging problem of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) racing. We develop a simulator that enables the generation of large amounts of synthetic training data (both UAV captured images and its controls) and also allows for online learning and evaluation. We train a perception network to predict waypoints from raw image data and a control network to predict UAV controls from these waypoints using OIL. Our modular network is able to autonomously fly a UAV through challenging race tracks at high speeds. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our trained network outperforms its teachers, end-to-end baselines, and even human pilots in simulation. The supplementary video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/PeTXSoriflc

  13. Teaching UAVs to Race With Observational Imitation Learning

    KAUST Repository

    Li, Guohao

    2018-03-03

    Recent work has tackled the problem of autonomous navigation by imitating a teacher and learning an end-to-end policy, which directly predicts controls from raw images. However, these approaches tend to be sensitive to mistakes by the teacher and do not scale well to other environments or vehicles. To this end, we propose a modular network architecture that decouples perception from control, and is trained using Observational Imitation Learning (OIL), a novel imitation learning variant that supports online training and automatic selection of optimal behavior from observing multiple teachers. We apply our proposed methodology to the challenging problem of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) racing. We develop a simulator that enables the generation of large amounts of synthetic training data (both UAV captured images and its controls) and also allows for online learning and evaluation. We train a perception network to predict waypoints from raw image data and a control network to predict UAV controls from these waypoints using OIL. Our modular network is able to autonomously fly a UAV through challenging race tracks at high speeds. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our trained network outperforms its teachers, end-to-end baselines, and even human pilots in simulation. The supplementary video can be viewed at https://youtu.be/PeTXSoriflc

  14. Chameleons: Electrocardiogram Imitators of ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nable, Jose V; Lawner, Benjamin J

    2015-08-01

    The imperative for timely reperfusion therapy for patients presenting with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) underscores the need for clinicians to have an understanding of how to distinguish patterns of STEMI from its imitators. These imitating diagnoses may confound an evaluation, potentially delaying necessary therapy. Although numerous diagnoses may mimic STEMI, several morphologic clues may allow the physician to determine if the pattern is concerning for either STEMI or a mimicking diagnosis. Furthermore, obtaining a satisfactory history, comparing previous electrocardiograms, and assessing serial tests may provide valuable clues. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Social robotics to help children with autism in their interactions through imitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pennazio Valentina

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to reflect on the main variables that make social robotics efficient in an educational and rehabilitative intervention. Social robotics is based on imitation, and the study is designed for children affected by profound autism, aiming for the development of their social interactions. Existing research, at the national and international levels, shows how children with autism can interact more easily with a robotic companion rather than a human peer, considering its less complex and more predictable actions. This contribution also highlights how using robotic platforms helps in teaching children with autism basic social abilities, imitation, communication and interaction; this encourages them to transfer the learned abilities to human interactions with both adults and peers, through human–robot imitative modelling. The results of a pilot study conducted in a kindergarten school in the Liguria region are presented. The study included applying a robotic system, at first in a dyadic child–robot relation, then in a triadic one that also included another child, with the aim of eliciting social and imitative abilities in a child with profound autism.

  16. Intellectual Property.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swinson, John V.

    2000-01-01

    Intellectual property is a term that covers a number of different rights. Considers issues such as what are the basic forms of intellectual property; who owns the intellectual property created by a teacher; who owns intellectual property created by students; and use of downloaded materials from the internet. (Author/LM)

  17. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ARCHITECTURE: BETWEEN LEGISLATIONS AND ETHICAL MANIFESTATIONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EGYPTIAN CASE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nehad Mohamed Eweda

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Several international and local legislations have been enacted to protect intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, legislations cannot alone provide protection for architects, and defend the right of owners over architectural products. The importance of this research paper is derived from the hypothesis that accepting, fostering and valuing intellectual property in architecture education and practice are similarly essential to enacting laws. This paper is an analytical discussion of intellectual property in general and particularly in architecture, it is structured in four sections; the first provides a conceptual foundation about intellectual property; the second discusses the issue from an ethical point of view; the third demonstrates various opinions about intellectual property rights; and the last reviews some manifestations in the Egyptian society which affect the intellectual property rights in both the architectural education and practice. Finally, the paper concludes that the lack of awareness among students of architecture as well as practicing architects about intellectual property rights might lead –unintentionally- to violations, infringements, and consequently disputes. In addition, respecting intellectual property would rather begin during the years of architectural education as an ethical behavior, which will continue to regulate the architectural professional practice. Besides, architects need to understand their rights which are granted by the intellectual property legislations in order to consequently secure an atmosphere of fair competition among architects.

  18. Imitative and best response behaviors in a nonlinear Cournotian setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerboni Baiardi, Lorenzo; Naimzada, Ahmad K.

    2018-05-01

    We consider the competition among quantity setting players in a deterministic nonlinear oligopoly framework characterized by an isoelastic demand curve. Players are characterized by having heterogeneous decisional mechanisms to set their outputs: some players are imitators, while the remaining others adopt a rational-like rule according to which their past decisions are adjusted towards their static expectation best response. The Cournot-Nash production level is a stationary state of our model together with a further production level that can be interpreted as the competitive outcome in case only imitators are present. We found that both the number of players and the relative fraction of imitators influence stability of the Cournot-Nash equilibrium with an ambiguous role, and double instability thresholds may be observed. Global analysis shows that a wide variety of complex dynamic scenarios emerge. Chaotic trajectories as well as multi-stabilities, where different attractors coexist, are robust phenomena that can be observed for a wide spectrum of parameter sets.

  19. A comprehensive account of sound sequence imitation in the songbird.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maren Westkott

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The amazing imitation capabilities of songbirds show that they can memorize sensory sequences and transform them into motor activities which in turn generate the original sound sequences. This suggests that the bird's brain can learn 1. to reliably reproduce spatio-temporal sensory representations and 2. to transform them into corresponding spatio-temporal motor activations by using an inverse mapping. Neither the synaptic mechanisms nor the network architecture enabling these two fundamental aspects of imitation learning are known. We propose an architecture of coupled neuronal modules that mimick areas in the song bird and show that a unique synaptic plasticity mechanism can serve to learn both, sensory sequences in a recurrent neuronal network, as well as an inverse model that transforms the sensory memories into the corresponding motor activations. The proposed membrane potential dependent learning rule together with the architecture that includes basic features of the bird's brain represents the first comprehensive account of bird imitation learning based on spiking neurons.

  20. The Effects of Reciprocal Imitation on Teacher-Student Relationships and Student Learning Outcomes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Jiangyuan

    2012-01-01

    Neuroscientific and developmental psychological research in imitation has yielded important insights into building teacher-student relationships and enhancing students' learning. This study investigated the effects of reciprocal imitation on teacher-student relationships and students' learning outcomes in one-on-one teacher-student interactions.…

  1. A systems level analysis of the mirror neuron hypothesis and imitation impairments in autism spectrum disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kana, Rajesh K; Wadsworth, Heather M; Travers, Brittany G

    2011-01-01

    Although several studies suggest an imitation deficit as a key feature of autism, questions have been raised about the consistency of this finding and about the component skills involved in imitation. The primary aim of this review is to examine the uneven profile of imitation deficits found in autism in the context of the mirror neuron system (MNS) dysfunction hypothesis. We use the cortical underconnectivity framework (Just et al., 2004) to examine the coordination of brain areas that orchestrate the communication between the component skills underlying imitation. A comprehensive account of imitation deficit in autism should take into account the regions that are at the core of the MNS (e.g., IFG and IPL) and related regions that feed into the MNS (e.g., STS, Cerebellum) in their functioning and in their coordination. Our findings suggest that the MNS may be associated with mediating familiarity, attention, self-other matching, and social relevance, which may be vital in characterizing the imitation deficits in autism. Such an analysis may have greater clinical and therapeutic value. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  2. Teaching Caregivers to Implement Video Modeling Imitation Training via iPad for Their Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardon, Teresa A.

    2012-01-01

    Children with autism fail to imitate from an early age and this lack of imitation is a salient diagnostic marker for the disorder. For children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), increased imitation skills appear to be related to increased skill development in a variety of areas. Video modeling was recently validated as a technique to support…

  3. Imitation Assessment and Its Utility to the Diagnosis of Autism: Evidence from Consecutive Clinical Preschool Referrals for Suspected Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvuchelen, Marleen; Roeyers, Herbert; De Weerdt, Willy

    2011-01-01

    The present study sought to examine imitation difficulties as a risk factor for autism. Imitation aptitude was examined in 86 preschoolers suspected of autism (1.9-4.5 years) using the Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale (PIPS). Differences between imitation, language, motor age-equivalents and nonverbal mental age were used to predict the…

  4. Comparative Cognition: Action Imitation Using Episodic Memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crystal, Jonathon D

    2016-12-05

    Humans encounter a myriad of actions or events and later recall some of these events using episodic memory. New research suggests that dogs can imitate recently encountered actions using episodic memory. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  5. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ARCHITECTURE: BETWEEN LEGISLATIONS AND ETHICAL MANIFESTATIONS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE EGYPTIAN CASE

    OpenAIRE

    Nehad Mohamed Eweda

    2011-01-01

    Several international and local legislations have been enacted to protect intellectual property rights. Nevertheless, legislations cannot alone provide protection for architects, and defend the right of owners over architectural products. The importance of this research paper is derived from the hypothesis that accepting, fostering and valuing intellectual property in architecture education and practice are similarly essential to enacting laws. This paper is an analytical discussion of intell...

  6. Changes in Frontoparietotemporal Connectivity following Do-As-I-Do Imitation Training in Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pope, Sarah M; Taglialatela, Jared P; Skiba, Sara A; Hopkins, William D

    2018-03-01

    Human imitation is supported by an underlying "mirror system" principally composed of inferior frontal, inferior parietal, and superior temporal cortical regions. Across primate species, differences in frontoparietotemporal connectivity have been hypothesized to explain phylogenetic variation in imitative abilities. However, if and to what extent these regions are involved in imitation in nonhuman primates is unknown. We hypothesized that "Do As I Do" (DAID) imitation training would enhance white matter integrity within and between frontoparietotemporal regions. To this end, four captive chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes) were trained to reproduce 23 demonstrated actions, and four age-/sex-matched controls were trained to produce basic husbandry behaviors in response to manual cues. Diffusion tensor images were acquired before and after 600 min of training over an average of 112 days. Bilateral and asymmetrical changes in frontoparietotemporal white matter integrity were compared between DAID trained subjects and controls. We found that imitation trained subjects exhibited leftward shifts in both mean fractional anisotropy and tract strength asymmetry measures in brain regions within the mirror system. This is the first report of training-induced changes in white matter integrity in chimpanzees and suggests that frontoparietotemporal connectivity, particularly in the left hemisphere, may have facilitated the emergence of increasingly complex imitation learning abilities.

  7. Conditioning exercises in ski jumping: biomechanical relationship of squat jumps, imitation jumps, and hill jumps.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorenzetti, Silvio; Ammann, Fabian; Windmüller, Sabrina; Häberle, Ramona; Müller, Sören; Gross, Micah; Plüss, Michael; Plüss, Stefan; Schödler, Berni; Hübner, Klaus

    2017-11-22

    As hill jumps are very time-consuming, ski jumping athletes often perform various imitation jumps during training. The performed jumps should be similar to hill jumps, but a direct comparison of the kinetic and kinematic parameters has not been performed yet. Therefore, this study aimed to correlate 11 common parameters during hill jumps (Oberstdorf Germany), squat jumps (wearing indoor shoes), and various imitation jumps (rolling 4°, rolling flat, static; jumping equipment or indoor shoes) on a custom-built instrumented vehicle with a catch by the coach. During the performed jumps, force and video data of the take-off of 10 athletes were measured. The imitation and squat jumps were then ranked. The main difference between the hill jumps and the imitation and squat jumps is the higher maximal force loading rate during the hill jumps. Imitation jumps performed on a rolling platform, on flat ground were the most similar to hill jumps in terms of the force-time, and leg joint kinematic properties. Thus, non-hill jumps with a technical focus should be performed from a rolling platform with a flat inrun with normal indoor shoes or jumping equipment, and high normal force loading rates should be the main focus of imitation training.

  8. Mass Shootings: The Role of the Media in Promoting Generalized Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meindl, James N; Ivy, Jonathan W

    2017-03-01

    Mass shootings are a particular problem in the United States, with one mass shooting occurring approximately every 12.5 days. Recently a "contagion" effect has been suggested wherein the occurrence of one mass shooting increases the likelihood of another mass shooting occurring in the near future. Although contagion is a convenient metaphor used to describe the temporal spread of a behavior, it does not explain how the behavior spreads. Generalized imitation is proposed as a better model to explain how one person's behavior can influence another person to engage in similar behavior. Here we provide an overview of generalized imitation and discuss how the way in which the media report a mass shooting can increase the likelihood of another shooting event. Also, we propose media reporting guidelines to minimize imitation and further decrease the likelihood of a mass shooting.

  9. Protecting knowledge : How legal requirements to reveal information affect the importance of secrecy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sofka, Wolfgang; de Faria, Pedro; Shehu, Edlira

    2018-01-01

    Most firms use secrecy to protect their knowledge from potential imitators. However, the theoretical foundations for secrecy have not been well explored. We extend knowledge protection literature and propose theoretical mechanisms explaining how information visibility influences the importance of

  10. Cognitive Control Structures in the Imitation Learning of Spatial Sequences and Rhythms-An fMRI Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sakreida, Katrin; Higuchi, Satomi; Di Dio, Cinzia; Ziessler, Michael; Turgeon, Martine; Roberts, Neil; Vogt, Stefan

    2018-03-01

    Imitation learning involves the acquisition of novel motor patterns based on action observation (AO). We used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the imitation learning of spatial sequences and rhythms during AO, motor imagery (MI), and imitative execution in nonmusicians and musicians. While both tasks engaged the fronto-parietal mirror circuit, the spatial sequence task recruited posterior parietal and dorsal premotor regions more strongly. The rhythm task involved an additional network for auditory working memory. This partial dissociation supports the concept of task-specific mirror mechanisms. Two regions of cognitive control were identified: 1) dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was found to be more strongly activated during MI of novel spatial sequences, which allowed us to extend the 2-level model of imitation learning by Buccino et al. (2004) to spatial sequences. 2) During imitative execution of both tasks, the posterior medial frontal cortex was robustly activated, along with the DLPFC, which suggests that both regions are involved in the cognitive control of imitation learning. The musicians' selective behavioral advantage for rhythm imitation was reflected cortically in enhanced sensory-motor processing during AO and by the absence of practice-related activation differences in DLPFC during rhythm execution. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  11. Principles for designing mathematical tasks that enhance imitative and creative reasoning

    OpenAIRE

    Lithner, Johan

    2017-01-01

    The design research programme Learning by Imitative and Creative Reasoning (LICR) studies whether, how and why tasks and teaching that enhance creative reasoning lead to a more productive struggle and more efficient learning than the common but inefficient task designs based on imitating given solution procedures. The purpose of this paper is to synthesise the research outcomes determined to date by providing the following: a conceptual framework for key concepts and relationships among teach...

  12. Legal Rights & Intellectual Disability: A Short Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hall, Julia, Ed.; And Others

    The book examines actions that may be taken to redress wrongs illegally perpetrated against people with intellectual disabilities in New South Wales, Australia. Ten topic areas are addressed (sample subtopics in parentheses): protecting rights (complaints to government departments, use of the ombudsman); discrimination (legal aid); personal…

  13. Fourteen-Month-Olds Adapt Their Imitative Behavior in Light of a Model’s Constraints

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kata Gellén

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Rather than reenacting every action they observe, preverbal infants adapt their imitative behavior. Although previous studies have revealed the capability of preverbal infants to imitate selectively, the question about the adaptability of this behavior on an individual level did not attract considerable scientific attention until now. In the current study, we investigated whether 14-month-old infants flexibly alternate their imitative response in accordance with a model’s changing physical constraints in a body-part imitation paradigm. Participants were presented with two novel actions whereby a model illuminated a light-box and turned on a sound-box, either by using her forehead (head touch or by sitting on the apparatus (sit-touch. Each participant observed these tasks in two conditions: once where the model’s hands were occupied and once where her hands were free while executing the head or sit-touch. Participants were more likely to reenact the observed novel behavior when the model had freely chosen to perform it than when she had to do so due to physical constraints. Not only did we replicate a number of previous findings, we show here that preverbal infants adapt their imitative behavior across conditions based on the physical constraints of the model. These results point towards the adaptable nature of imitative behavior also on an individual level. This ability might be one of the building blocks for children for learning their social group’s specific action repertoire.

  14. Over-imitation is not automatic: context sensitivity in children's overimitation and action interpretation of causally irrelevant actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keupp, Stefanie; Behne, Tanya; Zachow, Joanna; Kasbohm, Alina; Rakoczy, Hannes

    2015-02-01

    Recent research has documented the robust tendency of children to "over-imitate," that is, to copy causally irrelevant action elements in goal-directed action sequences. Different explanations for over-imitation have been proposed. Causal accounts claim that children mistakenly perceive such action elements as causally relevant and, therefore, imitate them. Affiliation accounts claim that children over-imitate to affiliate with the model. Normative accounts claim that children conceive of causally irrelevant actions as essential parts of an overarching conventional activity. These different accounts generally hold the same predictions regarding children's imitative response. However, it is possible to distinguish between them when one considers additional parameters. The normative account predicts wide-ranging flexibility with regard to action interpretation and the occurrence of over-imitation. First, it predicts spontaneous protest against norm violators who omit the causally irrelevant actions. Second, children should perform the causally irrelevant actions less frequently, and criticize others less frequently for omitting them, when the actions take place in a different context from the one of the initial demonstration. Such flexibility is not predicted by causal accounts and is predicted for only a limited range of contexts by affiliation accounts. Study 1 investigated children's own imitative response and found less over-imitation when children acted in a different context from when they acted in the same context as the initial demonstration. In Study 2, children criticized a puppet less frequently for omitting irrelevant actions when the puppet acted in a different context. The results support the notion that over-imitation is not an automatic and inflexible phenomenon. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Acquisition of automatic imitation is sensitive to sensorimotor contingency.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Richard; Press, Clare; Dickinson, Anthony; Heyes, Cecilia

    2010-08-01

    The associative sequence learning model proposes that the development of the mirror system depends on the same mechanisms of associative learning that mediate Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. To test this model, two experiments used the reduction of automatic imitation through incompatible sensorimotor training to assess whether mirror system plasticity is sensitive to contingency (i.e., the extent to which activation of one representation predicts activation of another). In Experiment 1, residual automatic imitation was measured following incompatible training in which the action stimulus was a perfect predictor of the response (contingent) or not at all predictive of the response (noncontingent). A contingency effect was observed: There was less automatic imitation indicative of more learning in the contingent group. Experiment 2 replicated this contingency effect and showed that, as predicted by associative learning theory, it can be abolished by signaling trials in which the response occurs in the absence of an action stimulus. These findings support the view that mirror system development depends on associative learning and indicate that this learning is not purely Hebbian. If this is correct, associative learning theory could be used to explain, predict, and intervene in mirror system development.

