Publications

Articles scientifiques

Publications du LECD sur son site HAL

  • [hal-01478441] Infants' Selectively Pay Attention to the Information They Receive from a Native Speaker of Their Language
    2 décembre 2024
    From the first moments of their life, infants show a preference for their native language, as well as toward speakers with whom they share the same language. This preference appears to have broad consequences in various domains later on, supporting group affiliations and collaborative actions in children. Here, we propose that infants' preference for native speakers of their language also serves a further purpose, specifically allowing them to efficiently acquire culture specific knowledge via social learning. By selectively attending to informants who are native speakers of their language and who probably also share the same cultural background with the infant, young learners can maximize the possibility to acquire cultural knowledge. To test whether infants would preferably attend the information they receive from a speaker of their native language, we familiarized 12-month-old infants with a native and a foreign speaker, and then presented them with movies where each of the speakers silently gazed toward unfamiliar objects. At test, infants' looking behavior to the two objects alone was measured. Results revealed that infants preferred to look longer at the object presented by the native speaker. Strikingly, the effect was replicated also with 5-month-old infants, indicating an early development of such preference. These findings provide evidence that young infants pay more attention to the information presented by a person with whom they share the same language. This selectivity can serve as a basis for efficient social learning by influencing how infants' allocate attention between potential sources of information in their environment.
  • [hal-01480090] Early Development of Turn-Taking in Vocal Interaction between Mothers and Infants
    2 décembre 2024
    Infants are known to engage in conversation-like exchanges from the end of the second month after birth. These 'protoconversations' involve both turn-taking and overlapping vocalization.
  • [hal-01244841] Sex Differences in Language Across Early Childhood: Family Socioeconomic Status does not Impact Boys and Girls Equally
    17 décembre 2015
    Child sex and family socioeconomic status (SES) have been repeatedly identified as a source of inter-individual variation in language development; yet their interactions have rarely been explored. While sex differences are the focus of a renewed interest concerning emerging language skills, data remain scarce and are not consistent across preschool years. The questions of whether family SES impacts boys and girls equally, as well as of the consistency of these differences throughout early childhood, remain open. We evaluated consistency of sex differences across SES and age by focusing on how children (N = 262), from 2;6 to 6;4 years old, from two contrasting social backgrounds, acquire a frequent phonological alternation in French – the liaison. By using a picture naming task eliciting the production of obligatory liaisons, we found evidence of sex differences over the preschool years in low-SES children, but not between high-SES boys and girls whose performances were very similar. Low-SES boys' performances were the poorest whereas low-SES girls' performances were intermediate, that is, lower than those of high-SES children of both sexes but higher than those of low-SES boys. Although all children's mastery of obligatory liaisons progressed with age, our findings showed a significant impeding effect of low-SES, especially for boys.
  • [hal-04811593] The Development of Eco-Anxiety through Middle Childhood and Adolescence
    29 novembre 2024
    <div><p>I hypothesized that 1) Eco-anxiety increases during adolescence, as a result of the teens' growing awareness of environmental threats; 2) It is stronger in girls than in boys, in accordance with the anxiety research; 3) This difference emerges in early adolescence, based on Hill &amp; Lynch's "gender intensification hypothesis". The 831 French participants were attending the three highest elementary school grades and the seven secondary school grades. They filled out the basic eco-anxiety scale for children and adolescents (BEASCA), a new sixitem questionnaire, which proved to have acceptable psychometric properties for these ten grade groups. A grade-by-sex Anova revealed a rather large main effect of grade, with the five oldest groups reporting less eco-anxiety than the four youngest groups, and a medium sized main effect of sex, with girls being more eco-anxious than boys. A non-significant but tendential grade-by-sex interaction suggested that this sex difference emerges at the very end of elementary school. I discuss the origins of the unexpected decrease in eco-anxiety during early adolescence, and the utility of paying attention to children's worrying about environmental issues.</p></div>
  • [hal-01478479] Comparisons of Different Methods to Train a Young Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata) to Learn a Song
    21 novembre 2017
    Like humans, oscine songbirds exhibit vocal learning. They learn their song by imitating conspecifics, mainly adults. Among them, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) has been widely used as a model species to study the behavioral, cellular and molecular substrates of vocal learning. Various methods using taped song playback have been used in the laboratory to train young male finches to learn a song. Since different protocols have been applied by different research groups, the efficiency of the studies cannot be directly compared. The purpose of our study was to address this problem. Young finches were raised by their mother alone from day post hatching (dph) 10 and singly isolated from dph 35. One week later, exposure to a song model began, either using a live tutor or taped playback (passive or self-elicited). At dph 100, the birds were transferred to a common aviary. We observed that one-to-one live tutoring is the best method to get a fairly complete imitation. Using self-elicited playback we observed high inter-individual variability; while some finches learned well (including good copying of the song model), others exhibited poor copying. Passive playback resulted in poor imitation of the model. We also observed that finches exhibited vocal changes after dph 100 and that the range of these changes was negatively related to their imitation of the song model. Taken together, these results suggest that social aspects are predominant in the success outcome of song learning in the zebra finch.
  • [hal-01643606] Representation of Early Sensory Experience in the Adult Auditory Midbrain: Implications for Vocal Learning
    21 novembre 2017
