Publications

Articles scientifiques

Publications du LECD sur son site HAL

  • [hal-01478471] A Potential Role for Parasites in the Maintenance of Color Polymorphism in Urban Birds
    28 février 2017
    Urbanization is a major challenge for biodiversity conservation, yet the evolutionary processes taking place in urbanized areas remain poorly known. Human activities in cities set new selective forces in motion which need to be investigated to predict the evolutionary responses of animal species living in urban areas. In this study, we investigated the role of urbanization and parasites in the maintenance of melanin-based color polymorphism in the feral pigeon Columba livia. Using a correlative approach, we tested whether differently colored genotypes displayed alternative phenotypic responses to urbanization, by comparing body condition, blood parasite prevalence and parasite load between colored morphs along an urbanization gradient. Body condition did not vary with urbanization, but paler individuals had a higher body condition than darker individuals. Moreover, paler morphs were less often parasitized than darker morphs in moderately urbanized habitats, but their parasite prevalence increased with urbanization. In contrast, darker morphs had similar parasite prevalence along the urbanization gradient. This suggests that paler morphs did better than darker morphs in moderately urbanized environments but were negatively affected by increasing urbanization, while darker morphs performed equally in all environments. Thus, differently colored individuals were distributed non-randomly across the urban habitat and suffered different parasite risk according to their location (a gene-by-environment interaction). This suggests that melanin-based coloration might reflect alternative strategies to cope with urbanization via different exposure or susceptibility to parasites. Spatial variability of parasite pressures linked with urbanization may, thus, play a central role in the maintenance of plumage color polymorphism in this urban species.
  • [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-04500856] Toward a multimodal and continuous approach of infant-adult interactions
    12 mars 2024
    Abstract Adult-infant early dyadic interactions have been extensively explored by developmental psychologists. Around the age of 2 months, infants already demonstrate complex, delicate and very sensitive behaviors that seem to express their ability to interact and share emotions with their caregivers. This paper presents 3 pilot studies of parent-infant dyadic interaction in various set-ups. The first two present longitudinal data collected on two infants aged between 1 and 6 months and their mothers. We analyzed the development of coordination between them, at the motor and at the vocal level. The 3rd pilot study aims to explore interpersonal coordination in both vocal behavior and motor activity for one infant and his mother at 2, 4 and 6 months. These pilot studies however leave a number of questions open concerning developmental changes and infants’ progressive mastery of interaction. We identify areas worth examining and try to tease out specific issues that may help develop new methodological pathways for the study of early naturalistic social interaction. We assume that a continuous, rather than discrete, approach would better capture the changes taking place in the various communicative modalities, while also displaying each dyad’s specificity and the narrative dimension of social engagement between infants and caregivers.
  • [hal-01604274] Negative impact of urban noise on sexual receptivity and clutch size in female domestic canaries
    26 mai 2020
    In oscines, male song stimulates female reproduction and females are known to adjust both their sexual preferences and their maternal investment according to song quality. Female domestic canaries are especially responsive to wide frequency bandwidth (4 kHz) male songs emitted with a high-repetition syllable rate and low minimal frequencies (1 kHz). We previously showed that low-frequency urban noise decreases female sexual responsiveness for these low-frequency songs (1–5 kHz) through auditory masking. Based on the differential allocation hypothesis, we predicted that urban noise exposure will equally affect female maternal investment. Using a crossover design, we broadcast low-frequency songs to females either in an overlapping noise condition or in an alternating noise condition. Females decreased both their sexual responsiveness and their clutch size in the overlapping noise treatment relative to the alternative noise treatment. No differences were found concerning egg size or egg composition (yolk and albumen mass, testosterone concentration). Due to our experimental design, we can exclude a general impact of noisy conditions and thereby provide evidence for a detrimental effect through masking on avian courtship and reproductive output. These results suggest that noisy conditions may also affect avian communication in outdoor conditions, which may partly explain field reports on noise-dependent breeding success and reduced breeding densities at noisy sites.
