The paper presents the concept of an “imitation equilibrium” and explores it in the context of some simple oligopoly models. The concept applies to normal form games enriched by a “reference structure” specifying a “reference group” for every player. The reference group is a set of other players, whom the player may consider to imitate. Some of these players may not be suitable for imitation fo...

Learning through imitation is a powerful and versatile method for acquiring new behaviors. In humans, a wide range of behaviors, from styles of social interaction to tool use, are passed from one generation to another through imitative learning. Although imitation evolved through Darwinian means, it achieves Lamarckian ends: it is a mechanism for the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Unl...

Imitation enables the individuals to acquire new abilities, and encourages social interaction and cultural transfer. The capability to obtain new abilities by observation represents many important advantages. Although imitation intends to equip robots with social skills, most of the approaches so far only focus on the development of a mechanism to imitate, and other issues that contribute to th...

Imitation plays a very important role in human cognition. Because previous neuroimaging studies on human imitation used rather simple actions as target stimuli, some aspects of imitation such as perceiving target actions or manipulating one's own mental image could not be studied. We used complicated non-symbolic (S-) and symbolic (S+) finger configurations as target stimuli in order to study t...

We build a quality ladders product cycle model with Northern innovation, Northern imitation, and Southern imitation. Our model generalizes Grossman and Helpman (1991a) to allow Northern imitation. Similar to Segerstrom (1991), successful Northern imitators collude with innovators. Changes in resources and R&D subsidies generate substitution in Northern R&D between innovation and imitation and s...

ROLES OF IMITATION IN DEVELOPMENT 279 Types of Copying Behaviors and Tasks to Assess Them 279 IMITATION IN ASD: FINDINGS 281 Frequency of Spontaneous Imitation 281 Accuracy of Elicited Imitation 282 Older Children, Adolescents, and Adults 282 THEORIES OF IMITATION 285 Theories of Poor Visual Encoding 287 Theories of Failed Direct Self–Other Mapping 288 Theories of Abnormal Motor and Sensory-Mot...