    Vocal learning in songbirds and humans occurs by imitation of adult vocalizations. In both groups, vocal learning includes a perceptual phase during which juveniles birds and infants memorize adult vocalizations. Despite intensive research, the neural mechanisms supporting this auditory memory are still poorly understood. The present functional MRI study demonstrates that in adult zebra finches, the right auditory midbrain nucleus responds selectively to the copied vocalizations. The selective signal is distinct from selectivity for the bird's own song and does not simply reflect acoustic differences between the stimuli. Furthermore, the amplitude of the selective signal is positively correlated with the strength of vocal learning, measured by the amount of song that experimental birds copied from the adult model. These results indicate that early sensory experience can generate a long-lasting memory trace in the auditory midbrain of songbirds that may support song learning.
  • [hal-04498355] Social patterning of childhood overweight in the French national ELFE cohort
    11 mars 2024
    Abstract An inverse social gradient in early childhood overweight has been consistently described in high-income countries; however, less is known about the role of migration status. We studied the social patterning of overweight in preschool children according to the mother’s socio-economic and migration background. For 9250 children of the French ELFE birth cohort with body mass index collected at age 3.5 years, we used nested logistic regression to investigate the association of overweight status in children with maternal educational level, occupation, household income and migration status. Overall, 8.3% (95%CI [7.7–9.0]) of children were classified as overweight. The odds of overweight was increased for children from immigrant mothers (OR 2.22 [95% CI 1.75–2.78]) and descendants of immigrant mothers (OR 1.35 [1.04–2.78]) versus non-immigrant mothers. The highest odds of overweight was also observed in children whose mothers had low education, were unemployed or students, or were from households in the lowest income quintile. Our findings confirm that socio-economic disadvantage and migration status are risk factors for childhood overweight. However, the social patterning of overweight did not apply uniformly to all variables. These new and comprehensive insights should inform future public health interventions aimed at tackling social inequalities in childhood overweight.
  • [hal-01429925] Newborns’ Sensitivity to the Visual Aspects of Infant-Directed Speech: Evidence From Point-Line Displays of Talking Faces
    9 janvier 2017
    The first time a newborn is held, he is attracted by the human’s face. A talking face is even more captivating, as it is the first time he or she hears and sees another human talking. Older infants are relatively good at detecting the relationship between images and sounds when someone is addressing to them, but it is unclear whether this ability is dependent on experience or not. Using an intermodal matching procedure, we presented newborns with 2 silent point-line displays representing the same face uttering different sentences while they were hearing a vocal-only utterance that matched 1 of the 2 stimuli. Nearly all of the newborns looked longer at the matching point-line face than at the mismatching 1, with prior exposure to the stimuli (Experiment 1) or without (Experiment 2). These results are interpreted in terms of newborns’ ability to extract common visual and auditory information of continuous speech events despite a short experience with talking faces. The implications are discussed in the light of the language processing and acquisition literature.
  • [hal-01181219] Song stability and neighbour recognition in a migratory songbird, the black redstart
    29 juillet 2015
    Territorial male songbirds have the ability to discriminate between the songs of their neighbours and those of strangers and for a few species it has been shown that they maintain this ability from one breeding season to the next. To better understand the acoustic basis of this long-term discrimination ability we studied song stability across two breeding seasons in a migratory songbird with high inter-annual return rates and territory stability, the black redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros. Strophe repertoires of 14 males (≥2 years old) were stable from one breeding season to the next and high strophe sharing occurred for males within the same group of houses or hamlets (81%) in contrast to only limited sharing between different hamlets (15%). However, subtle differences exist between the renditions of the same strophe sung by neighbouring males and these differences equally show an inter-annual stability, providing an acoustic basis for long-term discrimination abilities. Playback tests showed the existence of a strong dear-enemy effect: males reacted less aggressively to the familiar, often shared song of a neighbour than to a stranger unshared song and this pattern was maintained when birds returned from migration one year later. We discuss on one side the possible mechanisms leading to the observed patterns of song sharing and on the other side the significance of stable vocal signatures for neighbour recognition.
  • [hal-04035254] Preadolescents' Recognition of Faces of Unfamiliar Peers: The Effect of Attractiveness of Faces
    17 mars 2023
    The authors examined preadolescents' ability to recognize faces of unfamiliar peers according to their attractiveness. They hypothesized that highly attractive faces would be less accurately recognized than moderately attractive faces because the former are more typical. In Experiment 1, 106 participants (M age =10 years) were asked to recognize faces of unknown peers who varied in gender and attractiveness (high- vs. medium-attractiveness). Results showed that attractiveness enhanced the accuracy of recognition for boys' faces and impaired recognition of girls' faces. The same interaction was found in Experiment 2, in which 92 participants (M age =12 years) were tested for their recognition of another set effaces of unfamiliar peers. The authors conducted Experiment 3 to examine whether the reason for that interaction is that high- and medium-attractive girls' faces differ more in typicality than do boys' faces. The effect size of attractiveness on typicality was similar for boys' and girls' faces. The overall results are discussed with reference to the development of face encoding and biological gender differences with respect to the typicality of faces during preadolescence.
  • [hal-03620213] Design of a robotic zebra finch for experimental studies on developmental song learning
    25 mars 2022
