LES CONDUITES SOCIALES CHEZ DES ENFANTS ‘AUDACIEUX’ DE 9–10 MOIS*

Among 38 infants of 9–10 months who were exposed to a strange person on the one hand, and to a novel inanimate object on the other hand, 17 left their mother and came near the stimulus in both situations. This study focuses on these 17 ‘bold’ infants, whose behaviors (place-shifts, looks, smiles, vocalizations, manipulations, contacts with mother) were compared from one situation to another (person/object), and also, within each situation, on their being emitted either near the stimulus or away from it (proximity/distance). Such comparisons showed that although these infants acted in almost the same way when they were close to the person or to the object, many aspects of their behavior nevertheless differed clearly from one situation to the other. With the object, the approach was immediate and the contact was a proximal one. With the person, on the other hand, the approach was delayed, and keeping a certain distance seemed essential to the establishment of the relation: it was mainly from afar that the infants communicated with the stranger, through behaviors that were well adapted to social interactions (looks and smiles). These results were interpreted as indicating that children of this age can truly understand the distinctive nature of social and nonsocial situations, and use the appropriate familiarization strategy required by these two types of situations.     

The influence of learning style and cognitive ability on recall of names and faces in an older population

The present study examined whether, for older adults, a verbal or imagery cognitive style is associated with recall of names and faces learned in an experimental condition. Cognitive abilities that are represented in current models of face recognition and name recall were also examined. Those abilities included picture naming, verbal fluency (i.e., naming items within a given category), vocabulary comprehension, visual memory, and the learning of unassociated word pairs. Fifty older adults attempted to learn first and last names of 20 student actors and actresses pictured on videotapes (40 names total). On average, participants learned the most first names, followed by last names, and the fewest full names. The greater the number of responses on a questionnaire associated with an imagery cognitive style, the more the names of faces were correctly identified by participants. There was no significant relationship between a verbal cognitive style and the number of names and faces recalled. As for cognitive abilities, all of the abilities measured--with the exception of vocabulary comprehension--were significantly associated with the number of names and faces learned. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of successful name-face learning was the participants' ability to learn and recall 5 unrelated word pairs. When that cognitive measure was deleted from the regression analysis, delayed visual memory and verbal fluency were the next best predictors of the older adults' ability to learn names and faces.     

False belief and emotion understanding in monozygotic twins,dizygotic twins and non-twin children

This study investigated the understanding of false belief and emotion in monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs compared to non-twin children. Aged 3;9 to 5;1 years, the children (N=123) were administered three false belief and three emotion understanding tasks. Age, family socioeconomic status, mother's level of education and language abilities were controlled. Results showed no difference between the three groups in false belief understanding. On emotion tasks, non-twin children and DZ twins did not differ from each other, but they both performed better than MZ twins. Results are discussed in terms of the Peterson's (2000) variety hypothesis and suggest that the affective closeness experienced by MZ twins might interfere with their understanding of others’ emotions.     

The Influence of Learning Style and Cognitive Ability on Recall of Names and Faces in an Older Population

The present study examined whether, for older adults, a verbal or imagery cognitive style is associated with recall of names and faces learned in an experimental condition. Cognitive abilities that are represented in current models of face recognition and name recall were also examined. Those abilities included picture naming, verbal fluency (i.e., naming items within a given category), vocabulary comprehension, visual memory, and the learning of unassociated word pairs. Fifty older adults attempted to learn first and last names of 20 student actors and actresses pictured on videotapes (40 names total). On average, participants learned the most first names, followed by last names, and the fewest full names. The greater the number of responses on a questionnaire associated with an imagery cognitive style, the more the names of faces were correctly identified by participants. There was no significant relationship between a verbal cognitive style and the number of names and faces recalled. As for cognitive abilities, all of the abilities measured—with the exception of vocabulary comprehension—were significantly associated with the number of names and faces learned. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of successful name-face learning was the participants' ability to learn and recall 5 unrelated word pairs. When that cognitive measure was deleted from the regression analysis, delayed visual memory and verbal fluency were the next best predictors of the older adults' ability to learn names and faces.     