  16. NATURE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RELATIONS AND ITS ROLE IN A PUBLIC REPRODUCTION

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. Virchenko

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Article is devoted to theoretical analysis of nature and structure of intellectual property relations. Types of intellectual property relations and its role in public reproduction are investigated. Peculiarities of intellectual property relations are considered. Two groups of approaches to classification of intellectual property objects are analysed: classification of objects depending on its characteristics which is based on the analysis of their most essential features, specificity of their protection, features of realisation of the property and non-property rights; classification on the basis of various minor criterions which do not reveal nature and character of objects but at the same time allow to divide them into groups according to concrete tasks of research. Necessity of defining of incorporeal objects of intellectual property which cannot be labelled as objects of copyright, industrial property or branding tools is proved. Criteria of classification of party’s to intellectual property relations are investigated. The subject structure of intellectual property relations according to the legislation of Ukraine is defined. New approaches to classification of party’s to intellectual property relations depending on their role in relations of intellectual property and their economic functions are offered, which allow to embrace as much as possible all participants of intellectual property relations, consider their role in the process of commercialisation, and draw attention to subjects which carry out regulating and mediatorial functions on the intellectual property market.

  17. Laboratory studies of imitation/field studies of tradition: towards a synthesis in animal social learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galef, Bennett G

    2015-03-01

    Here I discuss: (1) historical precedents that have resulted in comparative psychologists accepting the two-action method as the "gold standard" in laboratory investigations of imitation learning, (2) evidence suggesting that the two-action procedure may not be adequate to answer questions concerning the role of imitation in the development of traditional behaviors of animals living in natural habitat, and (3) an alternative approach to the laboratory study of imitation that might increase the relevance of laboratory studies of imitation to the work of behavioral ecologists/primatologists interested in animal traditions and their relationship to human cumulative culture. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Tribute to Tom Zentall. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Current situation and countermeasures of the defense technology industry intellectual property management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fan Fei

    2014-01-01

    In Defense technology industry is a strategic industry of our country, is an important foundation for China to achieve modernization of national defense, is also important driving force of our national economy. Intellectual property plays a very important role in the defense industry ' strengthen the basis of capacity, combining military and civilian, leapfrog development' strategy. Defense-related science, technology and industry advanced nature of intellectual property management and its ownership is a direct reflection of the capability of independent innovation and sustainable development of the defense industry. Therefore, how to make the effective protection and management of intellectual property rights in the Defense Industry has also become a new issue that we face. In this paper, by analyzing the status of the defense technology industry intellectual property management, at home and abroad, and other industry advanced experience in intellectual property management, put forward recommendations to strengthen our national defense science and technology industry intellectual property management. (author)

  19. Deliberately generated and imitated facial expressions of emotions in people with eating disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dapelo, Marcela Marin; Bodas, Sergio; Morris, Robin; Tchanturia, Kate

    2016-02-01

    People with eating disorders have difficulties in socio emotional functioning that could contribute to maintaining the functional consequences of the disorder. This study aimed to explore the ability to deliberately generate (i.e., pose) and imitate facial expressions of emotions in women with anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), compared to healthy controls (HC). One hundred and three participants (36 AN, 25 BN, and 42 HC) were asked to pose and imitate facial expressions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness. Their facial expressions were recorded and coded. Participants with eating disorders (both AN and BN) were less accurate than HC when posing facial expressions of emotions. Participants with AN were less accurate compared to HC imitating facial expressions, whilst BN participants had a middle range performance. All results remained significant after controlling for anxiety, depression and autistic features. The relatively small number of BN participants recruited for this study. The study findings suggest that people with eating disorders, particularly those with AN, have difficulties posing and imitating facial expressions of emotions. These difficulties could have an impact in social communication and social functioning. This is the first study to investigate the ability to pose and imitate facial expressions of emotions in people with eating disorders, and the findings suggest this area should be further explored in future studies. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  20. How do elite ski jumpers handle the dynamic conditions in imitation jumps?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ettema, Gertjan; Hooiveld, Jo; Braaten, Steinar; Bobbert, Maarten

    2016-01-01

    We examined the effect of boundary conditions in imitation ski jumping on movement dynamics and coordination. We compared imitation ski jumps with--and without--the possibility to generate shear propulsion forces. Six elite ski jumpers performed imitation jumps by jumping from a fixed surface and from a rolling platform. The ground reaction force vector, kinematics of body segments, and EMG of eight lower limb muscles were recorded. Net joint dynamics were calculated using inverse dynamics. The two imitation jumps differed considerably from each other with regard to the dynamics (moments, forces), whereas the kinematics were very similar. Knee power was higher and hip power was lower on the rolling platform than on the fixed surface. Mean EMG levels were very similar for both conditions, but differences in the development of muscle activity were indicated for seven of eight muscles. These differences are reflected in a subtle difference of the alignment of ground reaction force with centre of mass: the ground reaction force runs continuously close to but behind the centre of mass on the rolling platform and fluctuates around it on the fixed surface. This likely reflects a different strategy for controlling angular momentum.

  1. Children's Faithfulness in Imitating Language Use Varies Cross-culturally, Contingent on Prior Experience

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klinger, Jörn; Mayor, Julien; Bannard, Colin

    2016-01-01

    Despite its recognized importance for cultural transmission, little is known about the role imitation plays in language learning. Three experiments examine how rates of imitation vary as a function of qualitative differences in the way language is used in a small indigenous community in Oaxaca, Mexico and three Western comparison groups. Data from…

  2. Cultural differences in the imitation and transmission of inefficient actions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corriveau, Kathleen H; DiYanni, Cara J; Clegg, Jennifer M; Min, Grace; Chin, Jason; Nasrini, Jad

    2017-09-01

    Across two studies, we explored cultural differences in children's imitation and transmission of inefficient actions. Chinese American and Caucasian American preschoolers (N=115) viewed either one or three models using two inefficient tools to perform two different tasks. In the video, when the model(s) performed the task, only the inefficient tool was available; thus, their choice to use that tool could be considered rational. Next, children were invited to complete the task with either the inefficient tool or an efficient alternative. Whereas the two cultural groups imitated a single model at similar rates, Chinese American children imitated significantly more than Caucasian American children after viewing a consensus. Similar results were found when exploring differences in information transmission. The Chinese American children were significantly more likely than their Caucasian American peers to instruct using an inefficient tool when they had initially viewed a consensus demonstrate it. We discuss these findings with respect to differences in children's use of social versus task-specific cues for learning and teaching. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. The Relation between Contingency Preference and Imitation in 6-8-Month-Old Infants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein-Radukic, Sarah; Zmyj, Norbert

    2016-01-01

    Detecting self-generated actions and imitating other-generated actions are important abilities in order to interact with others. The relationship between these domains was investigated in 6-8-month-old infants. In a contingency-preference task, infants observed their own legs on a real-time and a delayed video display. In an imitation task, the…

  4. Proper laboratory notebook practices: protecting your intellectual property.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nickla, Jason T; Boehm, Matthew B

    2011-03-01

    A laboratory notebook contains a wealth of knowledge that can be critical for establishing evidence in support of intellectual property rights and for refuting claims of research misconduct. The proper type, organization, use, maintenance, and storage of laboratory notebooks should be a priority for everyone at research institutions. Failure to properly document research activities can lead to serious problems, including the loss of valuable patent rights. Consequences of improper laboratory notebook practices can be harsh; numerous examples are described in court cases and journal articles, indicating a need for research institutions to develop strict policies on the proper use and storage of research documentation.

  5. Object-directed imitation in autism spectrum disorder is differentially influenced by motoric task complexity, but not social contextual cues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chetcuti, Lacey; Hudry, Kristelle; Grant, Megan; Vivanti, Giacomo

    2017-11-01

    We examined the role of social motivation and motor execution factors in object-directed imitation difficulties in autism spectrum disorder. A series of to-be-imitated actions was presented to 35 children with autism spectrum disorder and 20 typically developing children on an Apple ® iPad ® by a socially responsive or aloof model, under conditions of low and high motor demand. There were no differences in imitation performance (i.e. the number of actions reproduced within a fixed sequence), for either group, in response to a model who acted socially responsive or aloof. Children with autism spectrum disorder imitated the high motor demand task more poorly than the low motor demand task, while imitation performance for typically developing children was equivalent across the low and high motor demand conditions. Furthermore, imitative performance in the autism spectrum disorder group was unrelated to social reciprocity, though positively associated with fine motor coordination. These results suggest that difficulties in object-directed imitation in autism spectrum disorder are the result of motor execution difficulties, not reduced social motivation.

  6. Preschool children's proto-episodic memory assessed by deferred imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, Patrick; Russell, Charlotte; Russell, James

    2015-01-01

    In two experiments, both employing deferred imitation, we studied the developmental origins of episodic memory in two- to three-year-old children by adopting a "minimalist" view of episodic memory based on its What-When-Where ("WWW": spatiotemporal plus semantic) content. We argued that the temporal element within spatiotemporal should be the order/simultaneity of the event elements, but that it is not clear whether the spatial content should be egocentric or allocentric. We also argued that episodic recollection should be configural (tending towards all-or-nothing recall of the WWW elements). Our first deferred imitation experiment, using a two-dimensional (2D) display, produced superior-to-chance performance after 2.5 years but no evidence of configural memory. Moreover, performance did not differ from that on a What-What-What control task. Our second deferred imitation study required the children to reproduce actions on an object in a room, thereby affording layout-based spatial cues. In this case, not only was there superior-to-chance performance after 2.5 years but memory was also configural at both ages. We discuss the importance of allocentric spatial cues in episodic recall in early proto-episodic memory and reflect on the possible role of hippocampal development in this process.

  7. Intellectual Property Is No Game: An Interview with James G. Gatto, JD.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-12-01

    Copying within the games industry is reportedly widespread. Some people attribute this to the belief that this is just the way it is and has always been based on the notion that the "idea" for a game is not protectable. But as the game market grows, so too do the losses from copying suffered by game innovators. A contributing factor is that many game developers do not develop comprehensive strategies for protecting the valuable intellectual property that they create. In the following interview, Bill Ferguson, PhD, Editor of Games for Health Journal, discusses the hazards and ways to protect health game assets with intellectual property expert Jim Gatto, Leader of the Social Media, Entertainment & Technology Team at the respected law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

  8. The impact of the level of market competition intensity on enterprises activities in area of intellectual capital

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prusak Rafał

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Market activity for today’s enterprises means continuing work to better understand the needs of their customers to provide them higher level of satisfaction. Building market advantages using a traditional approach based on material resources becoming less and less likely to increase competitiveness over the long term. The ability to use intangible assets, often more difficult to identify and manage, is becoming a key issue. Proper management of intangible assets can provide the company with unique market advantages that are unique, durable, and difficult to imitate. This study attempts to characterize selected dependencies between the nature of the actions undertaken by enterprises in relation to intellectual capital in the context of the strength of the level of competition in the market.

  9. Imitation, mirror neurons and autism

    OpenAIRE

    Williams, Justin H.G.; Whiten, Andrew; Suddendorf, Thomas; Perrett, David I.

    2001-01-01

    Various deficits in the cognitive functioning of people with autism have been documented in recent years but these provide only partial explanations for the condition. We focus instead on an imitative disturbance involving difficulties both in copying actions and in inhibiting more stereotyped mimicking, such as echolalia. A candidate for the neural basis of this disturbance may be found in a recently discovered class of neurons in frontal cortex, 'mirror neurons' (MNs). These neurons show ac...

  10. Body odors promote automatic imitation in autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parma, Valentina; Bulgheroni, Maria; Tirindelli, Roberto; Castiello, Umberto

    2013-08-01

    Autism spectrum disorders comprise a range of neurodevelopmental pathologies characterized, among other symptoms, by impaired social interactions. Individuals with this diagnosis are reported to often identify people by repetitively sniffing pieces of clothing or the body odor of family members. Since body odors are known to initiate and mediate many different social behaviors, smelling the body odor of a family member might constitute a sensory-based action promoting social contact. In light of this, we hypothesized that the body odor of a family member would facilitate the appearance of automatic imitation, an essential social skill known to be impaired in autism. We recruited 20 autistic and 20 typically developing children. Body odors were collected from the children's mothers' axillae. A child observed a model (their mother or a stranger mother) execute (or not) a reach-to-grasp action toward an object. Subsequently, she performed the same action. The object was imbued with the child's mother's odor, a stranger mother's odor, or no odor. The actions were videotaped, and movement time was calculated post hoc via a digitalization technique. Automatic imitation effects-expressed in terms of total movement time reduction-appear in autistic children only when exposed to objects paired with their own mother's odor. The maternal odor, which conveys a social message otherwise neglected, helps autistic children to covertly imitate the actions of others. Our results represent a starting point holding theoretical and practical relevance for the development of new strategies to enhance communication and social behavior among autistic individuals. Copyright © 2013 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Vocal Tract Images Reveal Neural Representations of Sensorimotor Transformation During Speech Imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carey, Daniel; Miquel, Marc E.; Evans, Bronwen G.; Adank, Patti; McGettigan, Carolyn

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Imitating speech necessitates the transformation from sensory targets to vocal tract motor output, yet little is known about the representational basis of this process in the human brain. Here, we address this question by using real-time MR imaging (rtMRI) of the vocal tract and functional MRI (fMRI) of the brain in a speech imitation paradigm. Participants trained on imitating a native vowel and a similar nonnative vowel that required lip rounding. Later, participants imitated these vowels and an untrained vowel pair during separate fMRI and rtMRI runs. Univariate fMRI analyses revealed that regions including left inferior frontal gyrus were more active during sensorimotor transformation (ST) and production of nonnative vowels, compared with native vowels; further, ST for nonnative vowels activated somatomotor cortex bilaterally, compared with ST of native vowels. Using test representational similarity analysis (RSA) models constructed from participants’ vocal tract images and from stimulus formant distances, we found that RSA searchlight analyses of fMRI data showed either type of model could be represented in somatomotor, temporal, cerebellar, and hippocampal neural activation patterns during ST. We thus provide the first evidence of widespread and robust cortical and subcortical neural representation of vocal tract and/or formant parameters, during prearticulatory ST. PMID:28334401

  12. Imitating the Brain with Neurocomputer A "New" Way Towards Artificial General Intelligence

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Tie-Jun Huang

    2017-01-01

    To achieve the artificial general intelligence (AGI),imitate the intelligence? or imitate the brain? This is the question! Most artificial intelligence (AI) approaches set the understanding of the intelligence principle as their premise.This may be correct to implement specific intelligence such as computing,symbolic logic,or what the AlphaGo could do.However,this is not correct for AGI,because to understand the principle of the brain intelligence is one of the most difficult challenges for our human beings.It is not wise to set such a question as the premise of the AGI mission.To achieve AGI,a practical approach is to build the so-called neurocomputer,which could be trained to produce autonomous intelligence and AGI.A neurocomputer imitates the biological neural network with neuromorphic devices which emulate the bio-neurons,synapses and other essential neural components.The neurocomputer could perceive the environment via sensors and interact with other entities via a physical body.The philosophy under the "new" approach,so-called as imitationalism in this paper,is the engineering methodology which has been practiced for thousands of years,and for many cases,such as the invention of the first airplane,succeeded.This paper compares the neurocomputer with the conventional computer.The major progress about neurocomputer is also reviewed.

  13. Brief Report: Imitation of Object-Directed Acts in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gonsiorowski, Anna; Williamson, Rebecca A.; Robins, Diana L.

    2016-01-01

    Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) imitate less than typically developing (TD) children; however, the specific features and causes of this deficit are still unclear. The current study investigates the role of joint engagement, specifically children's visual attention to demonstrations, in an object-directed imitation task. This sample…

  14. What Infant Memory Tells Us about Infantile Amnesia: Long-Term Recall and Deferred Imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    1995-01-01

    Long-term recall memory was assessed in 14- and 16 month-olds using a nonverbal method requiring subjects to reenact a past event from memory. The results demonstrated significant deferred imitation after delays of two and four months, and that the toddlers retained and imitated multiple acts. (MDM)

  15. Variant at serotonin transporter gene predicts increased imitation in toddlers: relevance to the human capacity for cumulative culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Kari Britt; Asherson, Philip; Blake, Peter R; Fenstermacher, Susan K; Saudino, Kimberly J

    2016-04-01

    Cumulative culture ostensibly arises from a set of sociocognitive processes which includes high-fidelity production imitation, prosociality and group identification. The latter processes are facilitated by unconscious imitation or social mimicry. The proximate mechanisms of individual variation in imitation may thus shed light on the evolutionary history of the human capacity for cumulative culture. In humans, a genetic component to variation in the propensity for imitation is likely. A functional length polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene, the short allele at 5HTTLPR, is associated with heightened responsiveness to the social environment as well as anatomical and activational differences in the brain's imitation circuity. Here, we evaluate whether this polymorphism contributes to variation in production imitation and social mimicry. Toddlers with the short allele at 5HTTLPR exhibit increased social mimicry and increased fidelity of demonstrated novel object manipulations. Thus, the short allele is associated with two forms of imitation that may underlie the human capacity for cumulative culture. The short allele spread relatively recently, possibly due to selection, and its frequency varies dramatically on a global scale. Diverse observations can be unified via conceptualization of 5HTTLPR as influencing the propensity to experience others' emotions, actions and sensations, potentially through the mirror mechanism. © 2016 The Author(s).

  16. Deferred imitation in 18-month-olds from two cultural contexts: the case of Cameroonian Nso farmer and German-middle class infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borchert, Sonja; Lamm, Bettina; Graf, Frauke; Knopf, Monika

    2013-12-01

    Imitative learning has been described in naturalistic studies for different cultures, but lab-based research studying imitative learning across different cultural contexts is almost missing. Therefore, imitative learning was assessed with 18-month-old German middle-class and Cameroonian Nso farmer infants - representing two highly different eco-cultural contexts associated with different cultural models, the psychological autonomy and the hierarchical relatedness - by using the deferred imitation paradigm. Study 1 revealed that the infants from both cultural contexts performed a higher number of target actions in the deferred imitation than in the baseline phase. Moreover, it was found that German middle-class infants showed a higher mean imitation rate as they performed more target actions in the deferred imitation phase compared with Cameroonian Nso farmer infants. It was speculated that the opportunity to manipulate the test objects directly after the demonstration of the target actions could enhance the mean deferred imitation rate of the Cameroonian Nso farmer infants which was confirmed in Study 2. Possible explanations for the differences in the amount of imitated target actions of German middle-class and Cameroonian Nso farmer infants are discussed considering the object-related, dyadic setting of the imitation paradigm with respect to the different learning contexts underlying the different cultural models of learning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. A Comparison of the Identifying Features of Imitated Handwriting and Elderly Handwriting

    OpenAIRE

    Jing Wang

    2017-01-01

    Imitated handwriting and elderly handwriting are two manifestation patterns of altered handwriting. Several similarities in features can be found in both, such as gentle movement and curved jitter. In practice, it is very easy to confuse the two patterns, leading to wrong decisions and difficulties in document examination. The key to solving these problems is to recognize the similarities and differences between imitated handwriting and elderly handwriting. This paper comprises four parts. Th...