    ABSTRACT Birdsong learning has been consolidated as the model system of choice for exploring the biological substrates of vocal learning. In the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), only males sing and they develop their song during a sensitive period in early life. Different experimental procedures have been used in the laboratory to train a young finch to learn a song. So far, the best method to achieve a faithful imitation is to keep a young bird singly with an adult male. Here, we present the different characteristics of a robotic zebra finch that was developed with the goal to be used as a song tutor. The robot is morphologically similar to a life-sized finch: it can produce movements and sounds contingently to the behaviours of a live bird. We present preliminary results on song imitation, and other possible applications beyond the scope of developmental song learning.
  • [hal-03919241] Binocular non-stereoscopic cues can deceive clinical tests of stereopsis
    2 janvier 2023
    Stereoscopic vision plays a critical role in visual perception; however, it is difficult to assess. In clinical settings, stereoacuity is assessed with clinical stereotests. Observers can use monocular cues to deceive some of the most common stereotests, such as the Titmus test. The Randot test has been found free of monocular cues, and here we confirm that result by testing observers under monocular viewing. However, there is a common misconception that only monocular cues can be used to deceive stereotests. Here we demonstrate that binocular non-stereoscopic cues can also be used to pass the Randot, by testing participants with the test rotated, a condition that abolishes stereopsis, and comparing the performance to a monocular viewing condition. We also assessed the Random Dot Butterfly test and discovered considerable amounts of non-stereoscopic cues, including binocular cues in the Circles that can be used to deceive the test. Participants with amblyopia had more difficulty using non-stereoscopic cues than neurotypical observers. We gathered normal-viewing Randot stereoacuities for 110 participants (90 neurotypical and 20 with amblyopia) and compared them to psychophysical stereoacuities (our gold standard). The Randot test showed low positive normalized predictive values for detecting stereoblindness. It could perfectly detect stereo-impairment but with a low sensitivity.
  • [hal-02949928] Le DLPF : un nouvel outil pour l'évaluation du développement du langage de production en français
    26 septembre 2020
    Nous présentons ici un instrument, dénommé DLPF, qui est destiné à permettre une évaluation du développement du langage de production chez les enfants français entre le début de la deuxième année et la fin de la quatrième année. C’est un instrument d’évaluation indirecte – il s’agit d’un questionnaire à faire remplir par les parents – que nous avons souhaité rendre le plus complet possible, couvrant les principales acquisitions dans les trois dimensions lexicale, grammaticale et pragmatique. Des extraits des annexes complètent la présentation. La version complète de ces annexes est disponible directement auprès des auteurs.
  • [hal-04531882] Grandmothering and cognitive resources are required for the emergence of menopause and extensive post-reproductive lifespan
    4 avril 2024
    Menopause, the permanent cessation of ovulation, occurs in humans well before the end of the expected lifespan, leading to an extensive post-reproductive period which remains a puzzle for evolutionary biologists. All human populations display this particularity; thus, it is difficult to empirically evaluate the conditions for its emergence. In this study, we used artificial neural networks to model the emergence and evolution of allocation decisions related to reproduction in simulated populations. When allocation decisions were allowed to freely evolve, both menopause and extensive post-reproductive life-span emerged under some ecological conditions. This result allowed us to test various hypotheses about the required conditions for the emergence of menopause and extensive post-reproductive life-span. Our findings did not support the Maternal Hypothesis (menopause has evolved to avoid the risk of dying in childbirth, which is higher in older women). In contrast, results supported a shared prediction from the Grandmother Hypothesis and the Embodied Capital Model. Indeed, we found that extensive post-reproductive lifespan allows resource reallocation to increase fertility of the children and survival of the grandchildren. Furthermore, neural capital development and the skill intensiveness of the foraging niche, rather than strength, played a major role in shaping the age profile of somatic and cognitive senescence in our simulated populations. This result supports the Embodied Capital Model rather than the Grand-Mother Hypothesis. Finally, in simulated populations where menopause had already evolved, we found that reduced post-reproductive lifespan lead to reduced children's fertility and grandchildren's survival. The results are discussed in the context of the evolutionary emergence of menopause and extensive post-reproductive life-span.
  • [hal-02890126] Diversity of romantic experiences in late adolescence and their contribution to identity formation
    6 juillet 2020
    Romance constitutes a central experience in adolescence, which can take several forms including (a) serious romance with a steady partner, (b) casual and short-lived dating, and (c) pending experiences of romantic thoughts and attempts. Using a three-way longitudinal design, the present study examined the gender differences and developmental changes of these romantic experiences, and their cross-lagged associations with identity processes, throughout one year in late adolescence. 389 students (63% girls) filled out questionnaires about their romantic experiences and identity processes. Girls reported more serious romance than did boys, who reported more casual dating and pending experiences. Serious romance increased over the year for both genders, whereas casual dating and pending experiences continued to rise only for boys. The cross-lagged model highlighted that serious romantic experience positively predicted identity commitments and exploration in depth, whereas identity exploration in breadth positively predicted casual dating. This pattern was stable over the three time-points and across gender and age groups. Overall, this study invites consideration of more diverse romantic experiences than those associated with tangible involvement. We discuss the contribution of romantic experiences to the identity dynamic
  • [hal-04767165] Is That You I Hear? Speaker Familiarity Modulates Neural Signatures of Lexical-semantic Activation in 18-month-old Infants
    5 novembre 2024
