Étude développementale de l’interprétation de combinaisons conceptuelles nominales « relation » et « propriété »

The present research addresses how people interpret novel noun-noun conceptual combinations. First, we focused on two types of conceptual combinations: property and relational combinations. Secondly, we manipulated the order of the constituents. Finally, we studied if the interpretation in terms of “Property” or “Relation” changes along with age. So, four groups of 6-, 8- and 10-year-old children and adults participated in a production task. Our results indicated that the interpretations in terms of relation were more frequent for the “Relation” combinations compared to the “Property” ones. Property-transferring interpretations increased with age when Property combinations are presented. The most frequent interpretations followed the order Head noun-Modifier, which is opposite to the order observed in English.     

Traitement cognitif d’une représentation « mythique »

Previous studies have shown that participants provided more wild beliefs (i.e., beliefs that do not stem from institutionalized and programmed discourse) about an inexplicable event when they were exposed first to a condition of cognitive control and second when they were exposed to a fantastic (versus factual) presentation of this event. This question has been examined here for a salient social event considered as unpredictable just before it happens. This social event has been discussed a lot after its apparition, is now part of a shared social memory, and is considered as a “myth”: that is the 11 September 2001 attacks. This event has been studied in the same terms that in Deconchy's studies (2006). One hundred and twenty-six participants were assigned to a cognitive control condition (A₁) or a non cognitive control (A₂). Some participants had to explain this social event presented with a use of a pure iconography (Twins towers in black and white, clouds of smoke with clear demarcations: B₁) whereas others faced this event with a presentation linked to phantasmagoria (Twins towers in blue, green and yellow colours, clouds of bloated flames, flaky background: B2). Five different kinds of “explanations” (usually provided just after the 9/11) were offered for which participants had to rate the relevance: mysterious, technological, sociological, typical factors, internal causes attributed to the presumed actors (prestereotypical). Factorial scores on mysterious and internal explanations were high for the experimental condition A₁B₂ (cognitive control with phantasmagoria) and were significantly different from the other experimental conditions.     

Le débat sociologique autour du « modèle de la compétence »

This paper aims to pointing out, through a survey of the French sociological literature about this topic, that this discipline, unlike managers or business science, rarely speaks of a “competency model”. Beyond the denunciation of its actual or supposed damages, the competencies management is in fact more a development or an hybrid of the previously prevailing “qualification model”. In order to be efficient and relevant, it also has to adjust to the contingencies that rule the firms where it is implemented: this certainly weakens the very idea of a consistent “model”, but means neither the failure, nor the end of any competencies management.     

Une redéfinition des relations entre la personnalité « Ouverte à l’expérience » et l’intelligence

Previous investigations of the relations between the Big Five personality traits and cognitive abilities have consistently supported that higher levels of openness to experience are associated with higher levels of crystallized abilities or knowledge. However, consistent with the idea that crystallized abilities are the product of the exercise of fluid abilities in the past, a moderately strong correlation between both types of abilities is generally found. Then, the first purpose of the current project was to examine the role of fluid abilities in the relation between openness to experience and crystallized abilities. It aimed at determining whether the relation of openness to crystallized abilities was still significant after controlling for the specific contribution of fluid intelligence to crystallized abilities; or conversely, whether this relation was explained by the relation of openness to fluid intelligence. The second purpose was to determine if the relation of openness to experience to both fluid and crystallized abilities varied as a function of age. The possibility that openness to experience differentially contributes to the variance in fluid and crystallized abilities as a function of age was examined. One hundred and sixty-four participants, aged 18 to 96, completed the openness to experience scale (French version of the IPIP, Goldberg, 1999. Personality psychology in Europe), in addition to several tests of fluid and crystallized abilities. After controlling for the variance associated with fluid abilities in crystallized abilities, Openness to experience was not related to crystallized abilities anymore. Moreover, the contribution of the personality trait of Openness to the variation in fluid and crystallized intelligences was similar at different ages in adulthood. Several possible interpretations and their respective implications are discussed. First, people more open may exercise fluid abilities more than people who are less open, and then increase the efficiency of these abilities. Second, fluid abilities may influence the development of the personality trait of openness to experience, that is people's tendency to seek out for novelty and curiosity. And third, the openness to experience scale may only reflect people's self-assessments of their abilities, such as a self-assessed intelligence construct. In any case, our results strongly suggest that the openness-cognition relation reflects something different from a relation between activity and knowledge acquisition.     

M > 1

Increasingly, communication experiments are incorporating replication/actors for the purpose of controlling confounds and increasing generalizability. If replications are considered to be samples of possible treatment implementations, treating the replication factor as random is more appropriate than treating it as fixed. Study 1 shows that treating sampled replications as a fixed effect leads to potentially serious alpha inflation in the test of the treatment effect while treating sampled replications as random controls alpha at its nominal level. Study 2 addresses a common objection to treating replications as random: the argument that to do so will lead to unacceptably low power in statistical testing. Although experiments with very few replications are likely to be deficient in power, the results of Study 2 establish that power can be improved to an unexpected degree by a relatively modest increase in the number of replications.     

« Dire une chose et en faire une autre » : de la déclaration de liberté dans le paradigme de l'hypocrisie induite

According to induced hypocrisy paradigm, participants were led to advocate a pro-attitudinal position (commitment step), such as to respect the driving rules. Subsequently they were made mindful of their own transgressions (mindfulness step). Afterwards, the target-behavior was administered: spending time in a safety road association. We manipulated the declaration of freedom either within the mindfulness step (study 1), either at the twice steps (study 2). Results indicated that declaration of freedom increased the hypocritical effect. Implications for further research in the area of hypocrisy are discussed.