  18. IMITATOR II: A Tool for Solving the Good Parameters Problem in Timed Automata

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Étienne André

    2010-10-01

    Full Text Available We present here Imitator II, a new version of Imitator, a tool implementing the "inverse method" for parametric timed automata: given a reference valuation of the parameters, it synthesizes a constraint such that, for any valuation satisfying this constraint, the system behaves the same as under the reference valuation in terms of traces, i.e., alternating sequences of locations and actions. Imitator II also implements the "behavioral cartography algorithm", allowing us to solve the following good parameters problem: find a set of valuations within a given bounded parametric domain for which the system behaves well. We present new features and optimizations of the tool, and give results of applications to various examples of asynchronous circuits and communication protocols.

  19. Learning of spatial relationships between observed and imitated actions allows invariant inverse computation in the frontal mirror neuron system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Hyuk; Gentili, Rodolphe J; Reggia, James A; Contreras-Vidal, José L

    2011-01-01

    It has been suggested that the human mirror neuron system can facilitate learning by imitation through coupling of observation and action execution. During imitation of observed actions, the functional relationship between and within the inferior frontal cortex, the posterior parietal cortex, and the superior temporal sulcus can be modeled within the internal model framework. The proposed biologically plausible mirror neuron system model extends currently available models by explicitly modeling the intraparietal sulcus and the superior parietal lobule in implementing the function of a frame of reference transformation during imitation. Moreover, the model posits the ventral premotor cortex as performing an inverse computation. The simulations reveal that: i) the transformation system can learn and represent the changes in extrinsic to intrinsic coordinates when an imitator observes a demonstrator; ii) the inverse model of the imitator's frontal mirror neuron system can be trained to provide the motor plans for the imitated actions.

  20. Do Imitation Problems Reflect a Core Characteristic in Autism? Evidence from a Literature Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvuchelen, Marleen; Roeyers, Herbert; De Weerdt, Willy

    2011-01-01

    Although imitation problems have been associated with autism for many years, the issue if these problems are a core deficit in autism remains subject of debate. In this review article, the question if autism imitation problems fulfil the criteria of uniqueness, specificity, universality, persistency, precedence and broadness is explored and…

  1. Interindividual Differences in Neonatal Imitation and the Development of Action Chains in Rhesus Macaques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrari, Pier Francesco; Paukner, Annika; Ruggiero, Angela; Darcey, Lisa; Unbehagen, Sarah; Suomi, Stephen J.

    2009-01-01

    The capacity to imitate facial gestures is highly variable in rhesus macaques and this variability may be related to differences in specific neurobehavioral patterns of development. This study evaluated the differential neonatal imitative response of 41 macaques in relation to the development of sensory, motor, and cognitive skills throughout the…

  2. Effects of Context and Facial Expression on Imitation Tasks in Preschool Children with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markodimitraki, Maria; Kypriotaki, Maria; Ampartzaki, Maria; Manolitsis, George

    2013-01-01

    The present study explored the effect of the context in which an imitation act occurs (elicited/spontaneous) and the experimenter's facial expression (neutral or smiling) during the imitation task with young children with autism and typically developing children. The participants were 10 typically developing children and 10 children with autism…

  3. Heterogeneous update mechanisms in evolutionary games: Mixing innovative and imitative dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amaral, Marco Antonio; Javarone, Marco Alberto

    2018-04-01

    Innovation and evolution are two processes of paramount relevance for social and biological systems. In general, the former allows the introduction of elements of novelty, while the latter is responsible for the motion of a system in its phase space. Often, these processes are strongly related, since an innovation can trigger the evolution, and the latter can provide the optimal conditions for the emergence of innovations. Both processes can be studied by using the framework of evolutionary game theory, where evolution constitutes an intrinsic mechanism. At the same time, the concept of innovation requires an opportune mathematical representation. Notably, innovation can be modeled as a strategy, or it can constitute the underlying mechanism that allows agents to change strategy. Here, we analyze the second case, investigating the behavior of a heterogeneous population, composed of imitative and innovative agents. Imitative agents change strategy only by imitating that of their neighbors, whereas innovative ones change strategy without the need for a copying source. The proposed model is analyzed by means of analytical calculations and numerical simulations in different topologies. Remarkably, results indicate that the mixing of mechanisms can be detrimental to cooperation near phase transitions. In those regions, the spatial reciprocity from imitative mechanisms is destroyed by innovative agents, leading to the downfall of cooperation. Our investigation sheds some light on the complex dynamics emerging from the heterogeneity of strategy revision methods, highlighting the role of innovation in evolutionary games.

  4. Using multi-level Bayesian lesion-symptom mapping to probe the body-part-specificity of gesture imitation skills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Achilles, Elisabeth I S; Weiss, Peter H; Fink, Gereon R; Binder, Ellen; Price, Cathy J; Hope, Thomas M H

    2017-11-01

    Past attempts to identify the neural substrates of hand and finger imitation skills in the left hemisphere of the brain have yielded inconsistent results. Here, we analyse those associations in a large sample of 257 left hemisphere stroke patients. By introducing novel Bayesian methods, we characterise lesion symptom associations at three levels: the voxel-level, the single-region level (using anatomically defined regions), and the region-pair level. The results are inconsistent across those three levels and we argue that each level of analysis makes assumptions which constrain the results it can produce. Regardless of the inconsistencies across levels, and contrary to past studies which implicated differential neural substrates for hand and finger imitation, we find no consistent voxels or regions, where damage affects one imitation skill and not the other, at any of the three analysis levels. Our novel Bayesian approach indicates that any apparent differences appear to be driven by an increased sensitivity of hand imitation skills to lesions that also impair finger imitation. In our analyses, the results of the highest level of analysis (region-pairs) emphasise a role of the primary somatosensory and motor cortices, and the occipital lobe in imitation. We argue that this emphasis supports an account of both imitation tasks based on direct sensor-motor connections, which throws doubt on past accounts which imply the need for an intermediate (e.g. body-part-coding) system of representation. Copyright © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT PROCESSES: AN INTEGRATED CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

    OpenAIRE

    HENAO-CALAD, MONICA; RIVERA-MONTOYA, PAULA; URIBE-OCHOA, BEATRIZ

    2017-01-01

    ABSTRACT Intellectual property management, knowledge management are disciplines that have been treated independently, both in academia and in the organizational field. Through the legal discipline of intellectual property, the former manages intangible assets that are eligible for protection (copyright, patents and trademarks, among others) leaving aside those assets that cannot be realized in any way. The latter is devoted to the processes of knowledge management in general, namely, the know...

  6. Neural bases of imitation and pantomime in acute stroke patients: distinct streams for praxis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoeren, Markus; Kümmerer, Dorothee; Bormann, Tobias; Beume, Lena; Ludwig, Vera M; Vry, Magnus-Sebastian; Mader, Irina; Rijntjes, Michel; Kaller, Christoph P; Weiller, Cornelius

    2014-10-01

    Apraxia is a cognitive disorder of skilled movements that characteristically affects the ability to imitate meaningless gestures, or to pantomime the use of tools. Despite substantial research, the neural underpinnings of imitation and pantomime have remained debated. An influential model states that higher motor functions are supported by different processing streams. A dorso-dorsal stream may mediate movements based on physical object properties, like reaching or grasping, whereas skilled tool use or pantomime rely on action representations stored within a ventro-dorsal stream. However, given variable results of past studies, the role of the two streams for imitation of meaningless gestures has remained uncertain, and the importance of the ventro-dorsal stream for pantomime of tool use has been questioned. To clarify the involvement of ventral and dorsal streams in imitation and pantomime, we performed voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping in a sample of 96 consecutive left-hemisphere stroke patients (mean age ± SD, 63.4 ± 14.8 years, 56 male). Patients were examined in the acute phase after ischaemic stroke (after a mean of 5.3, maximum 10 days) to avoid interference of brain reorganization with a reliable lesion-symptom mapping as best as possible. Patients were asked to imitate 20 meaningless hand and finger postures, and to pantomime the use of 14 common tools depicted as line drawings. Following the distinction between movement engrams and action semantics, pantomime errors were characterized as either movement or content errors, respectively. Whereas movement errors referred to incorrect spatio-temporal features of overall recognizable movements, content errors reflected an inability to associate tools with their prototypical actions. Both imitation and pantomime deficits were associated with lesions within the lateral occipitotemporal cortex, posterior inferior parietal lobule, posterior intraparietal sulcus and superior parietal lobule. However, the areas

  7. Is It Rational to Assume that Infants Imitate Rationally? A Theoretical Analysis and Critique

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulus, Markus

    2012-01-01

    It has been suggested that preverbal infants evaluate the efficiency of others' actions (by applying a "principle of rational action") and that they imitate others' actions rationally. The present contribution presents a conceptual analysis of the claim that preverbal infants imitate rationally. It shows that this ability rests on at least three…

  8. Kinematics and Kinetics of Squats, Drop Jumps and Imitation Jumps of Ski Jumpers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pauli, Carole A.; Keller, Melanie; Ammann, Fabian; Hübner, Klaus; Lindorfer, Julia; Taylor, William R.

    2016-01-01

    Abstract Pauli, CA, Keller, M, Ammann, F, Hübner, K, Lindorfer, J, Taylor, WR, and Lorenzetti, S. Kinematics and kinetics of squats, drop jumps and imitation jumps of ski jumpers. J Strength Cond Res 30(3): 643–652, 2016—Squats, drop jumps, and imitation jumps are commonly used training exercises in ski jumping to enhance maximum force, explosive force, and sport-specific skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the kinetics and kinematics of training exercises in ski jumping and to find objective parameters in training exercises that most correlate with the competition performance of ski jumpers. To this end, barbell squats, drop jumps, and imitation jumps were measured in a laboratory environment for 10 elite ski jumpers. Force and motion data were captured, and the influence of maximum vertical force, force difference, vertical take-off velocity, knee moments, knee joint power, and a knee valgus/varus index was evaluated and correlated with their season jump performance. The results indicate that, especially for the imitation jumps, a good correlation exists between the vertical take-off velocity and the personal jump performance on the hill (R = 0.718). Importantly, however, the more the athletes tended toward a valgus knee alignment during the measured movements, the worse their performance (R = 0.729 imitation jumps; R = 0.685 squats). Although an evaluation of the athletes' lower limb alignment during competitive jumping on the hill is still required, these preliminary data suggest that performance training should additionally concentrate on improving knee alignment to increase ski jumping performance. PMID:26418370

  9. Self-reported empathy and neural activity during action imitation and observation in schizophrenia

    OpenAIRE

    Horan, William P.; Iacoboni, Marco; Cross, Katy A.; Korb, Alex; Lee, Junghee; Nori, Poorang; Quintana, Javier; Wynn, Jonathan K.; Green, Michael F.

    2014-01-01

    Introduction: Although social cognitive impairments are key determinants of functional outcome in schizophrenia their neural bases are poorly understood. This study investigated neural activity during imitation and observation of finger movements and facial expressions in schizophrenia, and their correlates with self-reported empathy. Methods: 23 schizophrenia outpatients and 23 healthy controls were studied with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they imitated, executed, o...

  10. Evolution of Intellectual Property Protection in Post-Mao China: Law and Enforcement

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    W. Liu (Wenqi)

    2014-01-01

    markdownabstract__Abstract__ In modern society, knowledge and information have become the most important resources. Knowledge and information bring dramatic changes and create great wealth for our society. Intellectual property (IP) rights, exclusive rights granted to right holders, are

  11. Impaired imitation of gestures in mild dementia: comparison of dementia with Lewy bodies, Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nagahama, Yasuhiro; Okina, Tomoko; Suzuki, Norio

    2015-11-01

    To examine whether imitation of gestures provided useful information to diagnose early dementia in elderly patients. Imitation of finger and hand gestures was evaluated in patients with mild dementia; 74 patients had dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), 100 with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 52 with subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD). Significantly, more patients with DLB (32.4%) compared with patients with AD (5%) or SVaD (11.5%) had an impaired ability to imitate finger gestures bilaterally. Also, significantly, more patients with DLB (36.5%) compared with patients with AD (5%) or SVaD (15.4%) had lower mean scores of both hands. In contrast, impairment of the imitation of bimanual gestures was comparable among the three patient groups (DLB 50%, AD 42%, SVaD 42.3%). Our study revealed that imitation of bimanual gestures was impaired non-specifically in about half of the patients with mild dementia, whereas imitation of finger gestures was significantly more impaired in patients with early DLB than in those with AD or SVaD. Although the sensitivity was not high, the imitation tasks may provide additional information for diagnosis of mild dementia, especially for DLB. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  12. CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROVISIONAL MEASURES FOR THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN ROMANIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul-George BUTA

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available The article takes a look at provisions in the Code of Civil Procedure dealing with the provisional measures that can be requested by the intellectual property right-holder in case of apparent infringements of his rights. Starting from the goals of such regulation, as provided by Directive 48/2004, the article examines what could be the hurdles imposed by the Romanian legislator (mostly by not providing sufficiently tailored means in respect of intellectual property rights on the right-holder and proposes that, in light of the problems as reflected in the courts' practice, a legislative intervention be undertaken in order to better adapt the means to the purpose envisaged.

  13. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation reveals a role for the left inferior parietal lobule in matching observed kinematics during imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reader, Arran T; Royce, Ben P; Marsh, Jade E; Chivers, Katy-Jayne; Holmes, Nicholas P

    2018-04-01

    Apraxia (a disorder of complex movement) suggests that the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) plays a role in kinematic or spatial aspects of imitation, which may be particularly important for meaningless (i.e. unfamiliar intransitive) actions. Mirror neuron theories indicate that the IPL is part of a frontoparietal system that can support imitation by linking observed and stored actions through visuomotor matching, and have less to say about different subregions of the left IPL, or how different types of action (i.e. meaningful or meaningless) are processed for imitation. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to bridge this gap and better understand the roles of the left supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and left angular gyrus (AG) in imitation. We also examined whether these areas are differentially involved in meaningful and meaningless action imitation. We applied rTMS over the left SMG, over the left AG or during a no-rTMS baseline condition, and then asked participants to imitate a confederate's actions whilst the arm and hand movements of both individuals were motion-tracked. rTMS over both the left SMG and the left AG reduced the velocity of participants' finger movements relative to the actor during imitation of finger gestures, regardless of action meaning. Our results support recent claims in apraxia and confirm a role for the left IPL in kinematic processing during gesture imitation, regardless of action meaning. © 2018 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  14. See What I See, Do as I Do: Promoting Joint Attention and Imitation in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warreyn, Petra; Roeyers, Herbert

    2014-01-01

    Since imitation and joint attention are both important abilities for young children and since children with autism spectrum disorder show a range of problems in these domains, imitation and joint attention are important targets for intervention. In this study, we examined the possibility of promoting imitation and joint attention by means of a…

  15. The problematic estimation of "imitation effects" in multilevel models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    2003-09-01

    Full Text Available It seems plausible that a person's demographic behaviour may be influenced by that among other people in the community, for example because of an inclination to imitate. When estimating multilevel models from clustered individual data, some investigators might perhaps feel tempted to try to capture this effect by simply including on the right-hand side the average of the dependent variable, constructed by aggregation within the clusters. However, such modelling must be avoided. According to simulation experiments based on real fertility data from India, the estimated effect of this obviously endogenous variable can be very different from the true effect. Also the other community effect estimates can be strongly biased. An "imitation effect" can only be estimated under very special assumptions that in practice will be hard to defend.

  16. Effects of Bundle Type and Substitution with Spent Laying Hen Surimi on Quality Characteristics of Imitation Crabsticks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jin, Sang-Keun; Choi, Jung-Seok; Kim, Gap-Don

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of bundle type (BT) and substitution with spent laying hen (SH) surimi on quality characteristics of imitation crabsticks made from Alaska Pollack (AP) during 6 wk of cold storage. Diagonally bundled samples had poorer gel characteristics and more lipid oxidation when compared with straight bundled ones ( p imitation crabsticks deteriorated with storage time ( p 0.05). SH substitution had an effect on most quality characteristics of imitation crabsticks; darker and poorer gel characteristics were observed and its effect on sensory evaluation was seen at the initial storage. Thus, BT and SH substitution can be considered to have a slight effect on eating quality of imitation crabsticks, despite their negative effects on color, gel characteristics, and lipid oxidation.

  17. Exploring the Relationship between Gestural Recognition and Imitation: Evidence of Dyspraxia in Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ham, Heidi Stieglitz; Bartolo, Angela; Corley, Martin; Rajendran, Gnanathusharan; Szabo, Aniko; Swanson, Sara

    2011-01-01

    In this study, the relationship between gesture recognition and imitation was explored. Nineteen individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were compared to a control group of 23 typically developing children on their ability to imitate and recognize three gesture types (transitive, intransitive, and pantomimes). The ASD group performed more…

  18. Bend-imitating theory and electron scattering in sharply-bent quantum nanowires

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vakhnenko, O.O.

    2011-01-01

    The concept of bend-imitating description as applied to the one-electron quantum mechanics in sharply-bent ideal electron waveguides and its development into a self consistent theory are presented. In the framework of bend-imitating approach, the investigation of the electron scattering in a doubly-bent 2D quantum wire with S-like bend has been made, and the explicit dependences of the transmission and reflection coefficients on geometrical parameters of a structure, as well as on the electron energy, have been obtained. The total elimination of the mixing between the scattering channels of a S-like bent quantum wire is predicted.

  19. Number of genes controlling a quantitative trait in a hybrid zone of the aposematic frog Ranitomeya imitator

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vestergaard, Jacob Schack; Twomey, Evan; Larsen, Rasmus

    2015-01-01

    The number of genes controlling mimetic traits has been a topic of much research and discussion. In this paper, we examine a mimetic, dendrobatid frog Ranitomeya imitator, which harbours extensive phenotypic variation with multiple mimetic morphs, not unlike the celebrated Heliconius system...... and apply it to the R. imitator system. We show that probably one or two, or at most three genes, control the mimetic phenotype segregating in a R. imitator hybrid zone identified using image analyses....

  20. Imitation simulation of collective acquisition systems for nuclear-physical data

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryabov, Yu.F.; Khomutnikov, V.P.

    1981-01-01

    The imitation simulation method of collective investigation systems (CIS) oriented to the acquisition and express-processing of experiments performed on the basis of multi-beam research reactors under film data measurements by means of semiautomatic installations is described. The method is based on description of specific requests to the system as service phase sequences (small computer data acquisition, mass transfer in CIS, data bank record processing). The algorithm basis of these phases performed is delay imitation at each of the means employed. The structure of the simulating program is presented. The complex of programs is realized on the base of the NOST program packet for the M-4030 computer. Its efficiency in collective multiprogram systems investigation is shown [ru

  1. Is the Good-Imitator-Poor-Talker Profile Syndrome-Specific in Down Syndrome?: Evidence from Standardised Imitation and Language Measures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanvuchelen, M.; Feys, H.; De Weerdt, W.