    Abstract Developmental language studies have shown that lexical-semantic organization develops between 18 and 24 months of age in monolingual infants. In the present study, we aimed to examine whether voice familiarity facilitates lexical-semantic activation in the infant brain. We recorded the brain activity of 18-month-old, French-learning infants using EEG while they listened to taxonomically related and unrelated spoken word pairs by one voice with which they were familiarized with before the experiment, and one voice with which they were not familiarized. The ERPs were measured in response to related and unrelated target words. Our results showed an N400 effect (greater amplitudes for unrelated as opposed to related target words) over the left hemisphere, only for the familiar voice, suggesting that the voice familiarity facilitated lexical-semantic activation. For unfamiliar voices, we observed an earlier congruence effect (greater amplitudes for related than for unrelated target words). This suggests that although 18-month-olds process lexical-semantic information from unfamiliar speakers, their neural signatures of lexical-semantic processing are less mature. Our results show that even in the absence of personal relation with a speaker, familiarity with a voice augments infant lexical-semantic processing. This supports the idea that extralinguistic information plays a role in infant lexical-semantic activation.
  • [hal-03775622] Effects of screen exposure on young children’s cognitive development: A review
    12 septembre 2022
    The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the use of screen media in families, and infants are exposed to screens at younger ages than ever before. The objective of this review is twofold: (1) to understand the correlates and demographic factors determining exposure to screens, including interactive screens, when available, and (2) to study the effects of watching screens and using touchscreens on cognitive development, during the first 3 years of life. We argue that the effects of screen viewing depend mostly on contextual aspects of the viewing rather than on the quantity of viewing. That context includes the behavior of adult caregivers during viewing, the watched content in relation to the child's age, the interactivity of the screen and whether the screen is in the background or not. Depending on the context, screen viewing can have positive, neutral or negative effects on infants' cognition.
  • [hal-03177576] Auditory perception of self and others in zebra finches: evidence from an operant discrimination task
    23 mars 2021
    Vocal communication is essential for social interactions in many animal species. For this purpose, an animal has to perceive vocal signals of conspecifics and is often also required to discriminate conspecifics. The capacity to discriminate conspecifics is particularly important in social species in which individuals interact repeatedly. In addition, auditory perception of self plays an important role for vocal learners. A vocal learner has to memorise vocalisations of conspecifics and to subsequently modify its own vocalisations in order to match the memorised vocalisations. Here, we investigated auditory perception of self and others in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), a highly gregarious songbird species and vocal learner. We used laboratory colonies in which founder males had been previously trained to produce the same song type. This resulted in artificial dialects in the song of founders and their offspring. We investigated whether those birds would be able to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics based on song. Furthermore, we examined whether they would classify their own song as familiar or unfamiliar. We found that birds were able to discriminate between songs of familiar versus unfamiliar conspecifics, despite the fact that all songs were imitations of the same song type. This suggests that such discrimination is possible even based on songs with a high acoustic similarity. None of the subjects classified their own song as unfamiliar. Three out of eight males classified their own song as familiar. Thus zebra finches might recognise their own song. Further experiments are needed to confirm such self-recognition.
  • [hal-04681106] Outil numérique innovant à destination des jeunes S/sourds et des jeunes malentendants (ONISE) : un questionnaire en ligne sur leur épanouissement relationnel
    13 septembre 2024
    L’objectif de cette étude transversale est d’investiguer l’épanouissement relationnel de jeunes S/sourds et de jeunes malentendants français au sortir de l’adolescence. Compte tenu de l’inexistence d’un outil adapté et accessible pour recueillir l’avis de ces jeunes, le préalable à cet objectif a été la construction d’un auto-questionnaire en ligne, élaboré dans le cadre d’un appel à projet. Pour le recueil des données, nous avons eu recours au questionnaire en ligne, à des observations participantes en établissements pour les S/sourds, de même qu’à des focus groupes de jeunes sourds et de jeunes malentendants dans ces établissements. Les résultats obtenus sur 40 jeunes, âgés de 18 à 25 ans, montrent que leur épanouissement relationnel en termes de qualité de vie, de participation sociale et d’humeur dépressive n’est pas très éloigné de l’épanouissement relationnel d’autres jeunes S/sourds d’origine différente ou de jeunes français entendants. L’accessibilité de l’outil est globalement satisfaisante même si les observations et les analyses des échanges issus des focus groupes mettent en évidence des difficultés d’accès à certaines questions.
  • [hal-04133300] Young children’s difficulties in switching from rhythm production to temporal interval production (>1 s)
    19 juin 2023
    This study examined the young children's abilities to switch from rhythm production, with short inter-tap intervals (ITIs), to temporal interval production, with long ITI (>1 s), in a sensorimotor synchronization task. Children aged 3-and 5-year-olds were given six sessions of synchronization. In a control group, they had to synchronize their ITI to an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of 4 s. In the experimental group, they must progressively increase their ITI for one session to the next (from 0.4 to 4.0-s ISI). Our results showed that the 5-yearolds produced longer ITI that the 3-year-olds in synchronization. However, the value of ITI in the 5-year-olds never exceeded 1.5 s, with more variable ITI in the control than in the experimental group. In addition, at 5 years, boys had more difficulties than girls in changing their tapping rhythm. These results suggest a temporal window in sensorimotor synchronization, beyond which the rhythm is lost and the synchronization becomes difficult.
  • [hal-01478451] Intentional Gestural Communication and Discrimination of Human Attentional States in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta)
    28 février 2017
