Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-92). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--University of Florida. / Description based on print version record. Manuscript copy. Vita. Bibliography: leaves 216-218.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-92). Also available on the Internet.

Humans often learn to manipulate objects by observing other people. In much the same way, robots can use imitation learning to pick up useful skills. A system is detailed here for using imitation learning to teach a robot to grasp objects using both hand and whole-body grasps, which use the arms and torso as well as hands. Demonstration grasp trajectories are created by teleoperating a simulated robot to pick up simulated objects. When presented with a new object, the system compares it against the objects in a stored database to pick a demonstrated grasp used on a similar object. Both objects are modeled as a combination of primitives—boxes, cylinders, and spheres—and by considering the new object to be a transformed version of the demonstration object, contact points are mapped from one object to the other. The best kinematically feasible grasp candidate is chosen with the aid of a grasp quality metric. To test the success of the chosen grasp, a full, collision-free grasp trajectory is found and an attempt is made to execute in the simulation. The implemented system successfully picks up 92 out of 100 randomly generated test objects in simulation. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Texte remanié de: Th. 3e cycle--Lettres--Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Titre de soutenance : Teoría de la imitación poética en el Renacimiento. / Bibliogr. p. 467-489. Index.

Neurônios espelho são ativados tanto durante a execução de uma ação como durante a observação desta mesma ação desempenhada por outra pessoa. Como parecem integrar observação e ação, os neurônios espelho têm sido foco de estudos sobre como o ser humano entende o próximo e em que extensão é capaz de compartilhar experiências. Esta integração inclui uma \"representação interna\" que envolve as mesmas estruturas nervosas envolvidas na execução da ação observada e tem sido sugerida como parte fundamental da facilitação do aprendizado por imitação. Este trabalho teve como objetivo, além de investigar o papel do sistema de neurônios-espelho no comportamento imitativo, investigar como ações motoras desconhecidas passam a ser reconhecidas e incorporadas ao repertório motor no contexto atual de neurônios espelho. Para isso, 20 voluntários foram treinados a executar acordes musicais em tarefas envolvendo imitação. Nossos resultados mostram que o sistema de neurônios-espelho possui um crítico papel durante a observação de uma ação com o intuito de imitá-la. Além disso, a ativação do sistema de neurônios-espelho pode ser alterada dependendo do contexto em que a ação está inserida / Mirror neurons are activated both during action execution and during observation of this same action performed by another person. As they seem to integrate observation and action, mirror neurons have been the focus of studies on how humans understand the other and to what extent is able to share experiences. This integration includes an \"internal representation\" that involves the same neural structures involved in the execution of an observed action and has been suggested as a fundamental part of the facilitation of learning by imitation. This study aimed, besides investigating the role of the mirror neuron system in imitative behavior, investigating how unknown motor actions are recognized and incorporated into the repertoire after practice in the current context of motor mirror neurons. For this, 20 volunteers were trained to perform tasks involving musical chords in imitation context. Our results show that the mirror neuron system has a critical role during the observation of an action in order to imitate it. Moreover, activation of mirror neuron system may be altered depending on the context in which the action is inserted

Notre thèse se propose d'étudier les questions liées à la réalisation sonore des fugae, à partir des sources musicales d'un corpus d'œuvres attribuées à Josquin Desprez. Au sein du vaste répertoire des fugae composées au tournant du XVIe siècle, celles composées par Josquin constituent un ensemble remarquable par sa diversité, sa richesse technique et musicale, ainsi que par la complexité des questions qu'il soulève. En effet, la réalisation de ces fugae pose des difficultés liées d'une part à l'interprétation de leurs notations canoniques, et d'autre part à la réalisation de leurs parties fuguées. Si les théoriciens contemporains du compositeur définissent en effet la fuga comme une imitation rigoureusement exacte entre la partie de dux et celle(s) de comes, force est de constater que toutes les fugae considérées dans cette thèse ne répondent pas à ce critère. Certaines ne permettent pas une imitation parfaitement exacte ; d'autres semblent permettre plusieurs réalisations distinctes, parfois radicalement différentes. Bien que des théoriciens plus tardifs – en particulier Zarlino – introduiront des termes permettant de penser ces autres types d'imitation, ceux-ci n'existent pas encore du vivant de Josquin. Les pratiques compositionnelles attestées au sein des œuvres étudiées divergent ainsi, à maints égards, de la théorie contemporaine. À travers une étude des sources musicales des fugae retenues, ainsi que d'un ensemble de sources théoriques imprimées avant 1530, nous tenterons de comprendre les raisons motivant ces écarts, mais également de saisir les enjeux de la réalisation sonore des fugae, à partir des notations canoniques préservées dans les sources. / This dissertation investigates the musical sources of a corpus of fugal works attributed to Josquin Desprez, in order to study the various issues arising from the interpretation of fugae. Within the large repertoire of fugae composed at the turn of the 16th century, those composed by Josquin stand out as exceptionally diverse and rich, technically and musically. What's more, they arise many difficult issues for the singers. Indeed, those fugae confront us with problems related to the interpretation of canonic notations, on the one hand, and with the realization of the fugal parts themselves, on the other hand. Whereas the contemporary theorists define fuga as a perfectly exact imitation between the dux and the comes parts, it is noticeable that every fuga studied in this dissertation do not meet this criterion. Some of them cannot be sung with an exact imitation; others seem to allow several possible realizations, sometimes radically different. Although later theorists – Zarlino, in particular – will introduce specific terms that refer to those other types of imitation, those terms do not exist during Josquin's lifetime. In multiple ways, compositional practices that can be observed within the works studied diverge from the musical theory of the time. A study of the musical sources of the fugae selected, and of an important corpus of contemporary theoretical sources will lead us to a better understanding of the reasons that motivated those divergences, and of the issues related to the realization of fugae from canonic notations preserved in the sources.