    2011-01-01

    The emergence of the Down syndrome (DS) behavioural phenotype during early development may be of great importance for early intervention. The main goal of this study was to investigate the good-imitator-poor-talker developmental profile in DS at preschool age. Twenty children with Down syndrome (DS; mean nonverbal mental age NMA 1 y10 m) and 15…

  2. Mirror Me: Imitative Responses in Adults with Autism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schunke, Odette; Schöttle, Daniel; Vettorazzi, Eik; Brandt, Valerie; Kahl, Ursula; Bäumer, Tobias; Ganos, Christos; David, Nicole; Peiker, Ina; Engel, Andreas K; Brass, Marcel; Münchau, Alexander

    2016-01-01

    Dysfunctions of the human mirror neuron system have been postulated to underlie some deficits in autism spectrum disorders including poor imitative performance and impaired social skills. Using three reaction time experiments addressing mirror neuron system functions under simple and complex conditions, we examined 20 adult autism spectrum…

  3. Autism Severity and Motor Abilities Correlates of Imitation Situations in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zachor, Ditza A.; Ilanit, Tzaig; Itzchak, Esther Ben

    2010-01-01

    Impaired performance in a range of imitation tasks has been described in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and several underlying mechanism have been suggested. This study examined whether imitation abilities are related to autism severity and to motor skills. Furthermore, the performance of children with ASD in four imitation…

  4. Imitation from 12 to 24 Months in Autism and Typical Development: A Longitudinal Rasch Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Young, Gregory S.; Rogers, Sally J.; Hutman, Ted; Rozga, Agata; Sigman, Marian; Ozonoff, Sally

    2011-01-01

    The development of imitation during the second year of life plays an important role in domains of sociocognitive development such as language and social learning. Deficits in imitation ability in persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from toddlerhood into adulthood have also been repeatedly documented, raising the possibility that early…

  5. INNOVATION, IMITATION, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE INTRODUCTION AND DIFFUSION OF THE HOMEOWNERS POLICY, 1944-1960

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Paul Rossi

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper uses the introduction of the homeowners policy in the United States insurance market in the I950s to explore the process of innovation and the role that innovators (entrepreneurs and imitators play within it through an examination of Schumpeter’s theory of innovation and its discussion in the recent economic literature on innovation and imitation. Schumpeter’s model of entrepreneurial innovation is tested through a case study of the homeowners policy’s introduction in 1950 and its subsequent diffusion throughout the decade. The policy was an innovative product which helped transform the property-casualty sector of the insurance industry. Thus, this case study supports Schumpeter’s model of entrepreneurial innovation and illustrates the significant role that imitation plays within it.

  6. Long-term memory, forgetting, and deferred imitation in 12-month-old infants

    OpenAIRE

    Klein, Pamela J.; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    1999-01-01

    Long-term recall memory, as indexed by deferred imitation, was assessed in 12-month-old infants. Independent groups of infants were tested after retention intervals of 3 min, 1 week and 4 weeks. Deferred imitation was assessed using the ‘observation-only’ procedure in which infants were not allowed motor practice on the tasks before the delay was imposed. Thus, the memory could not have been based on re-accessing a motor habit, because none was formed in the first place. After the delay, memo...

  7. Effects of Dog-Assisted Therapy on Communication and Basic Social Skills of Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Pilot Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scorzato, Ivano; Zaninotto, Leonardo; Romano, Michela; Menardi, Chiara; Cavedon, Lino; Pegoraro, Alessandra; Socche, Laura; Zanetti, Piera; Coppiello, Deborah

    2017-06-01

    Thirty-nine adults with severe to profound intellectual disability (ID) were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 21) or a control group (n = 18). Assessment was blinded and included selected items from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), the Behavioral Assessment Battery (BAB), and the Learning Accomplishment Profile (LAP). The experimental group, who attended a dog-assisted treatment intervention over a 20-week period, showed significant improvements in several cognitive domains, including attention to movement (BAB-AM), visuomotor coordination (BAB-VM), exploratory play (BAB-EP), and motor imitation (BAB-CO-MI), as well as in some social skills, as measured by LAP items. Effects were specific to the intervention and independent of age or basic level of disability.

  8. Intellectual property in consumer electronics, software and technology startups

    CERN Document Server

    Halt, Jr , Gerald B; Stiles, Amber R; Fesnak, Robert

    2014-01-01

    This book provides a comprehensive guide to procuring, utilizing and monetizing intellectual property rights, tailored for readers in the high-tech consumer electronics and software industries, as well as technology startups.  Numerous, real examples, case studies and scenarios are incorporated throughout the book to illustrate the topics discussed.  Readers will learn what to consider throughout the various creative phases of a product’s lifespan from initial research and development initiatives through post-production.  Readers will gain an understanding of the intellectual property protections afforded to U.S. corporations, methods to pro-actively reduce potential problems, and guidelines for future considerations to reduce legal spending, prevent IP theft, and allow for greater profitability from corporate innovation and inventiveness. • Offers a comprehensive guide to intellectual property for readers in high-tech consumer electronics, software and technology startups; • Uses real case studies...

  9. 智慧創作專用權之性質與使用倫理─給原創條例的幾點建議 The Legal Character and Culturally Appropriate Practices of Traditional Indigenous Intellectual Creations—Suggestions for the Protection Act for the Traditional Intellectual Creations of Indigenous Peoples

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    林孟玲 Meng-Ling Lin

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available 原住民族智慧創作保護條例的制定,對於保護原住民族的傳統智慧創作、文化成果之表達有顯著的貢獻。原創條例雖然立法意旨甚佳,是專門為保護原住民族傳統智慧創作所量身定作之立法,也注意到了原住民族智慧創作有別於著作權之概念,而做出調整。但是條例所用的權利保護概念,卻仍沿用著作權之規定,是美中不足之處。例如:「智慧創作專用權」的內涵仍沿用著作權的權利概念「智慧創作財產權」與「智慧創作人格權」;如果對於智慧創作專用權造成侵害,智慧創作專用權人的救濟管道與著作權受侵害的救濟方式並無二致,包括:排除侵害請求權、請求防止侵害請求權、損害賠償請求權、請求銷毀侵害智慧創作之物。此外,原創條例並未提及使用原住民族之傳統智慧創作時,不能違反原住民族傳統價值等觀念,有如進行關於原住民族的學術研究時,有特別應遵守的研究倫理。本文從智慧創作專用權性質之討論出發,繼而探討智慧創作財產權與智慧創作人格權之內涵。舉例說明基於部落習慣法而來的,智慧創作之使用所應注意之使用倫理後,最後亦根據部落習慣法,闡述現行智慧創作專用權之權利救濟管道妥適性。本文之建議期使原創條例能真正落實其立法目的:保護原住民族傳統智慧創作以及促進原住民族文化發展。 The enactment of the Protection Act for the Traditional Intellectual Creations of Indigenous Peoples makes great contributions to the development and protection of indigenous traditional intellectual creations by adopting indigenous legal concepts suitable to tribal culture. For example, it recognizes collective rights to indigenous creations. Also, it recognizes that the period for legal protection of indigenous traditional intellectual creations as an

  10. Infant Imitation after a 1-Week Delay: Long-Term Memory for Novel Acts and Multiple Stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    1988-01-01

    Investigated deferred imitation ability for six actions in 14-month-old infants. After a week's delay, infants were tested on their ability to imitate the actions.Those who had been exposed to modeling produced significantly higher instances of the target actions. (SKC)

  11. A Short Introduction to Intellectual Property Rights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Voss, Trina; Paranjpe, Arvin S; Cook, Travis G; Garrison, Nicole D W

    2017-06-01

    Intellectual property (IP) is a term that describes a number of distinct types of intangible assets. IP protection allows a rightsholder to exclude others from interfering with or using the property right in specified ways. The main forms of IP are patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Each type of IP protection is different, varying in the subject matter that can be covered, timeframe of protection, and total expense. Although some inventions may be covered by multiple types of IP protection, it is important to consider a number of business and legal factors before selecting the best protection strategy. Some technologies require strong IP protection to commercialize, but unnecessary costs can derail bringing a product to market. IP departments of organizations weigh these various considerations and perform essential IP protection functions. This primer introduces researchers to the main forms of IP and its legal aspects. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Cooperation guided by the coexistence of imitation dynamics and aspiration dynamics in structured populations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Kuangyi; Li, Kun; Cong, Rui; Wang, Long

    2017-02-01

    In the framework of the evolutionary game theory, two fundamentally different mechanisms, the imitation process and the aspiration-driven dynamics, can be adopted by players to update their strategies. In the former case, individuals imitate the strategy of a more successful peer, while in the latter case individuals change their strategies based on a comparison of payoffs they collect in the game to their own aspiration levels. Here we explore how cooperation evolves for the coexistence of these two dynamics. Intriguingly, cooperation reaches its lowest level when a certain moderate fraction of individuals pick aspiration-level-driven rule while the others choose pairwise comparison rule. Furthermore, when individuals can adjust their update rules besides their strategies, either imitation dynamics or aspiration-driven dynamics will finally take over the entire population, and the stationary cooperation level is determined by the outcome of competition between these two dynamics. We find that appropriate synergetic effects and moderate aspiration level boost the fixation probability of aspiration-driven dynamics most effectively. Our work may be helpful in understanding the cooperative behavior induced by the coexistence of imitation dynamics and aspiration dynamics in the society.

  13. Intellectual property rights and research disclosure in the university environment: preserving the commercialization option and optimizing market interest.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patino, Robert

    2009-03-01

    Clinical and basic scientists at academic medical and biomedical research institutions often form ideas that could have both monetary and human health benefits if developed and applied to improvement of human wellbeing. However, such ideas lose much of their potential value in both regards if they are disclosed in traditional knowledge-sharing forums such as abstracts, posters, and oral presentations at research meetings. Learning the basics about intellectual property protection and obtaining professional guidance in the management of intellectual property from a knowledgeable technology management professional or intellectual property attorney can avoid such losses yet pose a minimal burden of confidentiality on the investigator. Knowing how to successfully navigate the early stages of intellectual property protection can greatly increase the likelihood that discoveries and knowledge will become available for the public good without diminishing the important mandate of disseminating knowledge through traditional knowledge-sharing forums.

  14. A Comparison of English and Mandarin-Speaking Preschool Children’s Imitation of Motion Events

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhidan Wang

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Typically in English, a “satellite-framed” language, manner is expressed in the verb and path is expressed in supporting words. Past studies using looking time techniques suggest that English-speaking 3-year-olds show language-specific action processing, but 2.5-year-olds preferentially attend to path regardless of native language. In Study 1, we test whether language-specific action component preferences will be reflected in children’s imitation, as a more explicit measure. Children who spoke English saw an adult move an object along a series of platforms using one of two paths and manners. Then, the children were given the opportunity to move the object on a different test platform, which was designed to force them to choose to reproduce either the demonstrated path or the manner. The results showed that 3-year-olds, but not 2.5-year-olds, were more likely to imitate the manner versus the path. In Study 2, we extend the investigation to a less commonly studied language within this domain, Mandarin. Typically in Mandarin, an “equipollently framed” language, both manner and path are expressed within equally significant verbs. The results indicated that 3-year-olds did not show a consistent preference to imitate either the path or the manner. In contrast, 2.5-year-olds were more likely to imitate the path than the manner. This research highlights the potential for the imitation choice paradigm, as an explicit measure, to understand how language affects cognition, and suggests a new language-specific pattern in action interpretation.

  15. Humanoid Cognitive Robots That Learn by Imitating: Implications for Consciousness Studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James A. Reggia

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available While the concept of a conscious machine is intriguing, producing such a machine remains controversial and challenging. Here, we describe how our work on creating a humanoid cognitive robot that learns to perform tasks via imitation learning relates to this issue. Our discussion is divided into three parts. First, we summarize our previous framework for advancing the understanding of the nature of phenomenal consciousness. This framework is based on identifying computational correlates of consciousness. Second, we describe a cognitive robotic system that we recently developed that learns to perform tasks by imitating human-provided demonstrations. This humanoid robot uses cause–effect reasoning to infer a demonstrator’s intentions in performing a task, rather than just imitating the observed actions verbatim. In particular, its cognitive components center on top-down control of a working memory that retains the explanatory interpretations that the robot constructs during learning. Finally, we describe our ongoing work that is focused on converting our robot’s imitation learning cognitive system into purely neurocomputational form, including both its low-level cognitive neuromotor components, its use of working memory, and its causal reasoning mechanisms. Based on our initial results, we argue that the top-down cognitive control of working memory, and in particular its gating mechanisms, is an important potential computational correlate of consciousness in humanoid robots. We conclude that developing high-level neurocognitive control systems for cognitive robots and using them to search for computational correlates of consciousness provides an important approach to advancing our understanding of consciousness, and that it provides a credible and achievable route to ultimately developing a phenomenally conscious machine.

  16. Poor neuro-motor tuning of the human larynx: a comparison of sung and whistled pitch imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Joseph F.; Kotz, Sonja A.

    2018-01-01

    Vocal imitation is a hallmark of human communication that underlies the capacity to learn to speak and sing. Even so, poor vocal imitation abilities are surprisingly common in the general population and even expert vocalists cannot match the precision of a musical instrument. Although humans have evolved a greater degree of control over the laryngeal muscles that govern voice production, this ability may be underdeveloped compared with control over the articulatory muscles, such as the tongue and lips, volitional control of which emerged earlier in primate evolution. Human participants imitated simple melodies by either singing (i.e. producing pitch with the larynx) or whistling (i.e. producing pitch with the lips and tongue). Sung notes were systematically biased towards each individual's habitual pitch, which we hypothesize may act to conserve muscular effort. Furthermore, while participants who sung more precisely also whistled more precisely, sung imitations were less precise than whistled imitations. The laryngeal muscles that control voice production are under less precise control than the oral muscles that are involved in whistling. This imprecision may be due to the relatively recent evolution of volitional laryngeal-motor control in humans, which may be tuned just well enough for the coarse modulation of vocal-pitch in speech. PMID:29765635

  17. Sentence Imitation as a Marker of SLI in Czech: Disproportionate Impairment of Verbs and Clitics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smolík, Filip; Vávru, Petra

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: The authors examined sentence imitation as a potential clinical marker of specific language impairment (SLI) in Czech and its use to identify grammatical markers of SLI. Method: Children with SLI and the age-and language-matched control groups (total N = 57) were presented with a sentence imitation task, a receptive vocabulary task, and…

  18. Imitation explains the propagation, not the stability of animal culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Claidière, Nicolas; Sperber, Dan

    2010-02-22

    For acquired behaviour to count as cultural, two conditions must be met: it must propagate in a social group, and it must remain stable across generations in the process of propagation. It is commonly assumed that imitation is the mechanism that explains both the spread of animal culture and its stability. We review the literature on transmission chain studies in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and other animals, and we use a formal model to argue that imitation, which may well play a major role in the propagation of animal culture, cannot be considered faithful enough to explain its stability. We consider the contribution that other psychological and ecological factors might make to the stability of animal culture observed in the wild.

  19. Imitating Cooperation and the Formation of long-term Relationships

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schumacher, Heiner

    2013-01-01

    We study the infinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma with the option to maintain or to quit relationships. We show that if agents imitate successful strategies infrequently, defection is not dynamically stable and cooperation emerges regardless of the initial distribution of strategies....

  20. Foundations of hardware IP protection

    CERN Document Server

    Torres, Lionel

    2017-01-01

    This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the design of security-hardened, hardware intellectual property (IP). Readers will learn how IP can be threatened, as well as protected, by using means such as hardware obfuscation/camouflaging, watermarking, fingerprinting (PUF), functional locking, remote activation, hidden transmission of data, hardware Trojan detection, protection against hardware Trojan, use of secure element, ultra-lightweight cryptography, and digital rights management. This book serves as a single-source reference to design space exploration of hardware security and IP protection. · Provides readers with a comprehensive overview of hardware intellectual property (IP) security, describing threat models and presenting means of protection, from integrated circuit layout to digital rights management of IP; · Enables readers to transpose techniques fundamental to digital rights management (DRM) to the realm of hardware IP security; · Introduce designers to the concept of salutar...

  1. Kinematics and Kinetics of Squats, Drop Jumps and Imitation Jumps of Ski Jumpers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pauli, Carole A; Keller, Melanie; Ammann, Fabian; Hübner, Klaus; Lindorfer, Julia; Taylor, William R; Lorenzetti, Silvio

    2016-03-01

    Squats, drop jumps, and imitation jumps are commonly used training exercises in ski jumping to enhance maximum force, explosive force, and sport-specific skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the kinetics and kinematics of training exercises in ski jumping and to find objective parameters in training exercises that most correlate with the competition performance of ski jumpers. To this end, barbell squats, drop jumps, and imitation jumps were measured in a laboratory environment for 10 elite ski jumpers. Force and motion data were captured, and the influence of maximum vertical force, force difference, vertical take-off velocity, knee moments, knee joint power, and a knee valgus/varus index was evaluated and correlated with their season jump performance. The results indicate that, especially for the imitation jumps, a good correlation exists between the vertical take-off velocity and the personal jump performance on the hill (R = 0.718). Importantly, however, the more the athletes tended toward a valgus knee alignment during the measured movements, the worse their performance (R = 0.729 imitation jumps; R = 0.685 squats). Although an evaluation of the athletes' lower limb alignment during competitive jumping on the hill is still required, these preliminary data suggest that performance training should additionally concentrate on improving knee alignment to increase ski jumping performance.

  2. Prefrontal involvement in imitation learning of hand actions: effects of practice and expertise.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vogt, Stefan; Buccino, Giovanni; Wohlschläger, Afra M; Canessa, Nicola; Shah, N Jon; Zilles, Karl; Eickhoff, Simon B; Freund, Hans-Joachim; Rizzolatti, Giacomo; Fink, Gereon R

    2007-10-01

    In this event-related fMRI study, we demonstrate the effects of a single session of practising configural hand actions (guitar chords) on cortical activations during observation, motor preparation and imitative execution. During the observation of non-practised actions, the mirror neuron system (MNS), consisting of inferior parietal and ventral premotor areas, was more strongly activated than for the practised actions. This finding indicates a strong role of the MNS in the early stages of imitation learning. In addition, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was selectively involved during observation and motor preparation of the non-practised chords. This finding confirms Buccino et al.'s [Buccino, G., Vogt, S., Ritzl, A., Fink, G.R., Zilles, K., Freund, H.-J., Rizzolatti, G., 2004a. Neural circuits underlying imitation learning of hand actions: an event-related fMRI study. Neuron 42, 323-334] model of imitation learning: for actions that are not yet part of the observer's motor repertoire, DLPFC engages in operations of selection and combination of existing, elementary representations in the MNS. The pattern of prefrontal activations further supports Shallice's [Shallice, T., 2004. The fractionation of supervisory control. In: Gazzaniga, M.S. (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences, Third edition. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 943-956] proposal of a dominant role of the left DLPFC in modulating lower level systems and of a dominant role of the right DLPFC in monitoring operations.

  3. Learning of Spatial Relationships between Observed and Imitated Actions allows Invariant Inverse Computation in the Frontal Mirror Neuron System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, Hyuk; Gentili, Rodolphe J.; Reggia, James A.; Contreras-Vidal, José L.