  • [hal-04243919] Amitié, intimité émotionnelle et rôles de sexe à l'adolescence
    17 octobre 2023
    La recherche porte sur l'intimité émotionnelle perçue par les adolescents en classes de 4ème ou 3ème dans leurs amitiés dyadiques. Les différences inter-sexes de perception du de l'intimité sont supposées résulter des rôles de sexe plutôt que refléter une supériorité des habiletés sociales des filles. On faisait l'hypothèse que les garçons perçoivent moins d'intimité que les filles dans l'amitié mono-sexuée, mais que garçons et filles ont la même perception de l'intimité dans l'amitié bisexuée. Des adolescents français de 13 à 14 ans ont rempli un questionnaire évaluant la perception de leurs amitiés. Les résultats confirment l'hypothèse. La discussion porte sur le rôle des expériences entre pairs dans ces résultats. Certaines implications pour la supervision éducative des groupes de pairs sont proposées.
  • [hal-04484251] Spontaneous tempo production in cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus) and jungle crows (Corvus macrorhyncos)
    29 février 2024
    Musical and rhythmical abilities are poorly documented in non-human animals. Most of the existing studies focused on synchronisation performances to external rhythms. In humans, studies demonstrated that rhythmical processing (e. g. rhythm discrimination or synchronisation to external rhythm) is dependent of an individual measure: the individual tempo. It is assessed by asking participants to produce an endogenous isochronous rhythm (known as spontaneous motor tempo) without any specific instructions nor temporal cue. In non-human animal literature, studies describing spontaneous and endogenous production of motor tempo without any temporal clue are rare. This exploratory study aims to describe and compare the spontaneous motor tempo of cockatiels and jungle crows. Data were collected on spontaneous beak drumming behaviours of birds housed in laboratory. Inter beak strokes intervals were calculated from sound tracks of videos. The analyses revealed that inter beak strokes intervals are non-randomly distributed intervals and are isochronous. Recorded spontaneous motor tempos are significantly different among some cockatiels. Since we could only conduct statistical analysis with one corvid, we cannot conclude about this species. Our results suggest that cockatiels and jungle crows have individual tempos, thus encouraging further investigations.
  • [hal-04035290] The Development of Gender Schemata About Heterosexual and Homosexual Others During Adolescence
    17 mars 2023
    Perceptions of heterosexual and homosexual individuals were investigated among 55 male and 60 female French 11.0–22.1 yr olds, divided into 3 mean age groups of 12-, 16-, and 20 yr olds. Participants described heterosexual and homosexual males and females with typical masculine and feminine personality traits. Overall, they perceived heterosexual males as having more masculine traits than homosexual males. The 16- and 20-yr-olds perceived homosexual males as more feminine than heterosexual males, whereas the reverse was observed in 12-yr-olds. Furthermore, the 1 2-yr-olds perceived heterosexual females as more feminine than homosexual females, a difference that disappeared in the older age groups. Results support the view of early adolescence as a crucial period in the development of gender schemata about sexually significant others.
  • [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-01704322] Social competition and plasma testosterone profile in domesticated canaries: An experimental test of the challenge hypothesis
    8 février 2018
    The challenge hypothesis predicts that plasma testosterone (T) concentration is high when male – male competitions are high and decreases when males are engaged in paternal care. In monogamous species, T concentration increases at the beginning of the breeding period and decreases after egg laying. According to the challenge hypothesis, increasing competition should also lead to T increase. The aim of our study was to test this hypothesis. In a first experiment, we measured the T profile of domesticated canaries housed with their mate in separated cages without competition. In a second one, we created a competition by housing male and female domestic canaries together (in an aviary) and emphasized this competition by limiting food access. We also studied social status effect. Our results showed no effect of social status in both sexes and no differences in female's T concentration. Concerning males, we obtained a clear monogamous T profile from the ones housed in a low competition situation and a polygamous profile from the others housed in high competition situation. Thus, our results support the hypothesis of the plasticity of the mechanisms controlling T concentration according to environmental conditions. D
  • [hal-02014219] Consistency of female preference for male song in the domestic canary using two measures: Operant conditioning and vocal response
    11 février 2019
    Variation of female preferences is often reported in the literature and could be related to an artefact derived from multiple different methods used. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the influence of different methods when assessing female preferences. The present study aims to compare female preferences obtained from an operant conditioning test and from female vocal responses to male song in the domestic canary (Serinus canaria). In an operant conditioning test, females had the possibility to choose between two keys; a peck on one key elicited a supposed very attractive canary song while a peck on the other key elicited a less attractive song. Meanwhile, female vocal responses were recorded. Our results revealed that female canaries preferred to peck on the key eliciting the attractive song and that they emitted more copulation calls in response to the attractive song compared to the less attractive song. This study shows the congruence of these two methods and further suggests that they are reliable to study female preferences in laboratory conditions.