    Pourquoi les femmes sont-elles sujettes à la ménopause ? Cette question reste en grande partie mystérieuse. Logiquement, les mécanismes biologiques de l'évolution font en sorte que les invididus ne vivent guère longtemps au-delà de leur période de procréation. La ménopause est ainsi rarissime, et ne se produit que dans l'espèce humaine, ainsi que chez deux cétacés : l'orque et le globicéphale. Ce qui a poussé les biologistes à s'intéresser aux orques, dans le but de comprendre pourquoi leurs femelles sont ménopausées. Des observations nouvelles viennent ainsi d'être réalisées et publiées par une équipe de chercheurs de l'Université d'Exeter en Grande-Bretagne associée à des spécialistes des baleines de l'État de Washington, aux États-Unis. Ces observations pourraient expliquer pourquoi les femelles de rares espèces (dont la nôtre) ont une durée de vie largement supérieure à leur période de reproduction. Les orques vivent en troupes d'une quinzaine d'individus unis par des liens sociaux riches et complexes. Remarquablement intelligentes, parfois qualifiées de « baleines tueuses », les femelles âgées tiennent une place particulière que l'on peut observer dans des scènes typiques de la vie de ces animaux, où une orque conduit par exemple ses fils et ses filles, déjà d'âge adulte, vers un banc de saumons. Les jeunes adultes, parfaitement capables de chasser, se laissent mener sur la trajectoire du banc de poissons, dont ils semblent ignorer l'emplacement exact. Tout se passe comme si la...
  • [hal-01478446] Do Tonkean Macaques (Macaca Tonkeana) Tailor Their Gestural and Visual Signals to Fit the Attentional States of a Human Partner?
    28 février 2017
    Pourquoi les femmes sont-elles sujettes à la ménopause ? Cette question reste en grande partie mystérieuse. Logiquement, les mécanismes biologiques de l'évolution font en sorte que les invididus ne vivent guère longtemps au-delà de leur période de procréation. La ménopause est ainsi rarissime, et ne se produit que dans l'espèce humaine, ainsi que chez deux cétacés : l'orque et le globicéphale. Ce qui a poussé les biologistes à s'intéresser aux orques, dans le but de comprendre pourquoi leurs femelles sont ménopausées. Des observations nouvelles viennent ainsi d'être réalisées et publiées par une équipe de chercheurs de l'Université d'Exeter en Grande-Bretagne associée à des spécialistes des baleines de l'État de Washington, aux États-Unis. Ces observations pourraient expliquer pourquoi les femelles de rares espèces (dont la nôtre) ont une durée de vie largement supérieure à leur période de reproduction. Les orques vivent en troupes d'une quinzaine d'individus unis par des liens sociaux riches et complexes. Remarquablement intelligentes, parfois qualifiées de « baleines tueuses », les femelles âgées tiennent une place particulière que l'on peut observer dans des scènes typiques de la vie de ces animaux, où une orque conduit par exemple ses fils et ses filles, déjà d'âge adulte, vers un banc de saumons. Les jeunes adultes, parfaitement capables de chasser, se laissent mener sur la trajectoire du banc de poissons, dont ils semblent ignorer l'emplacement exact.
  • [hal-02887838] Régulation rythmique avant 4 ans : effet d'un tempo auditif sur le tempo moteur
    2 juillet 2020
    L'objectif de cette étude est d'analyser les capacités de l'enfant âgé de 1 ½ à 3 ½ ans à modifier son tempo moteur spontané (TMS) en fonction de tempi auditifs. Les résultats montrent que le TMS reste constant entre 1 ½ et 3 ½ ans et que, parallèlement, il devient plus régulier. Les enfants les plus âgés modifient leurs rythmes de frappes si le tempo auditif diffère d'au moins 20 % de leurs propres rythmes. La capacité des enfants à ralentir leurs rythmes de frappes se met en place plus tardivement que leur accéléra-tion. Enfin, les modifications du rythme de frappes induisent une modification équivalente du TMS mais transitoire.
  • [hal-04687928] Young children's difficulties in switching from rhythm production to temporal interval production (>1 s)
    4 septembre 2024
    In order to efficiently perform audio-motor coordination children must process event duration. It has recently been shown that duration processing in adults involves two distinct, or at least hierarchically interrelated, processes. The processing of durations ranging from a hundred milliseconds to around one second is well accounted for by the Scalar Timing Theory. For duration above one second, temporal processing in adults appears to be task-dependent. Performances in the range of a hundred millisecond durations are usually studied with auditory tempo tasks. In this study, we examine timing performance in children for a large range of durations, from 400 ms to 4 seconds, using the same experimental design. The procedure consists in a motor synchronization task. Overall, our results show that 5 year olds perform better than 3 year olds. However, durations greater than, 1500 ms are difficult to process, leading to increasing variability in produced intervals. Moreover, only a few children are able to produce very long duration intervals. The main finding of this study confirms the existence of a break in the region of 1500 ms when a repeated synchronization task is tested. Consistently with the adult literature, this finding suggests the existence of two duration-dependent timing processes when children have to coordinate their motor behavior to external events
  • [hal-04672457] Human-dog trust and cohesion within French military canine teams
    19 août 2024
    Studies on the relationships and interactions within human-dog teams in the French Army are scarce. In order to better understand this subject, a qualitative exploratory study was undertaken by conducting semi-structured interviews with dog handlers (n = 16). The interviewees work in the French Army. They are specialized in the detection and neutralization of individuals or explosives. Thematic analysis identified different themes: trust within the team, doubts, interspecific cohesion, and care provided to the dogs. The results highlight the importance of trust within the canine team. It is conceived as a dynamic, constructed process, based on experience, and involving both members of the team. It emerges that trust arises from individual, relational, technical, and experiential factors: the bonds formed, knowledge of one’s dog, difficulties related to technical aspects, the reliability of the dog following training, and mission successes. Kindness, support, and mutual protection are also important criteria. A form of interspecific cohesion is envisaged by experienced handlers when affection, knowledge, reliability, mutual assistance, and support are present.
  • [hal-01478443] What Does It Take for an Infant to Learn How to Use a Tool by Observation?
    12 janvier 2024