Vocalisations et communication chez le nourrisson de 6 à 15 mois

Cette recherche s'inspire à la fois des travaux portant sur l'émergence de la communication intentionnelle et des études phonologiques des vocalisations prélangagières. Elle vise à cerner la valeur communicative des vocalisations au cours de leur développement, ainsi qu'à vérifier si le nourrisson utilise un type particulier de vocalisations (prélangagier ou non langagier) pour communiquer avec autrui. Vingt-quatre nourrissons ont été observés à 6, 9, 12, et 15 mois, dans le cadre de tâches de demande. Les résultats révèlent que le nourrisson utilise davantage son canal vocal avec l'âge, et qu'il dirige de plus en plus ses vocalisations vers autrui. Il ne semble toutefois pas employer préférentiellement un type particulier de vocalisations selon qu'il communique avec autrui ou non.     

Les relations entre l'attention conjointe au cours de la période préverbale et le développement de la référence verbale

Cette recherche longitudinale tente d'établir s'il existe un “complexe référentiel” préverbal, constitué des comportements servant à établir l'attention conjointe, et si ce complexe est en relation avec le langage. Vingt-quatre enfants ont été observés à six reprises entre l'âge de 6 mois et de 24 mois. Les comportements préverbaux étudiés sont la production et la compréhension du pointage gestuel, ainsi que la compréhension du pointage visuel. Les résultats montrent que la compréhension des deux formes de pointage est liée et que seule la production du pointage gestuel, tout en étant indépendante de ces deux comportements, est en relation avec le langage. Il ne semble donc pas exister chez les nourrissons de complexe référentiel unifié. Cette recherche aborde également le problème de la continuité entre les références préverbale et verbale.     

The effect of hierarchical levels of categories on children's deductive inferences about inclusion

Although the hierarchical levels of categories have been recognized as a major factor of variation in categorical reasoning, few studies have examined its effect on the understanding of inclusion. This issue was approached by varying the levels (subordinate, basic, and superordinate) of categories involved in inference tasks assessing 5‐, 7‐, and 9‐year‐old children's understanding of transitivity and asymmetry of inclusive relations in the dog hierarchy. Children were administered both a qualitative inference task and a quantitative class‐inclusion task, each presenting different hierarchical levels. Results showed that the ability to make qualitative inferences assessing transitivity varied with age. Although children of all ages demonstrated a high rate of success at these inference questions, 7‐ and 9‐year‐olds had better performance than 5‐year‐olds, suggesting that the capacity to understand the transitivity of inclusive relations still develops until at least 7 years. However, the hierarchical levels of categories had no effect on children's performance either in qualitative inferences requiring transitivity understanding or in class‐inclusion problems. In contrast, for qualitative inferences assessing asymmetry, children's performance varied with the hierarchical level of the categories involved. Inferring from a superordinate to a basic level category, inferring from a superordinate to a subordinate level category, and inferring from a basic to a subordinate level category appeared as three levels of increasing difficulty. Our analyses also revealed that 7‐year‐olds were better at grasping the asymmetry in the superordinate‐to‐basic relation than in any other relation between categories of different hierarchical levels, and that their 9‐year‐old peers mastered the asymmetric nature of inclusion in both superordinate‐to‐basic and superordinate‐to‐subordinate relations. This might indicate that the different levels of difficulty observed are developmentally grounded. Though exploratory, these findings help to clarify the steps through which the child comes to grasp the difficult concepts of inclusion and asymmetry and give some indications on the possible constraints that may affect their acquisition.     

Retrieval-induced forgetting and mental imagery

In the present article, we present four experiments in which we examined whether mental imagery can initiate retrieval-induced forgetting. Participants were presented with word pairs (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) or narratives (Experiment 4) and then engaged in selective mental imagery about half of the details from half of the categories. The results indicated that mental imagery can produce the same pattern of impairment as retrieval practice (Experiment 1) and postevent questioning (Experiment 4). Additionally, mental imagery-invoked, retrievalinduced forgetting was found for category cued recall (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) and cued recall (Experiment 2); it was found to dissipate across a 24-h delay, but only when there was no pre-delay test (Experiment 3). Such retrieval-induced forgetting was also found for imagining from the first-person and third-person perspectives (Experiment 4). From these findings, we suggest that the underlying retrieval processes behind mental imagery can initiate retrieval-induced forgetting. The findings are discussed in terms of inhibitory processes.