  • [hal-01478456] Le cannibalisme sexuel : un instinct dévorant
    28 février 2017
    Sexe et nourriture ont souvent fait bon ménage. « Chair fraîche », « péché de chair », « orgie » ou « femme dévoreuse d'hommes » sont autant d'expressions qui traversent le discours populaire, la littérature ou le cinéma. Dans son film Maris et Femmes, Woody Allen décrivait ainsi une de ses ex-compagnes comme une femme « sexuellement carnivore ». Alors, le sexe peut-il aller jusqu'à la consommation du partenaire ? Chez l'être humain, ce n'est guère que chez les psychopathes comme le tristement célèbre Luka Rocco Magnotta, le « dépeceur de Montréal ». Mais chez les animaux, quelle hécatombe !
  • [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-01478480] Horizontal Transmission of the Father's Song in the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia Guttata)
    21 novembre 2017
    As is the case for human speech, birdsong is transmitted across generations by imitative learning. Although transfer of song patterns from adults to juveniles typically occurs via vertical or oblique transmission, there is also evidence of horizontal transmission between juveniles of the same generation. Here, we show that a young male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) that has been exposed to its father during the sensitive period for song learning can lead a brother, that has never heard the paternal song, to imitate some sounds of the father. Moreover, song similarity between the two brothers was higher than the similarity measured between the paternal song and the song of the brother that had a week-long exposure to the father. We speculate that the phenomenon of within-generation song learning among juveniles may be more widespread than previously thought and that when a juvenile evaluates potential models for imitative learning, a sibling may be as salient as an adult.
  • [hal-02929991] Shared calls in repertoires of two locally distant gray parrots (Psittacus erithacus)
    9 novembre 2020
    Parrots belong to the handful of animal species capable of vocal production learning. They are considered to be open-ended learners with complex and variable vocalizations. It is not known, however, to what extent their repertoires are shared among individuals within a group or between vocally isolated individuals or groups. In study 1, we mapped the repertoire of four captive African gray parrots (Psittacus erithacus) using a combination of three acoustic analyses. In study 2, we compared the repertoire of two female African gray parrots from two different laboratories who had never been in vocal contact with each other or any member of the other parrot’s social group. Results of study 1 showed a relatively large agreement between all three methods used to analyze the vocalizations. Almost three quarters (72.8%) of categories determined by visual-acoustic analysis were confirmed by at least one of the two computer-aided methods used, i.e., by spectrographic cross-correlation and/or a multiparametric statistical method. In study 2, we found a relatively large proportion of calls shared between the repertoires of the two gray parrot subjects. Over half and over a fourth of calls produced by parrots with the smaller and the larger repertoire, respectively, were shared between the two. No previous study identified such a large proportion of intergroup shared calls within this parrot species. It seems that some calls tend to reappear in vocally isolated groups based on inherited predispositions, similarly as has been documented in songbirds.