    2014-01-01

    It has been suggested that the human mirror neuron system can facilitate learning by imitation through coupling of observation and action execution. During imitation of observed actions, the functional relationship between and within the inferior frontal cortex, the posterior parietal cortex, and the superior temporal sulcus can be modeled within the internal model framework. The proposed biologically plausible mirror neuron system model extends currently available models by explicitly modeling the intraparietal sulcus and the superior parietal lobule in implementing the function of a frame of reference transformation during imitation. Moreover, the model posits the ventral premotor cortex as performing an inverse computation. The simulations reveal that: i) the transformation system can learn and represent the changes in extrinsic to intrinsic coordinates when an imitator observes a demonstrator; ii) the inverse model of the imitator’s frontal mirror neuron system can be trained to provide the motor plans for the imitated actions. PMID:22255261

  4. Functional lateralization of temporoparietal junction - imitation inhibition, visual perspective-taking and theory of mind.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santiesteban, Idalmis; Banissy, Michael J; Catmur, Caroline; Bird, Geoffrey

    2015-10-01

    Although neuroimaging studies have consistently identified the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) as a key brain region involved in social cognition, the literature is far from consistent with respect to lateralization of function. For example, during theory-of-mind tasks bilateral TPJ activation is found in some studies but only right hemisphere activation in others. Visual perspective-taking and imitation inhibition, which have been argued to recruit the same socio-cognitive processes as theory of mind, are associated with unilateral activation of either left TPJ (perspective taking) or right TPJ (imitation inhibition). The present study investigated the functional lateralization of TPJ involvement in the above three socio-cognitive abilities using transcranial direct current stimulation. Three groups of healthy adults received anodal stimulation over right TPJ, left TPJ or the occipital cortex prior to performing three tasks (imitation inhibition, visual perspective-taking and theory of mind). In contrast to the extant neuroimaging literature, our results suggest bilateral TPJ involvement in imitation inhibition and visual perspective-taking, while no effect of anodal stimulation was observed on theory of mind. The discrepancy between these findings and those obtained using neuroimaging highlight the efficacy of neurostimulation as a complementary methodological tool in cognitive neuroscience. © 2015 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  5. Protection, Participation and Protection through Participation: Young People with Intellectual Disabilities and Decision Making in the Family Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saaltink, R.; MacKinnon, G.; Owen, F.; Tardif-Williams, C.

    2012-01-01

    Background: Research suggests that persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are expected to be more compliant than persons without disabilities and that expectations for compliance begin in childhood. No study, however, seems yet to have included a primary focus on the participatory rights, or rights to express opinions, desires and preferences…

  6. Betraying the Intellectual Tradition: Public Intellectuals and the Crisis of Youth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giroux, Henry A.

    2003-01-01

    Building upon the late Pierre Bourdieu's belief that intellectuals had a major responsibility in bridging intellectual work and the operation of politics, this paper argues that intellectuals, especially those in higher education, need to recognise that youth is an important moral referent and political starting point for addressing a number of…

  7. Mirror neurons and imitation: a computationally guided review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oztop, Erhan; Kawato, Mitsuo; Arbib, Michael

    2006-04-01

    Neurophysiology reveals the properties of individual mirror neurons in the macaque while brain imaging reveals the presence of 'mirror systems' (not individual neurons) in the human. Current conceptual models attribute high level functions such as action understanding, imitation, and language to mirror neurons. However, only the first of these three functions is well-developed in monkeys. We thus distinguish current opinions (conceptual models) on mirror neuron function from more detailed computational models. We assess the strengths and weaknesses of current computational models in addressing the data and speculations on mirror neurons (macaque) and mirror systems (human). In particular, our mirror neuron system (MNS), mental state inference (MSI) and modular selection and identification for control (MOSAIC) models are analyzed in more detail. Conceptual models often overlook the computational requirements for posited functions, while too many computational models adopt the erroneous hypothesis that mirror neurons are interchangeable with imitation ability. Our meta-analysis underlines the gap between conceptual and computational models and points out the research effort required from both sides to reduce this gap.

  8. Atypical biological motion kinematics are represented by complementary lower-level and top-down processes during imitation learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayes, Spencer J; Dutoy, Chris A; Elliott, Digby; Gowen, Emma; Bennett, Simon J

    2016-01-01

    Learning a novel movement requires a new set of kinematics to be represented by the sensorimotor system. This is often accomplished through imitation learning where lower-level sensorimotor processes are suggested to represent the biological motion kinematics associated with an observed movement. Top-down factors have the potential to influence this process based on the social context, attention and salience, and the goal of the movement. In order to further examine the potential interaction between lower-level and top-down processes in imitation learning, the aim of this study was to systematically control the mediating effects during an imitation of biological motion protocol. In this protocol, we used non-human agent models that displayed different novel atypical biological motion kinematics, as well as a control model that displayed constant velocity. Importantly the three models had the same movement amplitude and movement time. Also, the motion kinematics were displayed in the presence, or absence, of end-state-targets. Kinematic analyses showed atypical biological motion kinematics were imitated, and that this performance was different from the constant velocity control condition. Although the imitation of atypical biological motion kinematics was not modulated by the end-state-targets, movement time was more accurate in the absence, compared to the presence, of an end-state-target. The fact that end-state targets modulated movement time accuracy, but not biological motion kinematics, indicates imitation learning involves top-down attentional, and lower-level sensorimotor systems, which operate as complementary processes mediated by the environmental context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. A developmental approach of imitation to study the emergence of mirror neurons in a sensory-motor controller

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaussier Philippe

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Mirror neurons have often been considered as the explanation of how primates can imitate. In this paper, we show that a simple neural network architecture that learns visuo-motor associations can be enough to let low level imitation emerge without a priori mirror neurons. Adding sequence learning mechanisms and action inhibition allows to perform deferred imitation of gestures demonstrated visually or by body manipulation. With the building of a cognitive map giving the capability of learning plans, we can study in our model the emergence of both low level and high level resonances highlighted by Rizzolatti et al.

  10. Imitation by Second-Borns in Adult-Sibling Dyads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodapp, Albert F.; LaVoie, Joseph C.

    Five- to seven-year-old second-born children from white, middle-class, intact families were the subjects for this study. Older siblings served as role model for each child, and the parent surrogate models were selected from a pool and trained to act as the child's real parent. The imitation task emphasized verbal, postural, and motor responses of…

  11. The Relation Between Intellectual Functioning and Adaptive Behavior in the Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tassé, Marc J; Luckasson, Ruth; Schalock, Robert L

    2016-12-01

    Intellectual disability originates during the developmental period and is characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. In this article, we present a brief history of the diagnostic criteria of intellectual disability for both the DSM-5 and AAIDD. The article also (a) provides an update of the understanding of adaptive behavior, (b) dispels two thinking errors regarding mistaken temporal or causal link between intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, (c) explains that there is a strong correlational, but no causative, relation between intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior, and (d) asserts that once a question of determining intellectual disability is raised, both intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior are assessed and considered jointly and weighed equally in the diagnosis of intellectual disability. We discuss the problems created by an inaccurate statement that appears in the DSM-5 regarding a causal link between deficits in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior and propose an immediate revision to remove this erroneous and confounding statement.

  12. Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lukowski, Angela F; Milojevich, Helen M

    2016-04-28

    The ability to recall the past allows us to report on details of previous experiences, from the everyday to the significant. Because recall memory is commonly assessed using verbal report paradigms in adults, studying the development of this ability in preverbal infants and children proved challenging. Over the past 30 years, researchers have developed a non-verbal means of assessing recall memory known as the elicited or deferred imitation paradigm. In one variant of the procedure, participants are presented with novel three-dimensional stimuli for a brief baseline period before a researcher demonstrates a series of actions that culminate in an end- or goal-state. The participant is allowed to imitate the demonstrated actions immediately, after a delay, or both. Recall performance is then compared to baseline or to performance on novel control sequences presented at the same session; memory can be assessed for the individual target actions and the order in which they were completed. This procedure is an accepted analogue to the verbal report techniques used with adults, and it has served to establish a solid foundation of the nature of recall memory in infancy and early childhood. In addition, the elicited or deferred imitation procedure has been modified and adapted to answer questions relevant to other aspects of cognitive functioning. The broad utility and application of imitation paradigms is discussed, along with limitations of the approach and directions for future research.

  13. Where there is a goal, there is a way: what, why and how the parieto-frontal mirror network can mediate imitative behaviours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Casartelli, Luca; Molteni, Massimo

    2014-11-01

    The relationships between mirror neurons (MNs) and motor imitation, and its clinical implications in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been widely investigated; however, the literature remains—at least partially—controversial. In this review we support a multi-level action understanding model focusing on the mirror-based understanding. We review the functional role of the parieto-frontal MNs (PFMN) network claiming that PFMNs function cannot be limited to imitation nor can imitation be explained solely by the activity of PFMNs. The distinction between movement, motor act and motor action is useful to characterize deeply both act(ion) understanding and imitation of act(ion). A more abstract representation of act(ion) may be crucial for clarifying what, why and how an imitator is imitating. What counts in social interactions is achieving goals: it does not matter which effector or string of motor acts you eventually use for achieving (proximal and distal) goals. Similarly, what counts is the ability to recognize/imitate the style of act(ion) regardless of the way in which it is expressed. We address this crucial point referring to its potential implications in ASD. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Imitation and reactor studies of irradiation effect on material mechanic properties

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ozhigov, L.S.

    1999-01-01

    Processes of low- and high-temperature radiation embrittlement, radiation creeping and their influence on reactor material properties are considered. Role of imitation experiments in these processes is analysed

  15. Children's Representation and Imitation of Events: How Goal Organization Influences 3-Year-Old Children's Memory for Action Sequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loucks, Jeff; Mutschler, Christina; Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    2017-01-01

    Children's imitation of adults plays a prominent role in human cognitive development. However, few studies have investigated how children represent the complex structure of observed actions which underlies their imitation. We integrate theories of action segmentation, memory, and imitation to investigate whether children's event representation is…

  16. Acquisition of Automatic Imitation Is Sensitive to Sensorimotor Contingency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, Richard; Press, Clare; Dickinson, Anthony; Heyes, Cecilia

    2010-01-01

    The associative sequence learning model proposes that the development of the mirror system depends on the same mechanisms of associative learning that mediate Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. To test this model, two experiments used the reduction of automatic imitation through incompatible sensorimotor training to assess whether mirror…

  17. Observation and imitation of actions performed by humans, androids, and robots: an EMG study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofree, Galit; Urgen, Burcu A.; Winkielman, Piotr; Saygin, Ayse P.

    2015-01-01

    Understanding others’ actions is essential for functioning in the physical and social world. In the past two decades research has shown that action perception involves the motor system, supporting theories that we understand others’ behavior via embodied motor simulation. Recently, empirical approach to action perception has been facilitated by using well-controlled artificial stimuli, such as robots. One broad question this approach can address is what aspects of similarity between the observer and the observed agent facilitate motor simulation. Since humans have evolved among other humans and animals, using artificial stimuli such as robots allows us to probe whether our social perceptual systems are specifically tuned to process other biological entities. In this study, we used humanoid robots with different degrees of human-likeness in appearance and motion along with electromyography (EMG) to measure muscle activity in participants’ arms while they either observed or imitated videos of three agents produce actions with their right arm. The agents were a Human (biological appearance and motion), a Robot (mechanical appearance and motion), and an Android (biological appearance and mechanical motion). Right arm muscle activity increased when participants imitated all agents. Increased muscle activation was found also in the stationary arm both during imitation and observation. Furthermore, muscle activity was sensitive to motion dynamics: activity was significantly stronger for imitation of the human than both mechanical agents. There was also a relationship between the dynamics of the muscle activity and motion dynamics in stimuli. Overall our data indicate that motor simulation is not limited to observation and imitation of agents with a biological appearance, but is also found for robots. However we also found sensitivity to human motion in the EMG responses. Combining data from multiple methods allows us to obtain a more complete picture of action

  18. Observation and Imitation of Actions Performed by Humans, Androids and Robots: An EMG study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Galit eHofree

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Understanding others’ actions is essential for functioning in the physical and social world. In the past two decades research has shown that action perception involves the motor system, supporting theories that we understand others’ behavior via embodied motor simulation. Recently, action perception has been facilitated by using well-controlled artificial stimuli, such as robots. One key question this approach enables is what aspects of similarity between the observer and the observed agent facilitate motor simulation? Since humans have evolved among other humans and animals, using artificial stimuli such as robots allows us to probe whether our social perceptual systems are tuned to process other biological entities. In this study, we used humanoid robots with different degrees of humanlikeness in appearance and motion along with electromyography (EMG to measure muscle activity in participants’ arms while they either observed or imitated videos of three agents produce actions with their right arm. The agents were a Human (biological appearance and motion, a Robot (mechanical appearance and motion and an Android (biological appearance, mechanical motion. Right arm muscle activity increased when participants imitated all agents. Increased muscle activation was found also in the stationary arm both during imitation and observation. Furthermore, muscle activity was sensitive to motion dynamics: activity was significantly stronger for imitation of the human than both mechanical agents. There was also a relationship between the dynamics of the muscle activity and motion dynamics in stimuli. Overall our data indicate that motor simulation is not limited to observation and imitation of agents with a biological appearance, but is also found for robots. However we also found sensitivity to human motion in the EMG responses. Combining data from multiple methods allows us to obtain a more complete picture of action understanding and the underlying

  19. The shared circuits model (SCM): how control, mirroring, and simulation can enable imitation, deliberation, and mindreading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hurley, Susan

    2008-02-01

    Imitation, deliberation, and mindreading are characteristically human sociocognitive skills. Research on imitation and its role in social cognition is flourishing across various disciplines. Imitation is surveyed in this target article under headings of behavior, subpersonal mechanisms, and functions of imitation. A model is then advanced within which many of the developments surveyed can be located and explained. The shared circuits model (SCM) explains how imitation, deliberation, and mindreading can be enabled by subpersonal mechanisms of control, mirroring, and simulation. It is cast at a middle, functional level of description, that is, between the level of neural implementation and the level of conscious perceptions and intentional actions. The SCM connects shared informational dynamics for perception and action with shared informational dynamics for self and other, while also showing how the action/perception, self/other, and actual/possible distinctions can be overlaid on these shared informational dynamics. It avoids the common conception of perception and action as separate and peripheral to central cognition. Rather, it contributes to the situated cognition movement by showing how mechanisms for perceiving action can be built on those for active perception.;>;>The SCM is developed heuristically, in five layers that can be combined in various ways to frame specific ontogenetic or phylogenetic hypotheses. The starting point is dynamic online motor control, whereby an organism is closely attuned to its embedding environment through sensorimotor feedback. Onto this are layered functions of prediction and simulation of feedback, mirroring, simulation of mirroring, monitored inhibition of motor output, and monitored simulation of input. Finally, monitored simulation of input specifying possible actions plus inhibited mirroring of such possible actions can generate information about the possible as opposed to actual instrumental actions of others, and the

  20. "Should I or shouldn't I?" Imitation of undesired versus allowed actions from peer and adult models by 18- and 24-month-old toddlers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seehagen, Sabine; Schneider, Silvia; Miebach, Kristin; Frigge, Katharina; Zmyj, Norbert

    2017-11-01

    Imitation is a common way of acquiring novel behaviors in toddlers. However, little is known about toddlers' imitation of undesired actions. Here we investigated 18- and 24-month-olds' (N=110) imitation of undesired and allowed actions from televised peer and adult models. Permissiveness of the demonstrated actions was indicated by the experimenter's response to their execution (angry or neutral). Analyses revealed that toddlers' imitation scores were higher after demonstrations of allowed versus undesired actions, regardless of the age of the model. In agreement with prior research, these results suggest that third-party reactions to a model's actions can be a powerful cue for toddlers to engage in or refrain from imitation. In the context of the present study, third-party reactions were more influential on imitation than the model's age. Considering the relative influence of different social cues for imitation can help to gain a fuller understanding of early observational learning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Imitation learning of car driving skills with decision trees and random forests

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cichosz Paweł

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Machine learning is an appealing and useful approach to creating vehicle control algorithms, both for simulated and real vehicles. One common learning scenario that is often possible to apply is learning by imitation, in which the behavior of an exemplary driver provides training instances for a supervised learning algorithm. This article follows this approach in the domain of simulated car racing, using the TORCS simulator. In contrast to most prior work on imitation learning, a symbolic decision tree knowledge representation is adopted, which combines potentially high accuracy with human readability, an advantage that can be important in many applications. Decision trees are demonstrated to be capable of representing high quality control models, reaching the performance level of sophisticated pre-designed algorithms. This is achieved by enhancing the basic imitation learning scenario to include active retraining, automatically triggered on control failures. It is also demonstrated how better stability and generalization can be achieved by sacrificing human-readability and using decision tree model ensembles. The methodology for learning control models contributed by this article can be hopefully applied to solve real-world control tasks, as well as to develop video game bots

  2. Things and Words About Them: On the Legal Protection of Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Teilmann-Lock, Stina

    2011-01-01

    Traditional registration of design relied on the deposit of an example of the thing itself; the Registrar who held things thus deposited was responsible for ensuring that they would be protected from unauthorized imitation. The material thing itself is to be the standard against which copies can ...

  3. An Examination of the State of Imitation Research in Children with Autism: Issues of Definition and Methodology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sevlever, Melina; Gillis, Jennifer M.

    2010-01-01

    Several authors have suggested that children with autism are impaired in their ability to imitate others. However, diverse methodologies, contradictory findings, and varying theoretical explanations continue to exist in the literature despite decades of research. A comprehensive account of imitation in children with autism is hampered by the lack…

  4. The physical imitation experiments of nuclear belt weight scaler

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shi Qicun; Wang Mingqian; Sun Jinhua; Li Zhonghao

    1993-01-01

    The physical imitation experiments of the nuclear belt weight scaler (NBWS) were performed with a coal-loaded belt. The linearity, repetition and long-time stability; of the NBWS were measured. And the influence of pile shape, load bias and the composition of coal on weight calculation were studied

  5. What is an Intellectual Disability?

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... for Educators Search English Español What Is an Intellectual Disability? KidsHealth / For Kids / What Is an Intellectual Disability? ... learning and becoming an independent person. What Causes Intellectual Disabilities? Intellectual disabilities happen because the brain gets injured ...

  6. Linking intellectual capital and intellectual property to company performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Reza

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to measure the effects of intellectual capital components; namely, human capital, structural capital and relational capital on company performance in Iranian auto industry. The study uses a questionnaire consists of 100 questions to cover intellectual capital and company performance in Likert scale and it is distributed among 180 experts in one of Iranian auto industry. Cronbach alphas for intellectual capital components, i.e. human capital, relational capital and structural capital are 0.82, 0.80 and 0.80, respectively. In addition, Cronbach alpha for company performance is 0.82. Using structural equation modeling, the study has determined a positive and meaningful relationship between intellectual capital and company performance. The study has also determined a positive and meaningful relationship between human capital and structural capital. Among components of performance, efficiency maintained the highest effect while innovation represents the minimum effect.