    Observational learning is probably one of the most powerful factors determining progress during child development. When learning a new skill, infants rely on their own exploration; but they also frequently benefit from an adult’s verbal support or from demonstration by an adult modeling the action. At what age and under what conditions does adult demonstration really help the infant to learn a novel behavior? In this review, we summarize recently published work we have conducted on the acquisition of tool use during the second year of life. In particular, we consider under what conditions and to what extent seeing a demonstration from an adult advances an infant’s understanding of how to use a tool to obtain an out-of-reach object. Our results show that classic demonstration starts being helpful at 18 months of age. When adults explicitly show their intention prior to demonstration, even 16-month-old infants learn from the demonstration. On the other hand, providing an explicit demonstration (“look at how I do it”) is not very useful before infants are ready to succeed by themselves anyway. In contrast, repeated observations of the required action in a social context, without explicit reference to this action, considerably advances the age of success and the usefulness of providing a demonstration. We also show that the effect of demonstration can be enhanced if the demonstration makes the baby laugh. Taken together, the results from this series of studies on observational learning of tool use in infants suggest, first, that when observing a demonstration, infants do not know what to pay attention to: demonstration must be accompanied by rich social cues to be effective; second, infants’ attention is inhibited rather than enhanced by an explicit demand of “look at what I do”; and finally a humorous situation considerably helps infants understand the demonstration.
  • [hal-03114162] Combinatory sound object play in cockatiels: a forerunner of music?
    17 septembre 2024
    An interest in producing sounds during play behaviour might be a forerunner for music. Thus, we explored object play behaviour involving sounds in cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus). We provided them with several objects producing sounds and recorded sound production, spontaneous warbles and drumming during breeding, pre-and post-breeding. Birds manipulated the objects in a playful way. They manipulated them less during breeding than during pre-and post-breeding, but the proportion of manipulations producing sounds were higher during post-breeding and breeding than during pre-breeding. Males manipulated the objects more frequently and produced more sounds than females. Youngsters manipulated the objects more than adults. One bird repeatedly put a bell on a xylophone; we discuss several possible explanations for the behaviour, including tool use. Only males warbled and drummed, and during breeding only. Our results suggest an enriching effect of the objects on the birds. Many aspects of musicality remain to be studied.
  • [hal-03484132] French handlers’ perspectives on Animal-Assisted Interventions
    24 mai 2023
    BackgroundAnimal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) are well implemented in human healthcare, in France as elsewhere; yet there are still difficulties in characterizing these practices and misconceptions about their mechanisms - little is known about the French practice of AAI and about the human-animal team.ObjectivesThis study aims to characterize AAI by exploring their specificities through French handlers’ perspectives.Material and methodAn online survey addressed to French handlers working in AAI with mainly one dog was carried out. This research included questions about their practice in AAI (registration status, beneficiaries, and animals) and their background (training in AAI, training in the medico-social field, training in animal behavior). We then examined a phenomenological understanding of handlers’ definitions of their practice in AAI, their motivations to work with these approaches, and the expectations of the human-animal team. We used an open coding strategy and created major themes from their answers.Results111 handlers participated in this study. The quantitative data highlighted a heterogeneity of handlers' profiles and professional backgrounds, although most profiles had previous training in healthcare. Five themes characterizing AAI emerged from the qualitative analysis: (1) AAI as additional approaches to care settings, (2) AAI as person-centered approaches, (3) the complementarity between handlers and their animal(s), (4) the shared role of mediator, and (5) handlers’ beliefs about the human-animal relationship related to their personal experiences. This survey allowed us to understand how the French use AAI and its role in the care system.ConclusionThe benefits of AAI are numerous both for care settings and for the caregivers mainly by making the care more humane. AAI seem to put the wellbeing of beneficiaries and the relationship with the caregiver at the center of the care. The complementarity of the human-animal team is the common feature of these practices and is critical to their success. Future interdisciplinary studies are required to explore the particularities of these interspecific approaches and the differences between countries.
  • [hal-04700317] Cognitive performance of grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) during a discrimination learning task: Effect of the emotional valence of stimuli
    17 septembre 2024
    Emotions are omnipresent in many animals' lives. It is a complex concept that encompasses physiological, subjective, behavioural and cognitive aspects. While the complex relationship between emotion and cognition has been well studied in humans and in some nonhuman primates, it remains rather unexplored for other nonhuman primate species, such as lemurs. In our study, we evaluated the performance of N = 48 grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus) in a discrimination learning task using visual emotional stimuli. We tested whether the type of visual stimulus (positive, negative or neutral) influenced the cognitive performance of mouse lemurs. Individuals had to learn to discriminate between two platforms according to the associated visual stimuli and to jump to the target platform (leading to a reward). Our main finding was that emotional stimuli, whether positive or negative in valence, impaired cognitive performance when used as a target.<p>Specifically, the lowest success rate occurred when the target was associated with the emotional stimuli, and the highest success rate occurred when it was associated with neutral stimuli. Our results show a similar pattern to that found in other primate species and support the adaptive role of emotion. Our results also support that individual differences could be a factor impacting the relation between emotion and cognition. This study is the first to explore how emotions interfere with the cognitive abilities of a lemur species and highlights the importance of acknowledging emotion in mouse lemurs as well as studying the emotion-cognition interaction in a wider range of primate species.</p>