  • [hal-04390049] Pigeons discriminate between human feeders
    12 janvier 2024
    Considered as plague in many cities, pigeons in urban areas live close to human activities and exploit this proximity to find food which is often directly delivered by people. In this study, we explored the capacity of feral pigeons to take advantage of this human-based food resource and discriminate between friendly and hostile people. Our study was conducted in an urban park. Pigeons were fed by two experimenters of approximately the same age and skin colour but wearing coats of different colours. During the training sessions, the two human feeders displayed different attitudes: one of the feeders was neutral and the second was hostile and chased away the pigeons. During the two test phases subsequent to the training phase, both feeders became neutral. Two experiments were conducted, one with one male and one female feeder and the second with two female feeders. In both experiments, the pigeons learned to quickly (six to nine sessions) discriminate between the feeders and maintained this discrimination during the test phases. The pigeons avoided the hostile feeder even when the two feeders exchanged their coats, suggesting that they used stable individual characteristics to differentiate between the experimenter feeders. Thus, pigeons are able to learn quickly from their interactions with human feeders and use this knowledge to maximize the profitability of the urban environment. This study provides the first experimental evidence in feral pigeons for this level of human discrimination.
  • [hal-02326210] Handedness in infants' tool use
    22 octobre 2019
    In this study, we investigated whether hand preference influences infants' choice of what hand to use in grasping a new tool presented at the midline, and whether this will change in the course of learning the functionality of a tool. The tool was a rake within reach placed beside an out‐of‐reach toy presented either to its right or to its left. Forty‐eight infants from 16 to 22 months of age were tested. The results show that use of the right‐preferred hand to grasp the rake is strong as of 16 months of age and does not change significantly with age in the condition where using the right hand leads to a better outcome than using the left hand. In the condition where using the left‐non‐preferred hand makes toy retrieval easier, infants increasingly use the left hand with age. Thus, when grasping the tool, younger infants are more influenced by their hand preference than older infants, who are better at anticipating the most successful strategies.
  • [hal-04405861] Examining differences in minority versus majority preschoolers on social categorization and perceived intergroup distance
    19 janvier 2024
    Abstract We examined the differences between majority and minority children (i.e., group membership) on racial categorization and perceived cultural distance, among 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children, in low diversified schools. We used a spontaneous social categorization task using pictures of children from three different racial groups broadly represented in France (Europeans, Black‐, and North‐Africans), and an evaluation of the perceived cultural distance between participants' in‐group and the racial group represented in the picture, adapted to children and based on three factors (language, eating habits, and music). Results revealed an effect of age on racial categorization: the older the children, the more successful they are in this task. They showed a significant effect of the racial group represented in the photos on perceived cultural distance: members of minority groups (i.e., Black‐ and North‐Africans) were evaluated as more different compared to those of the majority group on each of the factors. Finally, we got an interaction between participants' in‐group and the racial group represented in the pictures, for the language factor: members of the majority group perceived as more different photographs representing minorities peers than those representing majority peers, while participants belonging to minority groups perceived no differences between photographs, according to the racial criteria.
  • [hal-03482219] Développement ontogénétique de la cognition humaine : champs de recherche, méthodes et perspectives
    15 décembre 2021
    Dès son origine, l’étude du développement de la cognition humaine d’un point de vue ontogénétique, c’est-à-dire de la naissance jusqu’à l’âge adulte, a été soumise à des défis théoriques et méthodologiques. Cette revue de littérature propose un aperçu de la multiplicité des méthodes et des approches permettant l’étude du développement de la cognition humaine, ainsi que de leurs limites respectives. Dans un premier temps, nous exposerons les méthodes classiquement utilisées en psychologie du développement pour l’étude de la cognition chez le bébé et chez le jeune enfant. Dans la seconde partie de cet article, nous décrirons comment certains travaux de la psychologie du développement se sont orientés vers les problématiques liées à l’étude de l’évolution de la cognition humaine. Enfin, dans un troisième temps, nous nous intéresserons aux progrès scientifiques qui ont mené à l’apparition d’un nouveau champ de recherche intégrant l’intelligence artificielle : la robotique développementale. Nous conclurons cet article par une discussion sur les perspectives et enjeux pour l’étude du développement de la cognition humaine.
