Conversational grounding theory proposes that language use is a form of rational joint action, by which dialog participants systematically and collaboratively add to their common ground of shared knowledge and beliefs. Following recent work applying "game theory" to pragmatics, this thesis develops a game-theoretic model of grounding that…

My dissertation contains three studies centering on the question: how to motivate people to share high quality information on online information aggregation systems, also known as social computing systems? I take a social scientific approach to "identify" the strategic behavior of individuals in information systems, and "analyze" how non-monetary…

The paper investigates classes of adaptive systems used as prediction machines in certain simple games. Ideally the machine should approach a state which will maximize its expected gain. The simplest machine takes the form of an urn, similar to the urn models of Polya and Friedman, but modified so as to form an adaptive system. The machine is…

A national computer services network simulation model was used in a 3-day gaming exercise involving 16 institutional teams who made decisions about their likely long-term network participation. Participants were able to react to others' decisions and actions, and to critical overriding political, economical, and organizational issues. (CMV)

Develops search patterns for locating an object which may be in one of several locations. (JP)

Simulation games are currently being used to teach high school students how to forecast the weather. The students are cast in the roles of forecasters given meteorological information to predict the weather and, in addition, how it will affect the lifestyles of a particular area. (DS)

Discusses the postage rate increases in recent years and notes that if the trend continues the rate will reach three dollars an ounce by the year 2017. (GA)

The author presents three methods for dealing with the problem of the number of tosses of a fair coin needed to obtain two consecutive heads. (MN)

Proceedings of the Conference on "The Public Interest vis a vis Educational R & D, held at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia on July 16-17, 1969 with the cooperation of the U.S. Office of Education.

Uses the various strategies involved in baseball to illustrate basic concepts in game theory. Specifically discusses Willie Mays' base-stealing strategy and how it relates to probability and risk. Reminds students that expected results depend on adopted assumptions. (MJP)