  7. FORMATION OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF ENTERPRISES IN TERMS OF GLOBALIZATION: COMPETITIVE DYNAMICS AND AN INTELLECTUAL COMPONENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oleg Tarasenko

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to investigate the current state of scientific thought in relation to the formation of intellectual capital of an enterprise in the innovation process, achievement by the enterprise of corresponding competitive advantages and their protection. Methodology. The methodological basis of the article is the systematic approach, which provided a comprehensive definition of the scope of this research – intellectual property and its protection as a complex economic and legal category. This made it possible to systematically define the purpose, level of abstraction, hierarchy, forms of manifestation, and key attributes of the subject of research. Application of principles of modelling of business processes also allowed studying the influence of factors of the external environment on the sequence of information flows in the process of forming competitive advantages on the basis of intellectual property. In addition, having determined the scientific basis, the collective and local monographic studies of leading scientists concerning the specificity of the formation of competitive advantages of innovative enterprises, including on the basis of intellectual capital, were also taken into account. Results. The article studies, describes and, correspondingly, formalizes modern processes of formation of competitive advantages in the conditions of Smart Economy: knowledge management, their patenting, modern significance, and the influence of patenting on the role of intellectual property in the investigated phenomena, as well as management of relevant information flows. Practical implications. The research demonstrates ways of forming competitive advantages in the modern economy, and the results of the analysis of relevant statistics explain patterns of economic and legal processes in the field of relevant practical activities. This allows assessing the actual state of the subject of the research, determining the development

  8. Imitation of gestures by robotic arms: a quality assessment approach; Imitacion de gestos por brazos roboticos: Una propuesta para evaluar su calidad

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nope-Rodriguez, S.; Loaiza-Correa, H.; Caicedo-Bravo, E.

    2010-07-01

    This article proposes quantitative evaluation metrics of imitation, suited for the imitation of four gestures performed by a robotic arm on a simulation environment; for each gesture, the metric relies on a group of simple geometric shapes. This approach broadens the concept of imitation; since common metrics just accumulate the error between the joints of the demonstrator and the imitator along their trajectories, in other words, check for the exact replica of the gesture performed by the demonstrator. The results of the proposed metric are compared with an evaluation survey. (Author) 11 refs.

  9. What Infant Memory Tells Us about Infantile Amnesia: Long-Term Recall and Deferred Imitation

    OpenAIRE

    Meltzoff, Andrew N.

    1995-01-01

    Long-term recall memory was assessed using a nonverbal method requiring subjects to reenact a past event from memory (deferred imitation). A large sample of infants (N = 192), evenly divided between 14- and 16-months old, was tested across two experiments. A delay of 2 months was used in Experiment 1 and a delay of 4 months in Experiment 2. In both experiments two treatment groups were used, In one treatment group, motor practice (immediate imitation) was allowed before the delay was imposed;...

  10. Mirror Neurons, Embodied Cognitive Agents and Imitation Learning

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Wiedermann, Jiří

    2003-01-01

    Roč. 22, č. 6 (2003), s. 545-559 ISSN 1335-9150 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA201/02/1456 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z1030915 Keywords : complete agents * mirror neurons * embodied cognition * imitation learning * sensorimotor control Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 0.254, year: 2003 http://www.cai.sk/ojs/index.php/cai/article/view/468

  11. FINANCING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ASSESTS: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

    OpenAIRE

    USHA SWAMINATHAN

    2016-01-01

    Amplifying any property needs assessment to be marketable. This paper reads on the prospects of intangible property especially the Intellectual Property (IP) being evaluated in terms of financing by institutions to progressively grow more by widening their business and to make available advances based on IP. Arrangements engaging in the safety measures of intangible property encompassed and facilitated title-holders of IP privileges to comprise a loan of money as more undemanding and protecte...

  12. Imitative Modeling as a Theoretical Base for Instructing Language-Disordered Children

    Science.gov (United States)

    Courtright, John A.; Courtright, Illene C.

    1976-01-01

    A modification of A. Bandura's social learning theory (imitative modeling) was employed as a theoretical base for language instruction with eight language disordered children (5 to 10 years old). (Author/SBH)

  13. limits of copyright protection in contemporary nigeria

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mofasony

    2009-10-05

    Oct 5, 2009 ... modes of protection of intellectual property, and has left the law completely in a .... “Nigerian Computer Software Protection in Nigeria" [www ...... H. Ryder & Smith, “Public key Encryptocraph Standards: R.S.A. Data Security”,.

  14. The traditional knowledge and the intellectual property

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Calle Vasquez, Rosangela

    1999-01-01

    This article seeks to describe the state of the art in the international context of the traditional knowledge, its content, its recognition, and its valuation. The prosperous results of the biotechnical industry in the scientific and commercial field, has had a great impact in the valuation of the intellectual property, in the context of the globalization of the market. Traditionally the ancestral knowledge of the ethnic communities in the relative thing to the appropriation of the nature for their survival, it has not been considered neither valued in the same terms that the scientific knowledge and therefore, neither it has been analyzed as intellectual property, just as the western right it has structured this special form of property. The convention of the biodiversity, put in undoubtedly the traditional knowledge should be protected and valued, for this reason starting from 1992, the commercial agreements consecrate and they recognize this theme

  15. Identifying classes of persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning: a latent class analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nouwens, Peter J G; Lucas, Rosanne; Smulders, Nienke B M; Embregts, Petri J C M; van Nieuwenhuizen, Chijs

    2017-07-17

    Persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning are often studied as a single group with similar characteristics. However, there are indications that differences exist within this population. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify classes of persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning and to examine whether these classes are related to individual and/or environmental characteristics. Latent class analysis was performed using file data of 250 eligible participants with a mean age of 26.1 (SD 13.8, range 3-70) years. Five distinct classes of persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning were found. These classes significantly differed in individual and environmental characteristics. For example, persons with a mild intellectual disability experienced fewer problems than those with borderline intellectual disability. The identification of five classes implies that a differentiated approach is required towards persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning.

  16. Hybrid ququart-encoded quantum cryptography protected by Kochen-Specker contextuality

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cabello, Adan; D'Ambrosio, Vincenzo; Nagali, Eleonora; Sciarrino, Fabio

    2011-01-01

    Quantum cryptographic protocols based on complementarity are not secure against attacks in which complementarity is imitated with classical resources. The Kochen-Specker (KS) theorem provides protection against these attacks, without requiring entanglement or spatially separated composite systems. We analyze the maximum tolerated noise to guarantee the security of a KS-protected cryptographic scheme against these attacks and describe a photonic realization of this scheme using hybrid ququarts defined by the polarization and orbital angular momentum of single photons.

  17. Muecas: A Multi-Sensor Robotic Head for Affective Human Robot Interaction and Imitation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felipe Cid

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a multi-sensor humanoid robotic head for human robot interaction. The design of the robotic head, Muecas, is based on ongoing research on the mechanisms of perception and imitation of human expressions and emotions. These mechanisms allow direct interaction between the robot and its human companion through the different natural language modalities: speech, body language and facial expressions. The robotic head has 12 degrees of freedom, in a human-like configuration, including eyes, eyebrows, mouth and neck, and has been designed and built entirely by IADeX (Engineering, Automation and Design of Extremadura and RoboLab. A detailed description of its kinematics is provided along with the design of the most complex controllers. Muecas can be directly controlled by FACS (Facial Action Coding System, the de facto standard for facial expression recognition and synthesis. This feature facilitates its use by third party platforms and encourages the development of imitation and of goal-based systems. Imitation systems learn from the user, while goal-based ones use planning techniques to drive the user towards a final desired state. To show the flexibility and reliability of the robotic head, the paper presents a software architecture that is able to detect, recognize, classify and generate facial expressions in real time using FACS. This system has been implemented using the robotics framework, RoboComp, which provides hardware-independent access to the sensors in the head. Finally, the paper presents experimental results showing the real-time functioning of the whole system, including recognition and imitation of human facial expressions.

  18. A Measure of Proficiency or Short-Term Memory? Validation of an Elicited Imitation Test for SLA Research

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Youjin; Tracy-Ventura, Nicole; Jung, Yeonjoo

    2016-01-01

    Elicited imitation requires listeners to listen and repeat sentences as accurately as possible. In second language acquisition (SLA) research it has been used for a variety of purposes. Recently, versions of the same elicited imitation test (EIT) have been created in 6 languages with the purpose of measuring second language proficiency (Ortega…

  19. [Hemodynamic activities in children with autism while imitating emotional facial expressions: a near-infrared spectroscopy study].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mori, Kenji; Mori, Tatsuo; Goji, Aya; Ito, Hiromichi; Toda, Yoshihiro; Fujii, Emiko; Miyazaki, Masahito; Harada, Masafumi; Kagami, Shoji

    2014-07-01

    To examine the hemodynamic activities in the frontal lobe, children with autistic disorder and matched controls underwent near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) while imitating emotional facial expressions. The subjects consisted of 10 boys with autistic disorder without mental retardation (9 - 14 years) and 10 normally developing boys (9 - 14 years). The concentrations of oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb) were measured with frontal probes using a 34-channel NIRS machine while the subjects imitated emotional facial expressions. The increments in the concentration of oxy-Hb in the pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus in autistic subjects were significantly lower than those in the controls. However, the concentrations of oxy-Hb in this area were significantly elevated in autistic subjects after they were trained to imitate emotional facial expressions. The increments in the concentration of oxy-Hb in this area in autistic subjects were positively correlated with the scores on a test of labeling emotional facial expressions. The pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus is an important component of the mirror neuron system. The present results suggest that mirror neurons could be activated by repeated imitation in children with autistic disorder.

  20. Preference reversal for copycat brands : Uncertainty makes imitation feel good

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Horen, F.; Pieters, R.

    2013-01-01

    Copycat brands try to entice consumers by imitating the trade-dress of leading brands. Recent research suggests that preferences for copycat brands relative to more differentiated brands are generally lower. That is, consumers tend to dislike such “imitation” brands, because of psychological

  1. Surfacing the Depths: Thoughts on Imitation, Resonance and Growth

    Science.gov (United States)

    Music, Graham

    2005-01-01

    This paper examines some of the research on imitation that shows it to be much more than simply a behavioural or reflex response, but rather an aspect of the growth of genuine social and psychological interaction and part of an intersubjective process that includes the representation of object relationships. Differentiations between mind,…

  2. Protecting Government Works: The Copyright Issue

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Manz, Paul C; Zelenka, Michael J; Wittig, Raymond S; Smith, Sally A

    2002-01-01

    The federal government, through its employees and contractors, produces commercially valuable inventions and information every day, often without any protection of the intellectual property involved...

  3. Intellectual Freedom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knox, Emily

    2011-01-01

    Support for intellectual freedom, a concept codified in the American Library Association's Library Bill of Rights and Code of Ethics, is one of the core tenets of modern librarianship. According to the most recent interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, academic librarians are encouraged to incorporate the principles of intellectual freedom…

  4. Children's Representation and Imitation of Events: How Goal Organization Influences 3-Year-Old Children's Memory for Action Sequences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Loucks, Jeff; Mutschler, Christina; Meltzoff, Andrew N

    2017-09-01

    Children's imitation of adults plays a prominent role in human cognitive development. However, few studies have investigated how children represent the complex structure of observed actions which underlies their imitation. We integrate theories of action segmentation, memory, and imitation to investigate whether children's event representation is organized according to veridical serial order or a higher level goal structure. Children were randomly assigned to learn novel event sequences either through interactive hands-on experience (Study 1) or via storybook (Study 2). Results demonstrate that children's representation of observed actions is organized according to higher level goals, even at the cost of representing the veridical temporal ordering of the sequence. We argue that prioritizing goal structure enhances event memory, and that this mental organization is a key mechanism of social-cognitive development in real-world, dynamic environments. It supports cultural learning and imitation in ecologically valid settings when social agents are multitasking and not demonstrating one isolated goal at a time. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

  5. Intellectual enrichment lessens the effect of brain atrophy on learning and memory in multiple sclerosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sumowski, James F; Wylie, Glenn R; Chiaravalloti, Nancy; DeLuca, John

    2010-06-15

    Learning and memory impairments are prevalent among persons with multiple sclerosis (MS); however, such deficits are only weakly associated with MS disease severity (brain atrophy). The cognitive reserve hypothesis states that greater lifetime intellectual enrichment lessens the negative impact of brain disease on cognition, thereby helping to explain the incomplete relationship between brain disease and cognitive status in neurologic populations. The literature on cognitive reserve has focused mainly on Alzheimer disease. The current research examines whether greater intellectual enrichment lessens the negative effect of brain atrophy on learning and memory in patients with MS. Forty-four persons with MS completed neuropsychological measures of verbal learning and memory, and a vocabulary-based estimate of lifetime intellectual enrichment. Brain atrophy was estimated with third ventricle width measured from 3-T magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo MRIs. Hierarchical regression was used to predict learning and memory with brain atrophy, intellectual enrichment, and the interaction between brain atrophy and intellectual enrichment. Brain atrophy predicted worse learning and memory, and intellectual enrichment predicted better learning; however, these effects were moderated by interactions between brain atrophy and intellectual enrichment. Specifically, higher intellectual enrichment lessened the negative impact of brain atrophy on both learning and memory. These findings help to explain the incomplete relationship between multiple sclerosis disease severity and cognition, as the effect of disease on cognition is attenuated among patients with higher intellectual enrichment. As such, intellectual enrichment is supported as a protective factor against disease-related cognitive impairment in persons with multiple sclerosis.

  6. KEBIJAKAN FORMULASI TERHADAP PENIRUAN TAMPILAN WEBSITE DI INDONESIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ajeng Widya Paramita

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available One of the implications of information technology to which attention is currently paid is its impact on the existence of Intellectual Property Right. One of the crimes committed to the right of intellectual property is the illegal imitation of presentation on web page of sites belonging to others popularly known as Offense against Intellectual Property. Based on the background above, the problems discussed in this study are the formulation of criminal act and the policy of formulation in the future system of sanction imposed upon the imitation of presentation of website in Indonesia. Normative method based on the regulations of laws related to the crime of the imitation of presentation of website in Indonesia was used in the present study. The results of the study showed that the elements of the formulation of criminal act of the imitation of presentation of website in Indonesia are subjective and objective ones. The policy of the formulation of the system of criminal sanction imposed upon the limitation of presentation of website in Indonesia applies the type of cumulative criminal threaten which includes two types of punishment. The formulation is a 2 (two year imprisonment and/or a maximum spesific fine of Rp. 150.000.000,00 (one hundred fifty thousand rupiahs, based on Article 72 Clause (6 jo Article 24 of the Criminal Law.

  7. Intuitive intellectual property law: A nationally-representative test of the plagiarism fallacy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fast, Anne A; Olson, Kristina R; Mandel, Gregory N

    2017-01-01

    Studies with convenience samples have suggested that the lay public's conception of intellectual property laws, including how the laws should regulate and why they should exist, are largely incommensurate with the actual intended purpose of intellectual property laws and their history in the United States. In this paper, we test whether these findings generalize to a more diverse and representative sample. The major findings from past work were replicated in the current study. When presented with several potential reasons for IP protection, the lay public endorsed plagiarism and felt that acknowledging the original source of a creative work should make copying that work permissible-viewpoints strongly divergent from lawmakers' intent and the law itself. In addition, we replicate the finding that lay people know remarkably little about intellectual property laws more generally and report little experience as users or creators of creative works.

  8. The Relationship between Motor, Imitation, and Early Social Communication Skills in Children with Autism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dadgar, Hooshang; Alaghband Rad, Javad; Soleymani, Zahra; Khorammi, Anahita; McCleery, Joe; Maroufizadeh, Saman

    2017-10-01

    Objective: Development of early social skills in children is a complex process. To understand this process, it is important to assess how strengths or weaknesses in other developmental domains may be affected by these skills. The present study aimed at investigating the association of motor skills and imitation ability with early social communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: In this study, 20 children with ASD aged 3 to 5 years (M = 4.05, SD = 0.55) participated. All children were diagnosed as ASD based on the DSM-V criteria by an independent child psychiatrist. Additionally, Autism Diagnostic interview-Revised was used for subsequent diagnostic confirmation. Children were tested with Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2), the Motor Imitation Scale (MIS), and the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). All examinations were videotaped for subsequent scoring. The relationship between these skills was estimated by Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: A significant and strong correlation was obtained between TGMD total score and imitation total score (r =.776; p 0.05). A significant correlation was found between MIS and TGMD total scores with Initiating Joint Attention and Responding to Joint Attention (p≤0/025) as ESCS subscales. But MIS and TGMD total scores were not correlated with social interaction and responding to behavioral requests subscales. Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that indicated both imitation ability and motor function have an association with each other and with early social communication skills.

  9. Action understanding and imitation learning in a robot-human task

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erlhagen, W.; Mukovskiy, A.; Bicho, E.; Panin, G.; Kiss, C.; Knoll, A.; Schie, H.T. van; Bekkering, H.

    2005-01-01

    We report results of an interdisciplinary project which aims at endowing a real robot system with the capacity for learning by goal-directed imitation. The control architecture is biologically inspired as it reflects recent experimental findings in action observation/execution studies. We test its

  10. Amblyomma imitator Ticks as Vectors of Rickettsia rickettsii, Mexico

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oliveira, Karla A.; Pinter, Adriano; Medina-Sanchez, Aaron; Boppana, Venkata D.; Wikel, Stephen K.; Saito, Tais B.; Shelite, Thomas; Blanton, Lucas; Popov, Vsevolod; Teel, Pete D.; Walker, David H.; Galvao, Marcio A.M.; Mafra, Claudio

    2010-01-01

    Real-time PCR of Amblyomma imitator tick egg masses obtained in Nuevo Leon State, Mexico, identified a Rickettsia species. Sequence analyses of 17-kD common antigen and outer membrane protein A and B gene fragments showed to it to be R. rickettsii, which suggested a potential new vector for this bacterium. PMID:20678325

  11. PENGARUH KINERJA INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL TERHADAP KINERJA INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL PADA PERUSAHAAN MANUFAKTUR YANG TERDAFTAR DI BEI

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Windri Windri

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available The aims of this study are to analyze the effect of intellectual capital performance on intellectualcapital disclosure in annual report of manufacturing company listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange(IDX period 2004-2006 and to analyze the level of intellectual capital disclosure in annualreport period 2004-2006. 50 companies was taken as samples in the research.This paper usescontent analysis to compile a measure of disclosure on each annual report of manufacturingcompany and statistical analysis to test whether intellectual capital performance has a positiveeffect to intellectual capital disclosure. Based on statistical analysis, it is concluded that theintellectual capital performance and firm size have a positive effect to intellectual capitaldisclosure. Leverage has no effect to intellectual capital disclosure. The result of content analysisshows that the intellectual capital disclosure in annual report of manufacturing company period2004-2006 are less than 50%.

  12. Forming a Stable Memory Representation in the First Year of Life: Why Imitation Is More than Child's Play

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lukowski, Angela F.; Wiebe, Sandra A.; Haight, Jennifer C.; DeBoer, Tracy; Nelson, Charles A.; Bauer, Patricia J.

    2005-01-01

    Although 9-month-old infants are capable of retaining temporally ordered information over long delays, this ability is relatively fragile. It may be possible to facilitate long-term retention by allowing infants to imitate event sequences immediately after their presentation. The effects of imitation on immediate and delayed recognition and on…

  13. The direct perception hypothesis: perceiving the intention of another’s action hinders its precise imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Froese, Tom; Leavens, David A.