  • [hal-02326012] The Emergence of Tool Use in Preterm Infants
    12 janvier 2024
    Preterm born children without neurological impairments have been shown to present some visual-manual coordination deficits, more or less depending on their tonicity and the degree of prematurity. In this paper, we compare the development of tool use in 15– 23-month-old preterm infants born after 33–36 weeks of gestation without neurological complications with that of full-term infants according to corrected age. Understanding the affordance of a tool is an important cognitive milestone in early sensorimotor period. Using a tool to bring within reach an out-of-reach object, for instance, has been shown to develop during the 2nd year in full-term infants. Here we presented preterm infants with an attractive toy out of reach and with a rake-like tool within reach in five conditions of spatial relationships between the toy and the tool. Like full-terms, preterm infants used the tool with success in conditions of spatial contiguity around 15–17 months. In conditions of a spatial gap between tool and toy, i.e., the only conditions which shows without ambiguity that the infant understands the affordance of the tool, preterm infants as a group showed no delay for tool use: the frequency of spontaneous successes started to increase after 18 months, and demonstration became effective after that age. However, further analyses showed that only the preterm infants without hypotonia and born after 36 weeks of pregnancy developed tool use without delay. Hypotonic preterm infants were still largely unsuccessful in the conditions of spatial gap, even at the end of the study. The degree of prematurity also influenced the performance at tool use. These results, following the observation of a delay in the development of bimanual coordination and of handedness in the same infants at 10–12 months in a previous study, show that low risk preterm infants can still be impaired for the development of new manual skills beyond the 1st year. Thus, hypotonic preterm infants and infants born before 36 weeks of pregnancy should be followed and might benefit from early intervention programs.
  • [hal-01478473] Ostensive Cues Orient 10-Month-Olds' Attention toward the Task But Delay Learning
    28 février 2017
    The aim of this study is to investigate how ostensive cues modify infants' visual attention to task demonstration, and the extent to which this enhances the performance in an imitative learning task. We hypothesized that ostensive cues would help orient infants' attention toward relevant parts of the demonstration. We investigated the looking behavior of 41 10-month-old infants while observing an adult demonstrating a novel target action after having either provided ostensive cues or not. Infants' looking behavior was measured using an eye tracker. Two areas of interest were analyzed: the targeted object and the adult's face. Infants' performance after demonstration was also analyzed. The results show that infants' looking behavior varied across groups. When ostensive cues were not provided, infants looked mainly at the experimenter's face. However, when ostensive cues were provided, infants oriented their attention toward the targeted object. These results suggest that ostensive cues help infants orient their attention toward task-relevant parts of the scene. Surprisingly, infants in the non-ostensive group improved their performance faster after demonstration than infants in the ostensive group. These results are discussed in terms of a video effect and dissociation between separate cognitive systems for social and non-social cognition.
  • [hal-01478444] E comme Enfance : l'école de la camaraderie
    28 février 2017
    On a tort de minimiser les relations d'amitié entre enfants, à plus forte raison à l'adolescence. Professeur en psychologie du développement, Pascal Mallet, professeur en psychologie du développement à l'université de Nanterre, auteur de l'Amitié entre enfants ou adolescents. Une force pour grandir (Armand Colin), décortique l'enjeu de ces liens privilégiés.
  • [hal-01478490] L'animal sous le regard profane, sacré et savant des humains et des éthologues
    1 décembre 2017
    L'éthologie peut-elle revendiquer le monopole du discours savant sur l'animal ? Je ne le pense pas. Aussi, bien qu'émanant d'un éthologue, les propos qui suivent s'inscrivent davantage dans le cadre d'une réflexion générale sur la diversité de nos pratiques et de nos discours ayant trait aux animaux qu'ils ne s'inscrivent dans le cadre d'une communication académique. De ce fait, je prends le risque que certains de mes propos soient perçus comme triviaux. En effet, loin de considérer la vie animale à travers le prisme de l’éthologie telle qu’elle est pratiquée aujourd’hui – avec ses théories et ses concepts « historiques » –, mon objectif ici est d’inviter les éthologues à s’ouvrir à de nouvelles thématiques et à orienter leur collaboration vers des questions qui n’apparaissent comme « citoyennes » que lorsque les médias s’en emparent au motif qu’elles nous concernent toutes et tous.