"I daresay you haven’t had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There[21]. This thesis examines an artificial proto-culture of e-Puck robots to examine which factors affect the transmission of memes, in the form of sounds imitated back and forth between the robots, to determine which factors promote or inhibit meme diversity and spread. Meme theory posits that the development of cultural artifacts such as ideas, myths, religions, etc. arises naturally from cultural information transfer by imitation. It has been suggested that 'copybots’, robots programmed to imitate each other, would eventually lead to the emergence of something recognizable as culture[13]. This thesis describes part of a research project which sought to use e-Puck robots to implement a copybot based system to examine this proto-culture emergence. The group implemented an Artificial Culture lab for experiments using the e-Puck robots. Here the focus is on the imitation of sound patterns (the memes) within a group of e-Pucks to examine which factors promote or inhibit meme diversity and spread. Other parts of the research group examined the imitation of movement patterns, human perceptions (and preconceptions of robots), and abstract societal level modeling. Within is described a simulator and a series of experiments on the imitation of sounds using that simulator that examine the factors affecting meme transmission in homogeneous populations and evolving heterogeneous populations. These experiments show that they key factor in promoting meme diversity and spread is simply the frequency with which imitation occurs. They also show that memory size plays a smaller role and selection strategy (for choosing which meme to imitate) plays a lesser role still. "If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe[1].

La recherche est consacrée à la conception de Machiavel de l'imitation, comme expliqué dansdivers écrits ante res perditas et post res perditas. J'ai combiné deux approches: l'une philologiqueet philosophique – par l'interprétation des textes de Machiavel et des sources anciennes pertinentes– et l'autre historique, par la reconstruction des différents contextes dans lesquels Machiavel écrit.Le premier objectif essentiel de la thèse est de démontrer comment et pourquoi Machiavel définitune imitation radicalement pratique et critique. Ensuite je considère l'objet de l'imitation elle-même,ou bien les Romains et leur constitution politique. D'un côté, l'enquête de Machiavel sur les formesconstitutionnelles transcende la constitution elle-même, en comprenant des institutions plus larges,telles que la langue et la religion, ainsi que des ordres (institutions politiques, civiles et militaires);de l'autre côté il ne cherche pas à atteindre un équilibre des pouvoirs, mais se déplace en continu àpartir des situations de conflit.Ma recherche se termine par l'évaluation d'une troisième question importante : la pluralité desparadigmes institutionnels. En suivant Machiavel à la lettre, je montre comment l'ensemble de sontravail se caractérise par l'intention méthodologique de s’inspirer « d’une longue expérience deschoses modernes et d’une lecture continue des anciennes ». Par conséquent, nous trouvons chez luideux formes d’imitation : l’une est diachronique et cherche des modèles pour le présent à traversune juxtaposition critique avec le passé, l’autre est spatiale ou, mieux, géographique, en seconfrontant avec des institutions contemporaines. / The research focuses on Machiavelli’s conception of imitation, as shown in various writings anteres perditas and post res perditas. I have combined two approaches: a philological andphilosophical one – in the interpretation of Machiavelli’s texts and of the relevant ancient sources –and a historical one, in the reconstruction of the different contexts in which Machiavelli foundhimself writing.The first substantial aim of the dissertation is to demonstrate how and why Machiavelli define animitation radically practical and critical. The second issue of my research is the object of imitationitself, namely the Romans and their political constitution. On one side, Machiavelli’s investigationof constitutional forms transcends the constitution itself, including wider institutions such aslanguage and religion as well as orders, (political, civil and military institutions); on the other sidehis investigation never endeavors to achieve a balance of powers, but moves continuously fromsituations of conflict.My research concludes with the assessment of a third substantial issue: the plurality of institutionalparadigms. Following Machiavelli to the letter, I show how his entire body of work is characterizedby the methodological intention of moving “from a long experience with modern things and acontinuous reading of ancient ones”. Therefore, together with a diachronic imitation that seeksmodels for the present through a critical juxtaposition with the past, a different kind of comparisonemerges: a spatial or, more appropriately, a geographical outlook.