    2014-01-01

    We argue that imitation is a learning response to unintelligible actions, especially to social conventions. Various strands of evidence are converging on this conclusion, but further progress has been hampered by an outdated theory of perceptual experience. Comparative psychology continues to be premised on the doctrine that humans and non-human primates only perceive others’ physical “surface behavior,” while mental states are perceptually inaccessible. However, a growing consensus in social cognition research accepts the direct perception hypothesis: primarily we see what others aim to do; we do not infer it from their motions. Indeed, physical details are overlooked – unless the action is unintelligible. On this basis we hypothesize that apes’ propensity to copy the goal of an action, rather than its precise means, is largely dependent on its perceived intelligibility. Conversely, children copy means more often than adults and apes because, uniquely, much adult human behavior is completely unintelligible to unenculturated observers due to the pervasiveness of arbitrary social conventions, as exemplified by customs, rituals, and languages. We expect the propensity to imitate to be inversely correlated with the familiarity of cultural practices, as indexed by age and/or socio-cultural competence. The direct perception hypothesis thereby helps to parsimoniously explain the most important findings of imitation research, including children’s over-imitation and other species-typical and age-related variations. PMID:24600413

  14. The Influence of Market Context on Business Strategy, Competitor Imitation and Operational Effectiveness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Madalina Balau

    2015-08-01

    Full Text Available The importance of strategic positioning, along with operational effectiveness, has long been presented as key for the success of the company. There are few studies that highlighted the way in which the market context affects these efforts of the company. The aim of this paper is to explore the influence of the market context on competitor imitation and its further implications on strategy. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted and major concepts were drawn from works of M. Porter, while the influence of market context was found in research papers. Putting together these different perspectives on the company and the strategic choices it must make, the results of our analysis suggest that choosing a differentiation strategy and not imitating the reference competitors is a daring initiative, that involves the risk of standing out from the crowd. The implication of this finding is that imitation of the competitor is an easier solution for the company and it has an important attraction, due to the short term influence on increasing sales, while deterring innovation. The value of this paper consists in exploring the contextual influence of well-established concepts for company’s management.

  15. Imitate or innovate: Competition of strategy updating attitudes in spatial social dilemma games

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danku, Zsuzsa; Wang, Zhen; Szolnoki, Attila

    2018-01-01

    Evolution is based on the assumption that competing players update their strategies to increase their individual payoffs. However, while the applied updating method can be different, most of previous works proposed uniform models where players use identical way to revise their strategies. In this work we explore how imitation-based or learning attitude and innovation-based or myopic best-response attitude compete for space in a complex model where both attitudes are available. In the absence of additional cost the best response trait practically dominates the whole snow-drift game parameter space which is in agreement with the average payoff difference of basic models. When additional cost is involved then the imitation attitude can gradually invade the whole parameter space but this transition happens in a highly nontrivial way. However, the role of competing attitudes is reversed in the stag-hunt parameter space where imitation is more successful in general. Interestingly, a four-state solution can be observed for the latter game which is a consequence of an emerging cyclic dominance between possible states. These phenomena can be understood by analyzing the microscopic invasion processes, which reveals the unequal propagation velocities of strategies and attitudes.

  16. Cognitive mechanisms of visuomotor transformation in movement imitation: examining predictions based on models of apraxia and motor control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gravenhorst, Robynne M; Walter, Charles B

    2009-11-01

    When we observe a movement and then reproduce it, how is this visual input transformed into motor output? Studies on stroke patients with apraxia suggest that there may be two distinct routes used for gesture imitation; an indirect route that recruits stored movement memories (motor programs) and a direct route that bypasses them. The present study examined 30 healthy adults ages 18-80 (mean age=44.0 years, SD=19.5) to learn how motor programs are recruited or bypassed in movement imitation depending upon task conditions (whether familiar letters or novel shapes are imitated) and perceptual factors (whether shapes or letters are perceived). Subjects were asked to imitate the movements of a model who formed shapes and letters on a sheer mesh screen, and to report whether they perceived the task as a shape or a letter. Movements were recorded using a Vicon motion analysis system, and subsequently analyzed to determine the degree of difference between the demonstrated and produced movements. As predicted, letter perception on the letter tasks resulted in increased temporal error when the demonstrated stroke order conflicted with subjects' habitual pattern of letter formation. No such interference effects were observed when the letter tasks were perceived as shapes. These findings are discussed in the context of current theories on imitation, and implications for rehabilitation and motor re-learning are presented.

  17. Statistical imitation system using relational interest points and Gaussian mixture models

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Claassens, J

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available The author proposes an imitation system that uses relational interest points (RIPs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) to characterize a behaviour. The system's structure is inspired by the Robot Programming by Demonstration (RDP) paradigm...

  18. Managing Intellectual Property Rights Protection in the System of Comprehensive Seconday Education

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vadim Lunyachek

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper provides the results of the survey conducted among the teachers and principals of comprehensive secondary schools of Kharkiv as to their awareness of how to abide by, draw up and defend intellectual property rights. The paper suggests implementing a system of actions to further the qualifications of educators in this area by introducing relevant special courses, delivering lectures and workshops, or obtaining a second higher education degree.

  19. Rights-Based and Person-Centered Approaches to Supporting People with Intellectual Disability: A Dialectical Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glicksman, Stephen; Goldberg, Chaim; Hamel, Corey; Shore, Ryan; Wein, Avraham; Wood, Daniel; Zummo, Joseph

    2017-01-01

    Protecting human rights has increasingly become a focus of regulation regarding individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID). While this focus on rights has succeeded in protecting people with ID from many of the most insidious abuses of the past, an over-emphasis on the human rights of people with ID while ignoring other aspects of their…

  20. 'TV Format Protection through Marketing Strategies?'

    OpenAIRE

    Singh, Sukhpreet

    2008-01-01

    Commercially successful programme ideas are often imitated or adapted. Television formats, in particular, are routinely copied. Starting from radio formats in the 1950s to game shows and reality programme formats of today, producers have accused others of “stealing”. Although formats constitute one of the most important exports for British TV producers, there is still no certainty about the legal protection of TV formats from copycat versions. Since TV formats fail to fall neatly within the d...

  1. Imitative and Direct Learning as Interacting Factors in Life History Evolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bullinaria, John A

    2017-01-01

    The idea that lifetime learning can have a significant effect on life history evolution has recently been explored using a series of artificial life simulations. These involved populations of competing individuals evolving by natural selection to learn to perform well on simplified abstract tasks, with the learning consisting of identifying regularities in their environment. In reality, there is more to learning than that type of direct individual experience, because it often includes a substantial degree of social learning that involves various forms of imitation of what other individuals have learned before them. This article rectifies that omission by incorporating memes and imitative learning into revised versions of the previous approach. To do this reliably requires formulating and testing a general framework for meme-based simulations that will enable more complete investigations of learning as a factor in any life history evolution scenarios. It does that by simulating imitative information transfer in terms of memes being passed between individuals, and developing a process for merging that information with the (possibly inconsistent) information acquired by direct experience, leading to a consistent overall body of learning. The proposed framework is tested on a range of learning variations and a representative set of life history factors to confirm the robustness of the approach. The simulations presented illustrate the types of interactions and tradeoffs that can emerge, and indicate the kinds of species-specific models that could be developed with this approach in the future.

  2. Neural mechanisms of vocal imitation: The role of sleep replay in shaping mirror neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giret, Nicolas; Edeline, Jean-Marc; Del Negro, Catherine

    2017-06-01

    Learning by imitation involves not only perceiving another individual's action to copy it, but also the formation of a memory trace in order to gradually establish a correspondence between the sensory and motor codes, which represent this action through sensorimotor experience. Memory and sensorimotor processes are closely intertwined. Mirror neurons, which fire both when the same action is performed or perceived, have received considerable attention in the context of imitation. An influential view of memory processes considers that the consolidation of newly acquired information or skills involves an active offline reprocessing of memories during sleep within the neuronal networks that were initially used for encoding. Here, we review the recent advances in the field of mirror neurons and offline processes in the songbird. We further propose a theoretical framework that could establish the neurobiological foundations of sensorimotor learning by imitation. We propose that the reactivation of neuronal assemblies during offline periods contributes to the integration of sensory feedback information and the establishment of sensorimotor mirroring activity at the neuronal level. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Intellectual Capital Management in Transport Sector

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asta Znakovaitė

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available This article presents an analysis of intellectual capital; its management, features and processes by which intellectual capital of a company can be evaluated. The main elements of intellectual capital (human, structural and relationship capital are presented and used in research. After surveying bibliography, intellectual capital evaluation model, which applies to Lithuanian and Latvian companies operating in the transport sector, is created. The research is based on the value-added intellectual capital factor model, the relationship between indicators, multi-asset return correlation and regression analysis and generation of alternatives to intellectual capital performance-enhancing. Following an assessment of intellectual capital of Lithuanian and Latvian transport sectors, on the basis of the results, it was found that the intellectual capital is a key factor in corporation management to increase revenue. Article in Lithuanian

  4. Effects of Active Listening, Reformulation, and Imitation on Mediator Success: Preliminary Results.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer-Lokou, Jacques; Lamy, Lubomir; Guéguen, Nicolas; Dubarry, Alexandre

    2016-06-01

    An experiment with 212 students (100 men, 112 women; M age = 18.3 years, SD = 0.9) was carried out to compare the effect of four techniques used by mediators on the number of agreements contracted by negotiators. Under experimental conditions, mediators were asked either to rephrase (reformulate) negotiators' words or to imitate them or to show active listening behavior, or finally, to use a free technique. More agreements were reached in the active listening condition than in both free and rephrase conditions. Furthermore, mediators in the active listening condition were perceived, by the negotiators, as more efficient than mediators using other techniques, although there was no significant difference observed between the active listening and imitation conditions. © The Author(s) 2016.

  5. A quantitative study of attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disability: Do stakeholders agree?

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonald, Katherine E; Conroy, Nicole E; Olick, Robert S

    2017-12-13

    Attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disability inform research policy and practice, impact interest in and support for research participation, and promote or discourage the generation of new knowledge to promote health among adults with intellectual disability. Yet we know little about these beliefs among the public and the scientific community. We quantitatively studied attitudes among adults with intellectual disability, family and friends, disability service providers, researchers, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) members. We predicted that adults with intellectual disability, and researchers would espouse views most consistent with disability rights, whereas IRB members, and to a lesser degree family, friends, and service providers, would espouse more protective views. We surveyed five hundred and twelve members of the five participant stakeholder groups on their attitudes toward the research participation of adults with intellectual disability. We found broad support for research about people with intellectual disability, though slightly more tempered support for their direct participation therein. In general, IRB members and to some extent adults with intellectual disability endorsed direct participation less than others. We also found that adults with intellectual disability strongly believed in their consent capacity. Resources should be directed toward health-related research with adults with intellectual disability, and interventions should be pursued to address ethical challenges and promote beliefs consistent with human rights. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Capturing value from Intellectual Property (IP) in a global environment

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alcácer, Juan; Beukel, Karin; Cassiman, Bruno

    2017-01-01

    Globalization should provide firms with an opportunity to leverage their know-how and reputation across countries to create value. However, it remains challenging for them to actually capture that value using traditional Intellectual Property (IP) tools. In this paper, we document the strong growth...... in patents, trademarks, and industrial designs used by firms to protect their IP globally. We then show that IP protection remains fragmented; the quality of IP applications might be questionable; and developing a comprehensive IP footprint worldwide is very costly. Growing numbers of applications...

  7. Identification of neuromotor deficits common to autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and imitation deficits specific to autism spectrum disorder.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biscaldi, Monica; Rauh, Reinhold; Müller, Cora; Irion, Lisa; Saville, Christopher W N; Schulz, Eberhard; Klein, Christoph

    2015-12-01

    Deficits in motor and imitation abilities are a core finding in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but impaired motor functions are also found in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Given recent theorising about potential aetiological overlap between the two disorders, the present study aimed to assess difficulties in motor performance and imitation of facial movements and meaningless gestures in a sample of 24 ADHD patients, 22 patients with ASD, and 20 typically developing children, matched for age (6-13 years) and similar in IQ (>80). Furthermore, we explored the impact of comorbid ADHD symptoms on motor and imitation performance in the ASD sample and the interrelationships between the two groups of variables in the clinical groups separately. The results show motor dysfunction was common to both disorders, but imitation deficits were specific to ASD. Together with the pattern of interrelated motor and imitation abilities, which we found exclusively in the ASD group, our findings suggest complex phenotypic, and possibly aetiological, relationships between the two neurodevelopmental conditions.

  8. Defective imitation of finger configurations in patients with damage in the right or left hemispheres: An integration disorder of visual and somatosensory information?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okita, Manabu; Yukihiro, Takashi; Miyamoto, Kenzo; Morioka, Shu; Kaba, Hideto

    2017-04-01

    To explore the mechanism underlying the imitation of finger gestures, we devised a simple imitation task in which the patients were instructed to replicate finger configurations in two conditions: one in which they could see their hand (visual feedback: VF) and one in which they could not see their hand (non-visual feedback: NVF). Patients with left brain damage (LBD) or right brain damage (RBD), respectively, were categorized into two groups based on their scores on the imitation task in the NVF condition: the impaired imitation groups (I-LBD and I-RBD) who failed two or more of the five patterns and the control groups (C-LBD and C-RBD) who made one or no errors. We also measured the movement-production times for imitation. The I-RBD group performed significantly worse than the C-RBD group even in the VF condition. In contrast, the I-LBD group was selectively impaired in the NVF condition. The I-LBD group performed the imitations at a significantly slower rate than the C-LBD group in both the VF and NVF conditions. These results suggest that impaired imitation in patients with LBD is partly due to an abnormal integration of visual and somatosensory information based on the task specificity of the NVF condition. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Low Fidelity Imitation of Atypical Biological Kinematics in Autism Spectrum Disorders Is Modulated by Self-Generated Selective Attention

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayes, Spencer J.; Andrew, Matthew; Elliott, Digby; Gowen, Emma; Bennett, Simon J.

    2016-01-01

    We examined whether adults with autism had difficulty imitating atypical biological kinematics. To reduce the impact that higher-order processes have on imitation we used a non-human agent model to control social attention, and removed end-state target goals in half of the trials to minimise goal-directed attention. Findings showed that only…

  10. Musical experience and Mandarin tone discrimination and imitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gottfried, Terry L.; Staby, Ann M.; Ziemer, Christine J.

    2004-05-01

    Previous work [T. L. Gottfried and D. Riester, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 2604 (2000)] showed that native speakers of American English with musical training performed better than nonmusicians when identifying the four distinctive tones of Mandarin Chinese (high-level, mid-rising, low-dipping, high-falling). Accuracy for both groups was relatively low since listeners were not trained on the phonemic contrasts. Current research compares musicians and nonmusicians on discrimination and imitation of unfamiliar tones. Listeners were presented with two different Mandarin words that had either the same or different tones; listeners indicated whether the tones were same or different. Thus, they were required to determine a categorical match (same or different tone), rather than an auditory match. All listeners had significantly more difficulty discriminating between mid-rising and low-dipping tones than with other contrasts. Listeners with more musical training showed significantly greater accuracy in their discrimination. Likewise, musicians' spoken imitations of Mandarin tones (model tokens presented by a native speaker) were rated as significantly more native-like than those of nonmusicians. These findings suggest that musicians may have abilities or training that facilitate their perception and production of Mandarin tones. However, further research is needed to determine whether this advantage transfers to language learning situations.

  11. Individuals with congenital amusia imitate pitches more accurately in singing than in speaking: implications for music and language processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Fang; Jiang, Cunmei; Pfordresher, Peter Q; Mantell, James T; Xu, Yi; Yang, Yufang; Stewart, Lauren

    2013-11-01

    In this study, we investigated the impact of congenital amusia, a disorder of musical processing, on speech and song imitation in speakers of a tone language, Mandarin. A group of 13 Mandarin-speaking individuals with congenital amusia and 13 matched controls were recorded while imitating a set of speech and two sets of song stimuli with varying pitch and rhythm patterns. The results indicated that individuals with congenital amusia were worse than controls in both speech and song imitation, in terms of both pitch matching (absolute and relative) and rhythm matching (relative time and number of time errors). Like the controls, individuals with congenital amusia achieved better absolute and relative pitch matching and made fewer pitch interval and contour errors in song than in speech imitation. These findings point toward domain-general pitch (and time) production deficits in congenital amusia, suggesting the presence of shared pitch production mechanisms but distinct requirements for pitch-matching accuracy in language and music processing.

  12. Imitation and the development of infant learning, memory, and categorisation Imitation et développement de l’apprentissage chez le nourisson, mémoire et catégorisation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emily JH Jones

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available The ability to copy the actions of others is present from birth in both infant humans and chimpanzees and provides a method for the social transmission of knowledge. For this type of learning to have an impact over the long-term, the infant must be able to encode, store, and retrieve the information they receive for use at a later date. Here we review the literature with the deferred imitation paradigm to demonstrate that by at least 6 months of age, human infants are capable of these comparatively advanced cognitive abilities, which are thought to involve the declarative memory system and the hippocampal formation. Across early development there are dramatic changes in the duration over which information can be retained and the ability of infants to retrieve and express their memories in a flexible manner, which enables them to solve new problems. Research with the deferred imitation paradigm therefore provides important insight into our understanding of social and cognitive development as well as brain development.La capacité à imiter les actions des autres existe dès la naissance tant chez le petit humain que chez le jeune chimpanzé, elle est un moyen de transmission sociale de la connaissance. Pour que ce type d’apprentissage ait un impact sur le long terme, le jeune doit être capable de coder, stocker et récupérer l’information qu'il reçoit pour la réutiliser ultérieurement. Nous faisons une revue de la littérature sur l’imitation différée, pour démontrer que dès l’âge de 6 mois, les jeunes humains sont capables d’exprimer ces capacités cognitives relativement avancées dont on pense qu’elles mettent en jeu les systèmes de la mémoire déclarative et la formation hippocampique. Au cours du développement précoce, il existe des variations très marquées de la durée pendant laquelle les informations peuvent être conservées et de la capacité des jeunes à retrouver et à exprimer leurs souvenirs d’une fa

  13. About redistribution of Ionic streams in imitation experiments on plasma separation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuferov, V.B.; Svichkar', A.S.; Sharij, S.V.; Tkacheva, T.I.; Il'icheva, V.O.; Katrechko, V.V.; Shapoval, A.I.; Khizhnyak, S.N.

    2013-01-01

    The third stage of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) reprocessing by plasma methods with use of imitation environments is considered. The trajectories of motion of selective ions in the one-particle approaching are calculated. The scheme of SNF separator is presented

  14. The Relation between Intellectual Functioning and Adaptive Behavior in the Diagnosis of Intellectual Disability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tassé, Marc J.; Luckasson, Ruth; Schalock, Robert L.

    2016-01-01

    Intellectual disability originates during the developmental period and is characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. In this article, we present a brief history of the diagnostic criteria of intellectual disability for both…

  15. An imitative calculation of W/C, Mo/Si articifial multilayered films' structures and properties as X-ray monochromators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Wen; Liu Wenhan; Wu Ziqin

    1989-01-01

    An imitative calculation on W/C and Mo/Si artificial multilayered films have been made. The influences of total period numbers and deviation of period thickness on X-ray diffraction peak were given. Two difference diviations, random fluctuation and system linear deviation have been imitated, their influences on X-ray energy distinguish power have been compared

  16. Interorganizational imitation and acquisitions of high-tech ventures

    OpenAIRE

    Ozmel, Umit; Reuer, J. J.; Wu, Cheng-Wei

    2017-01-01

    Research summary: This article shows that there is a positive association between the changes in the number of prior acquisitions or the changes in the prominence of prior acquirers within the focal venture's subfield and the venture's likelihood to be acquired. Results are in line with the existence of frequency- and trait-based imitation in acquisitions targeting tech ventures. More importantly, these positive associations are more pronounced when (a) exogenous technological uncertainty wit...