  • [hal-01704194] Personality traits and behavioural profiles in the domestic canary are affected by sex and photoperiod
    8 février 2018
    Personality traits and behavioural profiles are generally assumed to be stable in adult-hood. Yet, it has been hypothesised that animals should cope with cyclical fluctuations by adjusting both single behaviours and suites of behaviour. Photoperiod is well known to induce hormonal and physiological changes, and these changes can in turn affect personality traits and behavioural profiles. This study is the first to explicitly investigate the influence of photoperiod on both behavioural profiles and personality traits. Six potential personality traits (within-flock activity, ability to escape, response to threat, isolation calling, boldness and neophobia) and dominance were measured four times in 96 domestic canaries Serinus canaria (48 males and 48 females): twice during a long photo-period (Long Days) and 6 months later twice during a short photoperiod (Short Days). Without regard to sex and photoperiod, most traits were highly repeatable, and bolder canaries were more dominant, less sensitive to an external threat and to isolation and less neophobic. In addition, the more active individuals within a flock were the more difficult to catch. Yet, both sex and photoperiod affected personality traits and behavioural profiles. Personality traits remained repeatable within each photoperiod though we observed behavioural plasticity and sex differences for response to threat, neophobia and within-flock activity. Concerning behavioural profiles, the negative relationship between boldness and neophobia remained homogenous in both sexes during Short Days as well as during Long Days. Then, the more active individuals within a flock were the more difficult to catch in Short Days but not in Long Days. Finally, the other correlations not only varied with photoperiod but also with sex. Our study highlights the importance of pho-toperiod and sex in the expression of personality traits and behavioural profiles, and of the need to measure them across the whole photoperiodic cycle.
  • [hal-04453380] Quelle place pour l’expérimentation en éthologie ?
    12 février 2024
    The experimental approach has been at the center of my thoughts since my baccalaureate of “experimental sciences”. Trained in neurosciences, I very quickly chose the field of ethology, thinking I would escape certain experimental approaches and offer myself research more respectful of animal life. Today, I have to note that this option did not necessarily lead to what I had imagined. I have been both the witness and the actor of practices that deserve attention. This path, punctuated by an evolution of the conceptions of our relations with living beings, leads me to question the ethics, sometimes contradictory, of action and knowledge.
  • [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-01688801] Birdsong learning in the laboratory, with especial reference to the song of the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
    19 janvier 2018
    Vocal imitation in songbirds exhibits interesting parallels to infant speech development and is currently the model system of choice for exploring the behavioural, molecular and electrophysiological substrates of vocal learning. Among songbirds, the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is currently used as the ‘flying mouse’ of birdsong research. Only males sing and they develop their song primarily during a short sensitive period in early life. They learn their speciesspecific song patterns by memorizing and imitating the songs of conspecifics, mainly adults. Since Immelmann's pioneering work, thousands of zebra finches have been raised in strictly controlled auditory environments to examine how their experience affected their songs. In this article, I review the different experimental procedures that have been used in the laboratory to study the social influences on song learning in the Zebra Finch. Poor song learning was observed using passive playback of taped songs, whereas self-eliciting exposure using operant tutoring techniques induced significant learning, but with a high interindividual variability. The success of the training paradigm is often measured by the quality of imitation of the songs to which the young bird is exposed. Using empirical evidence from the field and the laboratory, I will also discuss this issue, by summarizing possible advantages and disadvantages of producing a perfect imitation. So far, the best method to get a close copy of a song model in the Zebra Finch is to place a single young bird with an adult male. This situation, which is rather unnatural, does not meet the criteria for precise control necessary in experimental conditions. Optimizing the methods used to train a zebra finch to learn a song, in order to be able to predict the imitation success, will improve our understanding of the dynamics of vocal production learning. It would also consolidate this species as a research model of relevance to human speech development and disorders
  • [hal-03130944] Sensorimotor Contingencies as a Key Drive of Development: From Babies to Robots
    4 février 2021
    Much current work in robotics focuses on the development of robots capable of autonomous unsupervised learning. An essential prerequisite for such learning to be possible is that the agent should be sensitive to the link between its actions and the consequences of its actions, called sensorimotor contingencies. This sensitivity, and more particularly its role as a key drive of development, has been widely studied by developmental psychologists. However, the results of these studies may not necessarily be accessible or intelligible to roboticians. In this paper, we review the main experimental data demonstrating the role of sensitivity to sensorimotor contingencies in infants’ acquisition of four fundamental motor and cognitive abilities: body knowledge, memory, generalization, and goal-directedness. We relate this data from developmental psychology to work in robotics, highlighting the links between these two domains of research. In the last part of the article we present a blueprint architecture demonstrating how exploitation of sensitivity to sensorimotor contingencies, combined with the notion of “goal,” allows an agent to develop new sensorimotor skills. This architecture can be used to guide the design of specific computational models, and also to possibly envisage new empirical experiments.