  • [hal-04693267] Les enfants sont-ils racistes
    10 septembre 2024
    L’observation de terrain en convainc : les enfants ne sont pas exempts de croyances discriminatoires et de conduites racistes. Pour autant, leur capacité à penser par catégories humaines n’induit pas que l’on puisse leur attribuer une pensée pré-raciale ou pré-raciste.
  • [hal-04424300] Adolescent educational and occupational anxiety: A three-dimensional model to fit into an attachment framework
    10 juillet 2024
    We propose a model of the anxiety adolescents experience about their educational and occupational future that includes three topics they worry about: (a) career failure, (b) parental disappointment, and (c) separation from loved ones to achieve one’s career. A total of 16,663 15-year-old French participants filled out a new anxiety questionnaire and other self-reports. Factor analyses showed that all three topics belong to the same type of anxiety, and suggested that the adolescents’ fear about their career is closely interwoven with parental attachment. This new kind of anxiety varied across gender and was correlated with school-adjustment and personality variables.
  • [hal-04532112] Working with dogs in olfactory searches in the French Armed Forces and national Police Forces
    4 avril 2024
    This study aims to investigate the relationships and cooperation within human-dog teams working in olfactory search in the French Armed Forces and in national Police Forces. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were carried out with canine handlers. The main topic concerned working with their dog during olfactory searches. Among the themes that stand out are relationships with their dog and canine knowledge and practices. Minor differences and similarities between dyads of the two institutions are identified in human-dog relationships. Regarding relationships with dogs, two main differences are linked to the long missions abroad experienced by Armed Forces handlers and the possibility of welcoming dogs into their homes for Police Forces. The constitution of canine knowledge and practices is rooted in experiences and transactions with dogs, but also in social transmission. Even though there is no major differences between the two institutions, this study highlights the interest of having a situated approach.
  • [hal-03235566] Quel développement psychomoteur et social des bébés en Maison d’Accompagnement Parents Enfants (MAPE) ? Une question partagée des MAPE et de la pédopsychiatrie périnatale
    22 juillet 2024
    Quel développement psychomoteur et social des bébés en Maison d'Accompagnement Parents Enfants (MAPE) ? Une question partagée des MAPE et de la pédopsychiatrie périnatale What psychomotor and social development of babies in the parent and childcare center? A shared question of parent and childcare centers and perinatal child psychiatry
  • [hal-03636219] Comment les adolescents perçoivent-ils la relation avec leur camarade préféré(e) ?
    9 avril 2022
    Le premier objectif de cette recherche était d’apporter un soutien empirique à un modèle tridimensionnel de la perception qu’ont les adolescents de la relation avec leur camarade de classe préféré. Les trois dimensions étaient : l’attachement émotionnel au camarade, le sentiment qu’il serait prêt à apporter son aide pour réussir une activité scolaire, et le fait de s’attendre à ce qu’il offre son soutien en cas d’agression par d’autres élèves. Le deuxième objectif était de tester des hypothèses concernant les facteurs de variation de cette perception. Dans le cadre d’une enquête nationale, un échantillon représentatif des élèves français en classe de 3ème, âgés en moyenne de 15 ans et 4 mois, a répondu à un questionnaire destiné à évaluer cette perception. Une analyse factorielle confirmatoire (AFC) indique que le modèle tridimensionnel est bien ajusté aux réponses des élèves. Les trois sous-échelles sont positivement mais modérément inter-corrélées. Une analyse multivariée de la variance a révélé que la relation avec le camarade de classe préféré est mieux perçue par les filles que par les garçons, qu’elle est évaluée à un niveau plus élevé lorsque ce camarade est le meilleur ami en dehors du collège et aussi lorsque cette préférence n’est pas trop récente.
  • [hal-03636218] Les peurs des adolescents concernant leur avenir scolaire et professionnel : structure et variations selon le niveau scolaire, le sexe et la classe sociale
    9 avril 2022
    Les peurs des adolescents concernant leur avenir scolaire et professionnel 2 Les peurs des adolescents concernant leur avenir scolaire et professionnel : structure et variations selon le niveau scolaire, le sexe et la classe sociale. Résumé : La présente recherche vise à valider auprès d'adolescents un nouveau construit psychologique : l'anxiété suscitée par l'avenir scolaire et professionnel. Les résultats suggèrent que ce motif général d'anxiété se décline en trois motifs spécifiques : la peur d'échouer, la peur de décevoir ses parents, et la peur de s'éloigner de ses autruis significatifs, dans le cadre de ses parcours scolaire et professionnel. La force de ces motifs d'anxiété présente des différences significatives selon la classe sociale, le sexe et les performances scolaires. Les analyses de régression multiple révèlent que les différences persistent en dépit du contrôle du niveau scolaire. Cette anxiété peut être interprétée comme une composante d'un habitus de classe sociale ou de rôle sexué.
  • [hal-04035198] Intensity seeking and novelty seeking: Their relationship to adolescent risk behavior and occupational interests
    17 mars 2023
    The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that individual differences in sensation seeking account for adolescents' risk behavior and vocational interests. We relied on Arnett's (1994) conceptualization of sensation seeking as involving a need for intensity and a need for novelty, neither of which includes the willingness to take risks. Self-report scales measuring intensity seeking, novelty seeking, impulsiveness, risk behavior and vocational interest were administered to 636 adolescents. New scales measuring intensity seeking (IS) and novelty seeking (NS) were used. Regression analyses showed that IS and to a lesser extent NS accounted for a small part of variance of risk behavior, independent of impulsiveness. IS and NS accounted for vocational interests. The discussion emphasizes the importance of disentangling sensation seeking as a trait from willingness to take risks when one intends to analyse the effect of the former on risk behavior.

