Predictors of semantic categorical flexibility in older adults

This study investigated the processes involved in the aging of semantic categorical flexibility. A previous study revealed the effects of aging on the flexible use of taxonomic relations. We aimed to explain our previous results regarding the performance of older adults; we carried out investigations into the respective roles of executive and conceptual factors in semantic categorical flexibility. Fifty older adults carried out a semantic categorical flexibility task alongside conceptual and executive measures. The results replicate our previous findings and indicate that the predictors of the maintenance of the use of taxonomic relations are conceptual and the predictors of the switching from thematic to taxonomic relations are executive.     

Verbal fluency in children with ADHD: Strategy using and temporal properties

Verbal fluency tasks are commonly used in cognitive and developmental neuropsychology in assessing executive functions, language skills as well as divergent thinking. Twenty-two typically developing children and 22 children with ADHD between the ages of 8 and12 years were examined using verbal fluency tasks, prepotent response inhibition, and working memory tests. The clinical group showed impaired inhibitory and spatial working memory processes. We used different qualitative analyses of verbal fluency tasks to explore the lexical and executive strategies (word clustering and switching), and the temporal properties of the responses. Children with ADHD had a leeway in applying relevant lexical or executive strategies related to difficulties in strategy using. The reduced efficiency of children with ADHD in semantic fluency task is based on suboptimal shifting between word clusters and is related to the lack of ability of producing new clusters of items. The group difference appeared at the level of accessing and/or activating common words; however, the executive process of searching the lexicon extensively is intact.     

Considering spatial ability in virtual route learning in early aging

The aim of this study is to broaden our understanding of the construction and early decline of spatial mental representations in route learning, considering the extent to which spatial ability and age-related differences in environment learning interact. The experiment examines spatial mental representation derived from taking a realistic route acquired using virtual environment and compares individuals different in age but with similar spatial ability. A sample of 34 young (20–30 years) and 30 middle-aged (50–60 years) females with good mental rotation ability were chosen. Participants learned a complex route through its presentation in a virtual environment and then performed a series of tasks (landmark recognition, location of landmarks and verification of spatial relations). Results show that the two participant age groups had similar performance in landmark recognition task and in verification of sentences describing direct spatial relations; instead, the middle-aged group showed a poorer performance than younger in their ability to locate landmarks and to judge the truth of indirect spatial sentences. These results first suggest that spatial abilities have to be seriously considered to avoid any confusion with age, as age-related differences are attenuated when individuals are different in age but similar in spatial ability. Second they confirm a specific difficulty of older participants to handle spatial information in a global configuration.     

Metacognition and low achievement in mathematics: The effect of training in the use of metacognitive skills to solve mathematical word problems

The central question underlying this study was whether metacognition training could enhance the two metacognition components—knowledge and skills—and the mathematical problem-solving capacities of normal children in grade 3. We also investigated whether metacognitive training had a differential effect according to the children's mathematics level. A total of 48 participants took part in this study, divided into an experimental and a control group, each subdivided into a lower and a normal achievers group. The training programme took an interactive approach in accordance with Schraw's (1998 Schraw, G. 1998. Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26: 113–125. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) recommendation and was carried out over five training sessions. Results indicated that children in the training group had significantly higher post-test metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive skills, and mathematical problem-solving scores. In addition, metacognitive training was particularly beneficial to the low achievers. Thus metacognitive training enabled the low achievers to make progress and solve the same number of problems on the post-test as the normal achievers solved on the pre-test.     

Les effets des activités auto-descriptives sur la clarté du concept de soi : le rôle modérateur des variables sociodémographiques

This research questions the possibility of inducing the development of self-concept clarity (SCC), through a self-describing activity. A test-retest device comprises three groups: neutral (no intermediate activity), control (logical-cognitive activity), experimental (self-describing activity). The results indicate that the self-describing activity generates the largest effect, but become significantly stronger when individuals start with a low CCS, which is often the when belonging to less values socio-demographic categories. We reinterpet these process in terms of “remediation” et we explore possibilities to measure and develop professional orientation practices for this purpose.     

Les apports de la psychologie sociale aux situations de formation par alternance

This article aims to show how the alternating trainings have been treated by researchers using social psychology approaches. It identifies the theoretical models used, the main researches and some of their results. It comes to the idea that psychology appears as an essential discipline to understand the evolutions of the individuals in these work and training situations but it not sufficiently used. Then, some topics for future researches are designed. The alternating training appears as a very rich situation which allows to understand the individual as well as organizational transformations and the different levels of interrelations of the individual with his/her environment.     

Formation par alternance : expérience scolaire et rapport à l’apprendre chez des apprentis de niveau V et leurs maîtres d’apprentissage

This qualitative research in line with a socio-constructivist approach of the relation to knowledge aims at studying the conditions of efficiency of apprenticeship (training centre/working place) for wage-earning apprentices with a level V. The thematic analysis of 38 interviews (19 apprentices and 19 apprenticeship masters) reveals that apprentices and apprenticeship masters develop some similar schooling experience and relations to learning based on a massive rejection for any schooling form of transmission. We thus show that an apprenticeship based on work and study can offer young people the opportunity to reinvest their relation to learning but only under the conditions of finding ways to escape the circle of school condemnation. These young people must also be able to find in this system the necessary conditions which will give a meaning to their experience of apprentices.     

Adaptive choice between articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing in verbal working memory

Because both articulatory rehearsal and attentional refreshing aid in the maintenance of verbal information in the short term, the present study evaluated the adaptive use of these mechanisms, using a complex span paradigm. In Experiment 1, the phonological similarity of memory list words and the attentional demand of concurrent processing were manipulated. As was predicted, a phonological similarity effect (PSE) appeared only when the concurrent task was attention demanding, thus impairing the use of refreshing and encouraging rehearsal. To verify that PSE indicates the use of rehearsal, participants were instructed to use one of the two mechanisms in Experiments 2 and 3. In accordance wih Experiment 1, the PSE was observed only under rehearsal. Thus, adults could adaptively choose between the two mechanisms. When remembering phonologically confusable materials, they prefer refreshing in order to reduce the impact of phonological characteristics. When available attention is reduced, they favor a less attention-demanding mechanism, rehearsal.