  • [hal-02326108] When do infants understand that they can obtain a desired part of a composite object by grasping another part?
    12 janvier 2024
    When do infants start to understand that they can grasp an object by its handle when the interesting part is out of reach? Whereas it is known from preferential looking tasks that already at three months of age infants show surprise when all parts of an object do not move together, little is known about when infants are able to use such knowledge in an active grasp situation. To answer this question we presented six, eight, and 10 month-old infants in a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study with a white cardboard handle within reach and a bright ball at the end of the handle and out of reach. A trick condition, where the handle and the ball seem attached but were not, was added to get an indication of the infant's expectation by observing a possible surprise reaction. Results show that 6-month-olds' most frequent first behaviors consisted in pointing toward the ball without grasping the handle, or grasping the handle without looking at the ball until it moved. In addition, they often did not look surprised in the trick condition. Eight- and 10-month-olds most often grasped the handle while looking at the ball, and showed clear surprise in the trick condition. This was interpreted as showing that around eight or 10 months, infants take a significant step in understanding the cohesiveness of composite objects during grasping.
  • [hal-01480089] The Still-Face: A Greater Challenge for Infants of Mothers With Borderline Personality Disorder
    1 mars 2017
    The main aim of this study was to ascertain whether infants as young as 3 months of age, whose mothers suffer from borderline personality disorder (BPD), are already at risk of greater dysregulation than infants of mothers without BPD when faced with a minor stressful experience. Nineteen mothers diagnosed with BPD and 41 controls with no history of psychopathology and their 3-month-old infants were observed using Tronick's Face-to-Face Still-Face paradigm. The authors found that infants whose mothers have BPD express less positive vocalizations and less nonautonomic self-regulation than infants of mothers with no psychopathology. The stress of the Still-Face episode affects their gaze and self-regulation behaviors more strongly than those of infants of controls. The Reunion episode seems particularly challenging for mothers with BPD, who show fewer smiles and an increase in intrusive behavior. Because infants and their mothers with BPD are already dysregulated at 3 months postpartum, envisaging very early intervention seems warranted.
  • [hal-04424300] Adolescent educational and occupational anxiety: A three-dimensional model to fit into an attachment framework
    29 janvier 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-04035337] Ségrégation de sexe et socialisation entre élèves de collège au Cameroun.
    17 mars 2023
    Le premier objectif était de savoir si à l’adolescence les relations entre élèves camerounais étaient marquées par la ségrégation de sexe. Le deuxième consistait à analyser dans quelle mesure les réputations de dominance et de prosocialité rendaient compte de l’acceptation sociale. 358 élèves de collège ont répondu à un questionnaire. Devant citer leurs préférés, ils ont choisi majoritairement des condisciples de leur sexe. Chez les filles les réputations de prosocialité et de dominance contribuent à l’acceptation sociale, chez les garçons seule leur réputation de prosocialité y contribue. On obtient les mêmes résultats en se centrant sur les citations provenant des pairs de même sexe. Ces résultats sont interprétés dans le contexte des rôles sexués au Cameroun.
