The k-in-a-row procedure in selection theory (Q1092551)

A k-in-a-row procedure is proposed to select the most demanded element in a set of n elements. We show that the least favorable configuration of the proposed procedure which always selects the element when the same element has been demanded (or observed) k times in a row has a simple form similar to those of classical selection procedures. Moreover, numerical evidences are provided to illustrate the fact that k-in-a-row procedure is better than the usual inverse sampling procedure and fixed sample size procedure when the distance between the most demanded element and the other elements is large and when the number of elements is small.