Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 256-274).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, 1976. / Date on t.p.: 1975. Vita. Bibliography: p. 237-265.

Thesis (B.A. (Hons.)) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.

Texte remanié de: Th. Ph. D.--Comparative literature--New York University. / Bibliogr. p. 225-238. Index.

Föreliggande examensarbete behandlar det retorikdidaktiska begreppet imitatio som undervisnings- och lärandemetod. Syftet är att undersöka vad imitatio (efterbildning) kan betyda i didaktisk mening, hur det skiljer sig gentemot det svenska begreppet imitation och hur lärare tillika retorikstudenter förhåller sig till det i sin undervisning och i sin kompetensutveckling. Med utgångspunkt i syftet har två metoder använts; telefonintervjuer med fyra lärare som vidareutbildat sig i den retorikdidaktiska kursen Progymnasmata samt en litterturstudie. Telefonintervjuerna bidrar med ett praktiskt didaktiskt underlag från yrkesverksamma didaktiker, och litteraturstudien ligger till grund för undersökningen av imitatios retoriska ursprung och didaktiska relevans samt imitationsbegreppets olika tvärvetenskapliga innebörder. Resultatet visar att imitatio som retorikdidaktiskt begrepp i betydelsen medveten efterbildning har ett begränsat inflytande i samtida didaktisk forskning, trots dess över tvåtusen år långa historia med omfattande tillämpning. Imitation figurerar dock alltjämt i didaktisk forskning, men som en beskrivning av en omedveten och oreflekterad handling i lärandeprocesser. En central slutsats är att imitatiobegreppet har blivit föremål för en begreppsglidning och fått anmärkningsvärt lite utrymme i didaktisk forskning som en alternativ undervisnings- och lärandemetod.

This study is dedicated to providing readers with a holistic overview of the phenomenon of the imitation among internet based companies. Four research questions have been posed and answered through qualitative primary and secondary researches. As a result of this study major success factors that allowed a Berlin - based company Rocket Internet SE to imitate ideas and business models of others have been identified, numerous recommendations have been provided to future copycat companies as well as to companies that face the pressure from such copycats in their day-to-day activities. As an outcome, more transparency has been provided about the processes of imitation in the business environment in order to allow various players to compete more effectively, structure their operations in more efficient way and avoid costly mistakes.

<p>Finding cause and effect relationships is one of the quintessential questions throughout many of the empirical sciences, AI, and Machine Learning. This dissertation develops graphical conditions and efficient algorithms for two problems, linear identification and imitation learning. For the first problem, it is well-known that correlation does not imply causation, so linear regression doesn’t necessarily find causal relations even in the limit of a large sample size. Over the past century, a plethora of methods has been developed for identifying interventional distributions given a combination of assumptions about the underlying mechanisms (e.g., linear functional dependence, causal diagram) and observational data. We characterize the computational complexity of several existing graphical criteria and develop new polynomial-time algorithms that subsume existing disparate efficient approaches. The proposed methods constitute the current state of the art in terms of polynomial-time identification coverage. In words, our methods have the capability of identifying the maximal set of structural coefficients when compared to any other efficient algorithms found in the literature.</p> <p>The second problem studied in the dissertation is Causal Sequential Imitation Learning, which is concerned with an agent that aims to learn a policy by observing an expert acting in the environment, and mimicking this expert's observed behavior. Sometimes, the agent (imitator) does not have access to the same set of observations or sensors as the expert, which gives rise to challenges in correctly interpreting expert actions. We develop necessary and sufficient conditions for the imitator to obtain identical performance to the expert in sequential settings given the domain’s causal diagram, and create a polynomial-time algorithm for finding the covariates to include when generating an imitating policy.</p> <p><br></p>

Elicited imitation (EI) assessment has been shown to have value as an inexpensive method for low-stakes tests (Cox & Davies, 2012), but little has been reported on the effect L2 accent has on test-takers' ability to understand and process the test items they hear. Furthermore, no study has investigated the effect of accent on EI test face validity. This study examined how the accent of input audio files affected EI test difficulty as well as test-takers' perceptions of such an effect. To investigate, self-reports of students' exposure to different varieties of English were obtained from a pre-assessment survey. A 63-item EI test was then administered in which English language learners in the United States listened to test items in three varieties of English: American English, Australian English, and British English. A post-assessment survey was then administered to gather information regarding perceived difficulty of accented prompts. A many facet Rasch analysis found that accent affected item difficulty in an EI test with a separation reliability coefficient of .98—British English being the most difficult and American English the easiest. Survey results indicated that students perceived this increase in difficulty, and ANOVAs between the survey and test results indicated that student perceptions of an increase in difficulty aligned with reality. Specifically, accents that students were “Not at all Familiar” with resulted in significantly lower EI test scores than accents with which the students were familiar. These findings suggest that prompt accent should be carefully considered in EI test development.

A growing body of research indicates imitation is a skill that is significantly impaired in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Relationships between imitation skills and other social and communication skills, such as joint attention and play, have been discovered, leading early intervention service providers to focus on teaching imitation skills to young children with ASD in order to foster related skill development. Parent-implemented interventions can eliminate or reduce the need for outside service providers, which can reduce costs to families and have been shown to have positive effects on parent mental health. They can also yield similar benefits to therapist-implemented intervention when implemented with a high degree of fidelity. Parent-implemented Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT) has been effective in increasing both object and gestural imitation skills in young children with ASD. This study aimed to replicate those findings. Three young children with ASD were exposed to parent-implemented RIT in two phases targeting object and gestural imitation, and all three increased their rates of both object and gestural imitation during the intervention. / Special Education