  • [hal-01480091] The Human Nature of Culture and Education
    1 mars 2017
    Human cultures educate children with different strategies. Ancient hunter-gatherers 200,000 years ago, with bodies and brains like our own, in bands of a hundred well-known individuals or less, depended on spontaneous cooperative practice of knowledge and skills in a natural world. Before creating language, they appreciated beautiful objects and music. Anthropologists observe that similar living cultures accept that children learn in playful 'intent participation'. Large modern industrial states with millions of citizens competing in a global economy aim to instruct young people in scientific concepts and the rules of literacy and numeracy deemed important for employment with elaborate machines. Our psychobiological theories commonly assume that an infant starts with a body needing care and emotional regulation and a mind that assimilates concepts of objects by sensorimotor action and requires school instruction in rational principles after several years of cognitive development. Evidence from archeology and evolutionary anthropology indicates that Homo sapiens are born with an imaginative and convivial brain ready for the pleasure of shared invention and with a natural sense of beauty in handmade objects and music. In short, there are innate predispositions for culture for practicing meaningful habits and artful performances that are playfully inventive and seductive for companionship in traditions, and soon capable of grasping the clever purpose of shared tasks and tools. This knowledge of inventive human nature with esthetic and moral sensibilities has important implications for educational policy in our schools.
  • [hal-01478484] Bilateral Coordination and the Motor Basis of Female Preference for Sexual Signals in Canary Song
    4 décembre 2017
    The preference of female songbirds for particular traits in the songs of courting males has received considerable attention, but the relationship of preferred traits to male quality is poorly understood. Female domestic canaries (Serinus canaria, Linnaeus) preferentially solicit copulation with males that sing special high repetition rate, wide-band, multi-note syllables, called 'sexy' or A-syllables. Syllables are separated by minibreaths but each note is produced by pulsatile expiration, allowing high repetition rates and long duration phrases. The wide bandwidth is achieved by including two notes produced sequentially on opposite sides of the syrinx, in which the left and right sides are specialized for low or high frequencies, respectively. The emphasis of low frequencies is facilitated by a positive relationship between syllable repetition rate and the bandwidth of the fundamental frequency of notes sung by the left syrinx, such that bandwidth increases with increasing syllable repetition rate. The temporal offset between notes prevents cheating by unilaterally singing a note on the left side with a low fundamental frequency and prominent higher harmonics. The syringeal and respiratory motor patterns by which sexy syllables are produced support the hypothesis that these syllables provide a sensitive vocal-auditory indicator of a male's performance limit for the rapid, precisely coordinated interhemispheric switching, which is essential for many sensory and motor processes involving specialized contributions from each cerebral hemisphere.
  • [hal-04449520] Racial Categorization and Intergroup Relations in Children: The Role of Social Status and Numerical Group Size
    9 février 2024
    The aim of this review was to examine the effect of social and numerical group size on racial categorization and intergroup relations in children. We first described the development of racial categorization and the factors that increase the saliency of the race criterion in different contexts. Then, we examine the role of social status in intergroups relations and show that low status children express lower ingroup favoritism compared to their peers from high status groups. Few studies investigated the role of ingroup size on intergroup biases. Here, we look at this numerical variable through the proportion of children of different racial groups in the school environment. The results show that homogeneous environments contribute to the decrease of bias and negative attitudes. We discuss how identifying specific and interactive effects of the social and numerical group size would allow us to implement early and efficient intervention programs.
  • [hal-01478486] A Study of Sharing and Reciprocity in Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus)
    28 février 2017
    Demonstrations of nonhuman ability to share resources and reciprocate such sharing seem contingent upon the experimental paradigm used (note Horner et al. in PNAS 108:13847-13851, 2011). Here, such behaviour in Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) was tested in two experiments, both designed to avoid possible issues involving apparatus complexity, visible reward options, and physical competition and/or limited communication between subjects.

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