  17. The Performance of Intellectual Capital

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Murthy, Vijaya; Mouritsen, Jan

    2011-01-01

    Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the relationship between intellectual capital and financial capital using a case study. This makes it possible to discuss how intellectual capital is related to value creation with a degree of nuance that is absent from most statistical studies of relationships...... between human, organisational, relational and financial capital. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a case study of a firm that invests in intellectual capital in order to develop financial capital. It traces the relationship between intellectual capital elements and financial capital via...... interviews. This allows the development of a nuanced account of the performance of intellectual capital. This account questions the universality of the linear model typically found in statistical studies. The model makes it possible to show how items of intellectual capital not only interact but also compete...

  18. Using Imitation with Congenitally Deafblind Adults: Establishing Meaningful Communication Partnerships

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hart, Paul

    2006-01-01

    All congenitally deafblind people are potential communication partners. The key question for practitioners is how to help them achieve that potential. Imitation offers a particularly powerful means of doing so because it allows both partners to occupy a joint dyadic space, where the process of repairing the damaged communication partnerships that…

  19. Legal aspects of Blockchain`s technology applicability for registration of intellectual rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Novoselova Lyudmila

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available This article describes systems of accounting for the results of creative work, reveals possibilities for Blockchain`s technology applicability for providing information about the protected results of intellectual activity and their inclusion in the turnover (commercialization. Legal mechanisms play an important role for successful implementation of the opportunities which form the basis of this technology. It also requires addressing the unjustified legal obstacles for applicability of the technology and, at the same time, deciding which includes the technology into established legal mechanisms. Authors analyze the main issues which may arise when including the results of intellectual activity into accounting systems based on Blockchain technologies.

  20. Reduced integration and differentiation of the imitation network in autism: A combined functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fishman, Inna; Datko, Michael; Cabrera, Yuliana; Carper, Ruth A; Müller, Ralph-Axel

    2015-12-01

    Converging evidence indicates that brain abnormalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involve atypical network connectivity, but few studies have integrated functional with structural connectivity measures. This multimodal investigation examined functional and structural connectivity of the imitation network in children and adolescents with ASD, and its links with clinical symptoms. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging were performed in 35 participants with ASD and 35 typically developing controls, aged 8 to 17 years, matched for age, gender, intelligence quotient, and head motion. Within-network analyses revealed overall reduced functional connectivity (FC) between distributed imitation regions in the ASD group. Whole brain analyses showed that underconnectivity in ASD occurred exclusively in regions belonging to the imitation network, whereas overconnectivity was observed between imitation nodes and extraneous regions. Structurally, reduced fractional anisotropy and increased mean diffusivity were found in white matter tracts directly connecting key imitation regions with atypical FC in ASD. These differences in microstructural organization of white matter correlated with weaker FC and greater ASD symptomatology. Findings demonstrate atypical connectivity of the brain network supporting imitation in ASD, characterized by a highly specific pattern. This pattern of underconnectivity within, but overconnectivity outside the functional network is in contrast with typical development and suggests reduced network integration and differentiation in ASD. Our findings also indicate that atypical connectivity of the imitation network may contribute to ASD clinical symptoms, highlighting the role of this fundamental social cognition ability in the pathophysiology of ASD. © 2015 American Neurological Association.

  1. Intersubjective Imitation in Children with Autism: The Relationship between Intersubjectivity with Joint Attention, Joint Engagement and Theory of Mind

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishijima, Eric Hideyuki

    2012-01-01

    This study aimed to explore the imitation abilities of children with autism that require intersubjective interaction with the person modeling the action. The relationships between these types of imitation with other developmental skills were also examined. Results showed that during the same time point, children that were better at intersubjective…

  2. Imitation and processes of institutionalization - Insights from Bourdieu's theory of practice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sieweke, Jost

    2014-01-01

    New institutional theory highlights the importance of language in processes of institutionalization, but Bourdieu argues that institutions are also transmitted by mimesis, i.e., the unconscious imitation of other actors' actions. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework that explains

  3. Army and Marine Corps Active Protection System (APS) Efforts

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-08-30

    2012 report also provides a comprehensive treatment of the “soft kill” features of the APS: Soft-kill countermeasures include infrared jammers, laser ... spot imitators, and radar jammers. They may prevent missile guidance from remaining locked onto the GCV [Ground Combat Vehicle], 18 protecting the...For example, a millimeter wave radar jammer will not work against an infrared tracker . Furthermore, when jammers offer umbrella coverage (broadband

  4. Selection of intellectual capital management strategies

    OpenAIRE

    Shcherbachenko Viktoriia Oleksiivna

    2016-01-01

    This article deals with the selection of intellectual capital management strategy. The attention is paid to the structure of intellectual capital, which consists of human capital, customer capital, process capital, intellectual property, intangible assets. The algorithm of selection of intellectual capital management strategy was created by author.

  5. Imitation of in-group versus out-group members' facial expressions of anger: a test with a time perception task.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mondillon, Laurie; Niedenthal, Paula M; Gil, Sandrine; Droit-Volet, Sylvie

    2007-01-01

    This research investigated the automatic imitation of facial expressions of anger by in-group and out-group members, using a temporal estimation task. Individuals typically overestimate duration represented by angry faces, probably due to increases in arousal (Droit-Volet, Brunot, & Niedenthal, 2004). Overestimation is not observed when imitation of the facial expressions is inhibited, suggesting that embodied simulation mediates the changes in arousal (Effron, Niedenthal, Gil, & Droit-Volet, 2006). This method thus provides an implicit measure of imitation and was used to test the hypothesis that individuals imitate in-group, but not out-group members' facial expressions of emotion. In separate studies Chinese and French Caucasian participants were presented with short (400 ms) and long (1600 ms) standard durations in a temporal bisection task. They then categorized standard and intermediate durations, represented by angry and neutral faces, in terms of similarity to the short and long standard durations. Half of the face stimuli were Chinese, and half Caucasian. Results revealed a bias in the temporal perception of emotion for the Caucasian participants when they were presented with Caucasian facial expressions and not Chinese ones. In contrast, this bias in time perception was observed when Chinese individuals imitated faces of both in- and out-group members. The results of the Chinese participants are interpreted in terms of familiarity with and motivations to understand the emotional expressions of members of a host culture.

  6. An estimate of intensity of windy resuspension during imitation of agricultural work

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drugachenok, M.A.; Kudryashov, V.P.; Mironov, V.P.

    1996-01-01

    Estimation of intensity of wind rising at imitation of agricultural works. During special experiment for imitation of the agricultural activity which has been carried out in the summer of 1993, the characteristics of radioactive contamination of a surface of ground, density of radioactive fallout, concentration of radionuclides and their distribution on height of surface layer of atmosphere are measured. The value of intensity of secondary wind rising in conditions of dry weather are received. At mechanical influence on ground the intensity of wind rising exceeds on 3-4 order a background value of this parameter which are (4-6)*10 -11 1/c. The received numerical value of intensity of wind rising can be used for forecasting of inhalation intake of radionuclides in organism of the person during agricultural works. 3 tabs., 10 refs

  7. Mothers with intellectual disabilities

    OpenAIRE

    Kolarič, Sandra

    2015-01-01

    For the theoretical part of this master's thesis foreign literature and finished foreign researches were studied. In this part of the thesis the characteristics of mothers with intellectual disabilities; factors, which influence the success of carrying out their mother role; and the rights of people with intellectual disabilities as parents, all based on Slovene legislation are included. We listed reasons for limiting reproduction for women with intellectual disabilities and issues concerning...

  8. Imitation Learning Based on an Intrinsic Motivation Mechanism for Efficient Coding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jochen eTriesch

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available A hypothesis regarding the development of imitation learning is presented that is rooted in intrinsic motivations. It is derived from a recently proposed form of intrinsically motivated learning (IML for efficient coding in active perception, wherein an agent learns to perform actions with its sense organs to facilitate efficient encoding of the sensory data. To this end, actions of the sense organs that improve the encoding of the sensory data trigger an internally generated reinforcement signal. Here it is argued that the same IML mechanism might also support the development of imitation when general actions beyond those of the sense organs are considered: The learner first observes a tutor performing a behavior and learns a model of the the behavior's sensory consequences. The learner then acts itself and receives an internally generated reinforcement signal reflecting how well the sensory consequences of its own behavior are encoded by the sensory model. Actions that are more similar to those of the tutor will lead to sensory signals that are easier to encode and produce a higher reinforcement signal. Through this, the learner's behavior is progressively tuned to make the sensory consequences of its actions match the learned sensory model. I discuss this mechanism in the context of human language acquisition and bird song learning where similar ideas have been proposed. The suggested mechanism also offers an account for the development of mirror neurons and makes a number of predictions. Overall, it establishes a connection between principles of efficient coding, intrinsic motivations and imitation.

  9. Intellectual Freedom: 2000 and Beyond.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holtze, Terri L.; Rader, Hannelore B.

    2000-01-01

    Focuses on intellectual freedom, discussing the role of libraries, the Berlin Wall and banned books as attempts to restrict intellectual freedom, and controversies surrounding filtering software. Contains an annotated bibliography of intellectual freedom resources, presented in five categories: general; government and legal issues; access and…

  10. Intellectual emotions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vasilyev, Igor A.

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available In the laboratory of O.K. Tikhomirov, the phenomenon of the acute emotional regulation of productive thinking was justified. This regulation is realized by means of the elaboration of the axiological profile of cognition. The following definition of intellectual emotions can be given: intellectual emotions are the appraisals of specific cognitive objects — contradictions, assumptions, probabilities, and the intermediate and final results of operations. The main aspect of the method used in the research consisted of the synchronous registration of an external (tactile elaboration of problems, skin galvanic response and verbal utterances regarding tasks to be completed in a game of chess. The principle position in Tikhomirov`s group is the following: intellectual emotions represent not only the energetic resource or catalysts for the thinking process, but also the determinants of its structure.

  11. Selection of intellectual capital management strategies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shcherbachenko Viktoriia Oleksiivna

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This article deals with the selection of intellectual capital management strategy. The attention is paid to the structure of intellectual capital, which consists of human capital, customer capital, process capital, intellectual property, intangible assets. The algorithm of selection of intellectual capital management strategy was created by author.

  12. Mirror Neurons, Embodied Cognitive Agents and Imitation Learning

    OpenAIRE

    Wiedermann, Jiří

    2003-01-01

    Mirror neurons are a relatively recent discovery; it has been conjectured that these neurons play an important role in imitation learning and other cognitive phenomena. We will study a possible place and role of mirror neurons in the neural architecture of embodied cognitive agents. We will formulate and investigate the hypothesis that mirror neurons serve as a mechanism which coordinates the multimodal (i.e., motor, perceptional and proprioceptive) information and completes it so that the ag...

  13. Lexical Difficulty--Using Elicited Imitation to Study Child L2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Campfield, Dorota E.

    2017-01-01

    This paper reports a post-hoc analysis of the influence of lexical difficulty of cue sentences on performance in an elicited imitation (EI) task to assess oral production skills for 645 child L2 English learners in instructional settings. This formed part of a large-scale investigation into effectiveness of foreign language teaching in Polish…

  14. Elicited Imitation for Brazilian Portuguese

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    Lonsdale, Deryle W.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Elicited imitation (EI is an approach to measuring oral proficiency that consists of having test takers hear a sentence and repeat the sentence exactly as they heard it. Though indirect in nature, EI has successfully shown to correlate with previously established oral proficiency examinations, such as the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI (Lonsdale and Christensen 2014, Matsushita and Lonsdale 2014, Millard 2011, Thompson 2013. This paper discusses the development, administration, and evaluation of an EI test for the Brazilian Portuguese language. We first discuss the relevant background of oral proficiency examination and EI. After presenting the pertinent research questions, we explain the methodology used to develop the EI test, recruit participants, and administer the test. We present the results and analysis and then summarize the findings, limitations, and possible future work

  15. Behavioral similarity measurement based on image processing for robots that use imitative learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sterpin B., Dante G.; Martinez S., Fernando; Jacinto G., Edwar

    2017-02-01

    In the field of the artificial societies, particularly those are based on memetics, imitative behavior is essential for the development of cultural evolution. Applying this concept for robotics, through imitative learning, a robot can acquire behavioral patterns from another robot. Assuming that the learning process must have an instructor and, at least, an apprentice, the fact to obtain a quantitative measurement for their behavioral similarity, would be potentially useful, especially in artificial social systems focused on cultural evolution. In this paper the motor behavior of both kinds of robots, for two simple tasks, is represented by 2D binary images, which are processed in order to measure their behavioral similarity. The results shown here were obtained comparing some similarity measurement methods for binary images.

  16. The Death of the Concerned Intellectual?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chongyi Feng

    2005-08-01

    Full Text Available This paper offers a definition of the intellectual covering both professional and moral dimensions: An intellectual is a specialist who creates and communicates symbolised knowledge as means of living, and hopefully intervenes in social and political affairs in the name of universal values, truth and justice. "Symbolised knowledge" is used in the definition to avoid the confusion with other forms of knowledge derived from direct personal experience in production and life. The purpose of using "specialist" as the subject term is to exclude those categories such politicians, soldiers and business people who exercise political, military, financial and other forms of power instead of intellectual power in their social function. This paper argues that there are many roles played by intellectuals, and the social location and function of intellectuals can be fundamentally different in different societies. When production and communication of knowledge are taken as the primary concern of intellectuals, ‘the death of the concerned intellectual’ becomes an unwarranted anxiety, because there is no reason to believe that knowledge and truth will no longer be pursued and valued by humankind. Political marginalisation of critical intellectuals, where it is a reality, seems to be caused not so much by the lack of power of intellectuals as by the lack of solidarity among intellectuals to fight for a common cause. The problem lies as much in the lack of enthusiasm among intellectuals to transcend the boundaries of their professional relevance and intervene in broad social and political issues, as in institutional structures consuming too much energy and time of the intellectuals and seducing them to give up their social responsibilities for personal career.

  17. Different visual exploration of tool-related gestures in left hemisphere brain damaged patients is associated with poor gestural imitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanbellingen, Tim; Schumacher, Rahel; Eggenberger, Noëmi; Hopfner, Simone; Cazzoli, Dario; Preisig, Basil C; Bertschi, Manuel; Nyffeler, Thomas; Gutbrod, Klemens; Bassetti, Claudio L; Bohlhalter, Stephan; Müri, René M

    2015-05-01

    According to the direct matching hypothesis, perceived movements automatically activate existing motor components through matching of the perceived gesture and its execution. The aim of the present study was to test the direct matching hypothesis by assessing whether visual exploration behavior correlate with deficits in gestural imitation in left hemisphere damaged (LHD) patients. Eighteen LHD patients and twenty healthy control subjects took part in the study. Gesture imitation performance was measured by the test for upper limb apraxia (TULIA). Visual exploration behavior was measured by an infrared eye-tracking system. Short videos including forty gestures (20 meaningless and 20 communicative gestures) were presented. Cumulative fixation duration was measured in different regions of interest (ROIs), namely the face, the gesturing hand, the body, and the surrounding environment. Compared to healthy subjects, patients fixated significantly less the ROIs comprising the face and the gesturing hand during the exploration of emblematic and tool-related gestures. Moreover, visual exploration of tool-related gestures significantly correlated with tool-related imitation as measured by TULIA in LHD patients. Patients and controls did not differ in the visual exploration of meaningless gestures, and no significant relationships were found between visual exploration behavior and the imitation of emblematic and meaningless gestures in TULIA. The present study thus suggests that altered visual exploration may lead to disturbed imitation of tool related gestures, however not of emblematic and meaningless gestures. Consequently, our findings partially support the direct matching hypothesis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  18. Neural Substrates of Social Emotion Regulation: A fMRI Study on Imitation and Expressive Suppression to Dynamic Facial Signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pascal eVrticka

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Emotion regulation is crucial for successfully engaging in social interactions. Yet, little is known about the neural mechanisms controlling behavioral responses to emotional expressions perceived in the face of other people, which constitute a key element of interpersonal communication. Here, we investigated brain systems involved in social emotion perception and regulation, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI in 20 healthy participants who saw dynamic facial expressions of either happiness or sadness, and were asked to either imitate the expression or to suppress any expression on their own face (in addition to a gender judgment control task. fMRI results revealed higher activity in regions associated with emotion (e.g., the insula, motor function (e.g., motor cortex, and theory of mind during imitation. Activity in dorsal cingulate cortex was also increased during imitation, possibly reflecting greater action monitoring or conflict with own feeling states. In addition, premotor regions were more strongly activated during both imitation and suppression, suggesting a recruitment of motor control for both the production and inhibition of emotion expressions. Expressive suppression produced increases in dorsolateral and lateral prefrontal cortex typically related to cognitive control. These results suggest that voluntary imitation and expressive suppression modulate brain responses to emotional signals perceived from faces, by up- and down-regulating activity in distributed subcortical and cortical networks that are particularly involved in emotion, action monitoring, and cognitive control.

  19. Economic intelligence and intellectual capital in agriculture competitiveness: Case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nešković Slobodan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The process of globalization in the last few decades conditioned the many technological, economic and social changes which have transformed the world market of agricultural products and the impact on the competitive environment. In the modern world, creating material value in agricultural production more and more the result of the intangible factors and production is increasingly based on knowledge, skills and innovation of employees. In the industrial age the necessary resources to achieve competitive advantages were capital, natural resources and work, while in today's knowledge-based economy the importance is on the information, innovation, knowledge, intellectual capital and intellectual property - that have become the foundation of creating all other values. These values are, because of their great importance in achieving the modern competitive advantages, very often the target of economic intelligence and therefore require all available forms of protection. The sector of agricultural production can make a significant contribution to improving the overall national competitiveness if it is based on intellectual capital as evidenced by the country with highly developed agriculture. However, by observing global changes can be concluded that Serbia in this sector has unused potential for growth and development.

  20. Meeting the support needs of persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning: still a long way to go.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nouwens, P J G; Smulders, N B M; Embregts, P J C M; van Nieuwenhuizen, C

    2017-12-01

    Among persons with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning, differences in their characteristics imply that a differentiated approach is required to meet their needs. This retrospective study examined whether the history of support/treatment programs and the type of healthcare providers involved matched the specific support needs of persons with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning. Five (previously identified) profiles of persons with a mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning were used to investigate to what extent the support needs of this group had been met. For the 250 persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning who matched these five profiles, data were collected retrospectively from their case files. Persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning received a very similar amount and type of support/treatment programs. Differences between the profiles were found for non-verbal therapy, residential treatment and contacts with social work. Regarding the type of healthcare providers involved, differences between the profiles emerged for specialised intellectual disability services, youth services and specialised addiction services. The support programs for a heterogeneous population of persons with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning seem to be suboptimal, indicating that more differentiation is required in the services offered to these individuals. © 2017 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.