Médias

ACTUALITES

2023/06/30 - Articles de Johana Ryšavá


2022/04/07 - Michel Kreutzer, sur France Culture (du 04/04/2022 au 07/04/2022 - disponible en podcast en intégralité dès le lundi après la diffusion du premier épisode), dans l'émission LSD -  Série documentaire "L'intelligence du vivant", de Franck Bessière, réalisée par Anne Fleury
1er épisode - "Définir le vivant" « Depuis pas mal d'années, on se rend compte que les êtres vivants, les organismes, notamment les vertébrés supérieurs, les oiseaux, les mammifères, recherchent également ce qui est source de plaisir. Un vivant, c'est donc aussi un être qui recherche des plaisirs et qui essaie d'éviter les déplaisirs. C'est une des raisons sans doute pour laquelle aujourd'hui, on donne tant d'importance à la souffrance animale et qu'on estime que l'on doit se donner des règles éthiques dans nos relations avec les animaux. »
2ème épisode - "L'humain un vivant d'exception"
3ème épisode - "Dans la tête des animaux" « Les émotions entrent pleinement dans les études éthologiques, qui ne se limitent donc plus seulement aux comportements. »
4ème épisode - "Le génie du vivant"

2022/03/30 - Michel Kreutzer, au Musée du Quai Branly - Université populaire 2021/2022, Thème 2 : Le corps - "L'"apprendre animal" : comment le savoir se transmet et s'apprend chez les animaux" 
2021/12/07 - Rana Esseily, Carla Aimé, Dalila Bovet et Maya Gratier, à la Philharmonie de Paris - Colloque "Pédagogie du chant choral" - "Résultats de l'étude scientifique -  impacts sur les capacités psychosociales, les apprentissages scolaires et le bien-être des enfants" (10h20)
https://philharmoniedeparis.fr/fr/activite/colloque/23002-pedagogie-du-chant-choral
2021/10/26 - Michel Kreutzer, sur France Inter, dans l’émission "Grand bien vous fasse" - "Autour des ‘Folies animales'"
2021/10/13 - Michel Kreutzer interviewé par Caroline Lachowski, sur RFI , dans l'émission "Autour de la question" - "La folie est-elle le propre de l’homme ?"
2021/10/11 - Rana Esseily sur France Culture, dans l'émission "La méthode scientifique" - "Rire : c’est du sérieux!"
2021/03/28 - Michel Kreutzer, interviewé par Octave Larmagnac-Matheron, dans Philosophie magazine - "Zoopsychiatrie : À la découverte des folies animales"
2021/03/25 - Michel Kreutzer, invité de l’association CVA (Connaissance et Vie d’Aujourd’hui) de Lille - Conférence "Éthologie : sommes-nous tous des bêtes ?"


ARCHIVES TELE / RADIO
2017/10/26 : France Infos junior - "Que se passe-t-il dans la tête des bébés ?"
2017/03/26 : France Inter - "Les Savanturiers" - en direct du salon du livre (à partir de 40 min 20) pour la promotion de La science à Contrepied paru aux éditions Belin.
2017/04/12 : France 3 - Le monde de Jamy : "Ces animaux si proches de nous"
2015/01/02 : France 5 - C dans l'air : "Mon chat est-il une personne ?"
2014/07/07 : France culture - Les matins d'été, 2ème partie : Les invités culture/Idées. "Malin comme un corbeau", avec deux éthologues Agatha Lievin-Bazin et Valérie Dufour (à partir de la 98ème minute).
2013/06 : NBC News - "Finches sing like birds and their dad taught them how"
2014/04 : France Culture - "L'intelligence du perroquet"
2013/10 : France Culture - Emission Continent Science : "L’homosexualité animale" (audio 54').
Cité des sciences et de l'industrie - Cycle de conférences Universciences "Corps et esprit : indissociables" : "Accéder à la vie subjective des animaux" - Michel Kreutzer.
2012/12 : The Telegraph "Parrot listens to Scissor Sisters' music".
2012/12 : France 5 - Emission "On n'est pas que des cobayes" : "Les éléphants ont-ils peur des souris".
2011/05 : France Inter - Emission "Vivre avec les bêtes", 29 mai :  http://www.franceinter.fr/em/vivre-avec-les-betes/105163 (05/2011)

ARCHIVES PRESSE ECRITE
2019/11/30 : The Economist - Male nightingales spend the winter practising.
2019/11/26 : New Scientist - Nightingales practise new songs in winter to impress mates in spring.
2017/03 :  Sciences Psy - Le tempo de notre quotidien - Et si nous prenions le temps ?, pp.30.
2014/12 : Santé magazine, n°469 sur l'empathie.
2014/09/03 : BMC - The unheard message of larksong.
2014/06 : JDD - L'intelligence des corbeaux
2013/11 : JDD - Comment les oiseaux apprennent-ils à chanter ?
2012/03&04 : Cerveau&Psycho - Le perroquet mentaliste.
2011 : Le Pigeon en Ville - La vie sociale du pigeon Bizet.
2011/12 : Le Républicain Lorrain - Les pigeons sont physionomistes.
2011/08 : Futura Sciences Les canaris font leur show... et s'adaptent à leur public !
2011/08 : Les Echos - Le perroquet, une langue et un cerveau.
2011/05 : BBC News - Parrots choose to work together.
2011/05 : Maxisciences - Intelligence du perroquet gris : collaboration et personnalité.
2011/05 : PhysOrg - Parrots display teamwork and decision-making skills.
2009/04 : Science Actualité, Universciences - Des piafs malins comme des singes.
2005/02 : BBC News - Sleep helps birds sing better.
A good night's sleep helps young birds master the art of singing, but only after a rather groggy start, Nature magazine has reported.
Savoirs Essonne - Masculin/féminin : le genre existe-t-il chez les animaux ?

Ouvrages

Michel Kreutzer (2021), Folies Animales, Le Pommier, Paris.

Bernard Thierry & Michel Kreutzer (dir, 2021), Témoignages sur la naissance d’une science, Les développements de l’éthologie en France (1956-1990), ouvrage collectif, Presses Universitaires de Paris Nanterre.


Franck Péron (2011), L'intelligence des perroquets: l'hypothèse du cerveau social: Compétition et coopération chez les psittacidés, Editions universitaires européennes.



 

Mis à jour le 23 novembre 2023