Le « test par CDD » comme frein au fonctionnement des entreprises

In France, in order to evaluate job applicants, some employers use short term contract before recruiting on a long term contract. The present study aims to compare companies having this practice and others. More precisely, we will appreciate the level of recruitment difficulties and the degree of fundamental error of attribution according companies. Results indicate that companies having “test by CDD” have more recruitment difficulties and more fundamental error of attribution to explain these failures.     

On the (In)Compatibility of Attitudes Toward Peace and War

Although attitudes toward peace and war are usually treated as two opposite poles of one dimension, in this article we argue that they may represent two distinct dimensions. To investigate this idea, we developed and tested a new balanced measure, the Attitudes Toward Peace and War (APW) Scale, in three studies (N = 4,742) in the United States and Denmark. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed that attitudes toward peace and war formed two distinct, though negatively related, factors. Structural equation modeling showed that antecedents of attitudes toward peace included egalitarian ideological beliefs, the values of international harmony and equality, and empathic concern for others, and consequences included intentions to engage in peace‐related activities. On the other hand, antecedents of attitudes toward war included authoritarian ideological beliefs, the values of national strength and order, and less personal distress, and consequences included intentions to engage in warlike activities. Results also showed that political affiliation had an impact on the relationship between peace and war attitudes, with conservatives less likely to find the attitudes incompatible. The findings support the view that attitudes toward peace and war represent two distinct dimensions.     

Heterarchy of cognition: The depths and the highs of a framework for memory research

To celebrate the levels-of-processing approach, I describe a multilevel evolutionary architecture for human behaviour and cognition. New experimental data on human eye movements are presented that demonstrate a possibility of splitting visual perceptual activity at least on two hierarchical but closely interrelated levels of processing. Furthermore, data from behavioural studies of human memory and neuroimaging testify that within the domain of cognition proper two higher levels can be differentiated. I call them “conceptual structures” and “metacognitive coordinations” and provide evidence that the latter may residue in the phylogenetically new structures of prefrontal and particularly right prefrontal cortices. From this point of few, the most natural framework for an analysis of the levels-of-processing effects on human memory is to consider them as interactions within the main gradients of evolution and development of the corresponding neurophysiological mechanisms. Finally, several new, still unanswered questions for the future research are formulated.     

Time course of information processing during scene perception: The relationship between saccade amplitude and fixation duration

The present study focuses on two aspects of the time course of visual information processing during the perception of natural scenes. The first aspect is the change of fixation duration and saccade amplitude during the first couple of seconds of the inspection period, as has been described by Buswell (), among others. This common effect suggests that the saccade amplitude and fixation duration are in some way controlled by the same mechanism. A simple exponential model containing two parameters can describe the phenomena quite satisfactorily. The parameters of the model show that saccade amplitude and fixation duration may be controlled by a common mechanism. The second aspect under scrutiny is the apparent lack of correlation between saccade amplitude and fixation duration (Viviani, ). The present study shows that a strong but nonlinear relationship between saccade amplitude and fixation duration does exist in picture viewing. A model, based on notions laid out by Findlay and Walker's () model of saccade generation and on the idea of two modes of visual processing (Trevarthen, ), was developed to explain this relationship. The model both fits the data quite accurately and can explain a number of related phenomena.     

Cortico-subcortical contributions to executive control

The term "executive functions" refers to a range of cognitive processes, their common feature being the coordination of information processing and action control. Cortico-subcortical circuits which connect the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the basal ganglia and the cerebellum via the thalamus are believed to serve as neuroanatomical substrates of executive processing. This paper focuses on information processing related to executive functions by the PFC and related subcortical regions. Findings are mainly derived from neuropsychological investigations of brain-damaged patients but also from imaging studies in healthy subjects. There is evidence for subtle differences between these regions with respect to the cognitive mechanisms contributing to inhibition of habitual responses, task management/multitasking and set shifting, although the data base is sparse so far.     

Facets of dynamic positive affect: differentiating joy, interest, and activation in the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS)

This article proposes the differentiation of Joy, Interest, and Activation in the Positive Affect (PA) scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; D. Watson, L. A. Clark, & A. Tellegen, 1988). Study 1 analyzed the dynamic course of PA before, during, and after an exam and established the differentiation of the three facets. Study 2 used a multistate-multitrait analysis to confirm this structure. Studies 3-5 used success-failure experiences, speaking tasks, and feedback of exam results to further examine PA facets in affect-arousing settings. All studies provide convincing evidence for the benefit of differentiating three facets of PA in the PANAS: Joy, Interest, and Activation do have distinct and sometimes even opposite courses that make their separation meaningful and rewarding.     

Spatial-frequency-contingent color aftereffects: Adaptation with two-dimensional stimulus patterns

The spatial-frequency theory of vision has been supported by adaptation studies using checkerboards in which contingent color aftereffects (CAEs) were produced at fundamental frequencies oriented at 45\dg to the edges. A replication of this study failed to produce CAEs at the orientation of either the edges or the fundamentals. Using a computer-generated display, no CAEs were produced by adaptation of a square or an oblique checkerboard. But when one type of checkerboard (4 cpd) was adapted alone, CAEs were produced on the adapted checkerboard and on sine-wave gratings aligned with the fundamental and third harmonics of the checkerboard spectrum. Adaptation of a coarser checkerboard (0.80 cpd) produced CAEs aligned with both the edges and the harmonic frequencies. With checkerboards of both frequencies, CAEs were also found on the other type of checkerboard that had not been adapted. This observation raises problems for any edge-detector theory of vision, because there was no adaptation to edges. It was concluded that spatial-frequency mechanisms are operating at both low- and high-spatial frequencies and that an edge mechanism is operative at lower frequencies. The implications of these results are assessed for other theories of spatial vision.     

Curvature-specific color aftereffects

Adaptation to convex and concave arcs in different colored light results in curvature-specific color aftereffects when arcs are later viewed in white light. In three experiments, it was shown that these color aftereffects often are partial (restricted to limited regions of the test arcs) rather than uniform, and in addition that aftereffects induced by exposure to arcs transfer to straight-line displays of particular orientation, and vice versa. These data were interpreted as evidence that arcs are processed in the visual system in relation to the orientations of local straight line approximations instead of on a global basis. In these terms, curvature-specific color aftereffects are merely complex forms of the orientation-specific color aftereffects first described by McCollough (1965).