The passive perception of irrelevant actions can facilitate or interfere with the execution of one’s own actions, known as ‘automatic imitation’ (AI). For example, when one is pressing down on a button, reaction times (RTs) are faster when observing a finger depression (compatible action) and slower whilst observing a finger lift (incompatible action). This phenomenon has been attributed to the mirror neuron system and is thought to represent a laboratory model of spontaneous motor mimicry which facilitates social interactions. AI is typically reduced or absent when the observed movement is produced by a non-human agent. However, previous findings suggest that the magnitude of this ‘human bias’ can be modulated by top-down factors, such as attention and prior instructions regarding whether the movement was produced by a human or non-human agent. This thesis aimed to further examine the role of attention and belief regarding stimulus agency in automatic imitation. Participants were required to perform a pre-specified key press or release response to a diffuse yellow flash go signal. This response was either compatible or incompatible with the finger or object movement, which was presented simultaneously. AI was measured by subtracting compatible from incompatible RTs to calculate the compatibility effect. Experiments 1a, 1b, 2 and 7 focused on exploring the role of attention in AI. Experiment 1a revealed that the human bias is dependent on when the go signal occurs. AI was greater for the finger stimulus relative to the object stimulus when the go signal occurred during the movement, but not after the movement. It is suggested that attention to the movement is reduced when the go signal occurs after the movement. This implies that the human bias in AI is dependent on attention being directed towards the movement. Experiments 1b and 2 indicated that AI was removed if a visual dual task was added, but that AI remained and was greater when an auditory dual task was added. This indicates that AI was removed when the visual dual task competed for cognitive resources with action observation. The facilitation of AI when an auditory dual task was added suggests that the additional cognitive load may have occupied cognitive resources required for the inhibition of imitation. These findings highlight that AI is susceptible to attentional load, implying that AI is not a strongly automatic process. Experiment 7 explored whether the spread of attention modulates the magnitude of AI by comparing a ‘diffuse’ go signal to a ‘focused’ go signal which directed attention to the stimulus movement. Significantly larger AI effects were produced for the group of participants who saw the focused flash first, indicating that focusing attention on the spatial location of the movement increased AI, and furthermore that initially observing the focused flash ‘trained’ participants to pay attention to the stimulus movement in the diffuse flash condition. Experiments 3 and 4 examined why AI effects for non-human stimuli are more likely to be significant when trials are presented in separate blocks (e.g. human vs. non-human stimuli) as opposed to randomly mixed trials. It was hypothesised that this pattern of previous results could be due to less attention being drawn to stimulus differences when stimuli are presented separately as opposed to mixed with a block of trials. However, in both experiments, AI effects were present for the object stimulus in the group of participants who observed the block of finger trials first. This suggests that the prior observation of the finger movement caused a carry-over of human agency to the object stimulus. Experiments 5, 6, 8 and 9 directly explored the role of belief regarding stimulus agency in AI by instructing participants that the object movement was generated by a human finger movement. Experiments 5, 6 and 8 provided preliminary evidence that AI is affected by belief instructions, but the effects were weak or confounded by spatial stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) effects (i.e. compatibility effects based on spatial correspondence of the stimulus and response location). Experiment 9 was designed to differentiate imitative compatibility from SRC effects, thus providing a pure measure of imitative compatibility. Imitative compatibility was present for the object stimulus after the belief manipulation. This demonstrates that a human belief regarding stimulus agency of the object modulated imitative compatibility effects due to the top-down knowledge that the movement was human generated, and not due to increased attention and SRC effects. The presented work has provided multiple lines of evidence which demonstrate that so-called ‘automatic’ imitation effects are strongly susceptible to top-down influences, including attention and belief regarding stimulus agency. The current work could be used to evaluate top-down modulation of imitation in autistic populations, as it has been proposed that top-down modulation of the automatic imitation pathway may be atypical in autism.