Driving on a busy road, eluding a group of predators, or playing a team sport involves keeping track of multiple moving objects. In typical laboratory tasks, the number of visual targets that humans can track is about four. Three types of theories have been advanced to explain this limit. The fixed-limit theory posits a set number of attentional pointers available to follow objects. Spatial int...

We introduce a slightly modiied version of a standard learning automaton and show that this`responsive' learning automata eliminates dominated strategies when playing against an unknown environment. This new automaton has strong convergence properties that are easily analyzed, allowing us to compute explicit bounds for convergence rates. Groups of such automata, interacting via a general game, ...

The major purpose of this study is to use network and multimedia technologies to build a game-based learning system for junior high school students to apply in learning “World Geography” through the “role-playing” game approaches. This study first investigated the motivation and habits of junior high school students to use the Internet and online games, and then designed a game-based learning s...

Leasing has become an increasingly prominent way for consumers to acquire durable goods such as automobiles. How markets respond to changes in lease contracts has enormous implications to producers such as Ford Motor Company. In this paper, an experimental model was developed to study the interaction between lease contracts that embed an option to purchase and an underlying used-goods market. E...

In the general context of scalar-tensor theories, we consider a model in which a scalar field coupled to the Ricci scalar in the gravitational sector of the Lagrangian, is also playing the role of an “Extended Quintessence” field, dominating the energy content of the Universe at the present time. In this framework, we study the linear evolution of the perturbations in the Quintessence energy de...

What happens when you play Chess and Tic-Tac-Toe at the same time? What about Mancala, Othello and Checkers? Playing multiple games together as a Combined Game introduces an entirely new, infinite set of games to analyze and play. We use traditional Game Theory tools to examine combined pairs of small, well-solved games, yielding information on the optimal strategies for playing each combined g...

The distinction between games of chance and games of skill is not well-defined at present. We introduce the concept of chanciness for non-deterministic two-player zero-sum games with sequential moves and perfect information. chanciness quantifies how strongly a game is influenced by chance events. We demonstrate that the relative influence of chance on game outcomes varies with the skill of the...

Linguistic encoding is seen as playing a necessary but not solely sufficient role in speaker meaning by philosophers of Ordinary Language, such as Grice and Strawson. Despite wellrehearsed problems with some of Grice's and Strawson's specific theories, this general model has much to recommend it to present day linguistics. Recent accounts have tended either overfly to deny the existence of a co...

We describe a new and different behavioral model for individuals playing in repeated games, called Individual Evolutionary Learning (IEL). It is based on a flexible learning process, does not require calibration, and can handle very large strategy sets. It can be used as a computer testbed to study the probable performance of a wide range of mechanisms over a wide range of environments prior to...

OBJECTIVE The study provides a substantive description of infant and toddler play with everyday objects and independent negotiation of home space. METHOD A grounded theory approach was used to study 18 typically developing children longitudinally from ages 1 to 18 months. Data from 133 home visits included videotaped self-directed play sessions with usual objects, maternal interviews, and obs...