Archive Electronique - Institut Jean Nicod
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The effect of disagreement on children’s source memory performance
No full textInternational audienceSource representations play a role both in the formation of individual beliefs as well as in the social transmission of such beliefs. Both of these functions suggest that source information should be particularly useful in the context of interpersonal disagreement. Three experiments with an identical design (one original study and two replications) with 3-to 4-year-oldchildren (N = 100) assessed whether children's source memory performance would improve in the face of disagreement and whether such an effect interacts with different types of sources (first-vs. secondhand). In a 2 x 2 repeated-measures design, children found out about the contents of a container either by looking inside or being told (IV1). Then they were questioned about the contents of the container by an interlocutor puppet who either agreed or disagreed with their answer (IV2). We measured children's source memory performance in response to a free recall question (DV1) followed by a forced-choice question (DV2). Four-year-olds (but not three-year-olds) performed better in response to the free recall source memory question (but not the forced-choice question) when their interlocutor had disagreed with them compared to when it had agreed with them. Children were also better at recalling 'having been told' than 'having seen'. These results demonstrate that by four years of age, source memory capacities are sensitive to the communicative context of assertions and serve social functions
Narratives and Thought Experiments: Restoring the Role of Imagination
No full textInternational audienceImagination is typically invoked in accounting for our interaction with narratives. This idea has been recently undermined by Derek Matravers, who argues that consumers of narratives reason through manipulating mental models rather than through imagination. This point finds a nice parallelism in the debate on thought experiments. An influential account of the cognitive mechanisms underlying thought experimentation, the model-based approach, has it that the reasoning employed in thought experiments is closely related to the one used in the consumption of narratives and is based on mental models, which simulate the situations described in thought experimental narratives. Relying on a prominent view of imagination as a simulative attitude, this chapter distinguishes imagination from mental models by arguing that they are different kinds of phenomenon involving different kinds of mental simulation. The twofold aim is to show that Matravers appeals to a questionable definition of imagination and that the model-based approach fails to recognise the important role of imagination in thought experiments. The proposed view restores imagination to its pivotal role in our interactions with (fictional and non-fictional) narratives, including those involved in thought experiments. The resulting account opens the way for an analysis of the epistemic roles that imagination plays in science and the arts
Are Children Sensitive to What They Know?: An Insight from Yucatec Mayan Children
No full textInternational audienceMetacognitive abilities are considered as a hallmark of advanced human cognition. Existing empirical studies have exclusively focused on populations from Western and industrialized societies. Little is known about young children’s metacognitive abilities in other societal and cultural contexts. Here we tested 4-year-old Yucatec Mayan (a rural native population from Mexico) by adopting a metacognitive task in which children’s explicit assessment of their own knowledge states about the hidden content of a container and their informing judgments (whether or not to inform an ignorant person about the hidden contents of a container) were assessed. Similar to previous studies, we found that Yucatec Mayan children overestimated their knowledge states in the explicit metacognitive task. However, in contrast with studies on Western children, we did not find the facilitating effect of the implicit informing task over the explicit task. These findings suggest that the early development of metacognition combines universal and culture-sensitive features
Emotional face recognition in autism and in cerebral visual impairments: In search for specificity
No full textInternational audienceAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties in the social domain, but also by hyper-and hypo-reactivity. Atypical visual behaviours and processing have often been observed. Nevertheless, several similar signs are also identified in other clinical conditions including cerebral visual impairments (CVI). In the present study, we investigated emotional face categorization in groups of children with ASD and CVI by comparing each group to typically developing individuals (TD) in two tasks. Stimuli were either non-filtered or filtered by low-and high-spatial frequencies (LSF and HSF). All participants completed the autism spectrum quotient score (AQ) and a complete neurovisual evaluation. The results show that while both clinical groups presented difficulties in the emotional face recognition tasks and atypical processing of filtered stimuli, they did not differ from one another. Additionally, autistic traits were observed in the CVI group and symmetrically, some visual disturbances were present in the ASD group as measured via the AQ score and a neurovisual evaluation, respectively. The present study suggests the relevance of comparing ASD to CVI by showing that emotional face categorization difficulties should not be solely considered as autism-specific but merit investigation for potential dysfunction of the visual processing neural network. These results are of interest in both clinical and research perspectives, indicating that systematic visual examination is warranted for individuals with ASD. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by (1) impairments in the social and communication domain and by (2) stereotyped and repetitive behaviours as well as by sensory hypo-and hyper-responsiveness (APA, 2013)
L'indistinction sexe et genre. Une approche constructiviste du sexe en biologie.
No full textInternational audienceThis paper has two goals. Its first goal is to conduct a review of the articulation of sex/gender concepts through the prism of evolutionary biology in the field of French feminist studies (for reasons of space, scientific relevance and accessibility to the non-specialist public). To this end, it also puts foward a definition of constructivism that is compatible with naturalism. Such a definition stands in keeping with the contemporary state of the general philosophy of science. The debate thus mapped out, the second objective of the paper is to take seriously the current diversity of concepts of sex in biology. It insists on the need for a conceptual clarification of the different levels involved, and suggests to do away with the homogeneizing terminology of sex. It argues that this terminology fosters confusion, and thus constitutes an unnecessary cognitive cost. This cognitive cost is linked to a social cost. Indeed, this conceptual vagueness also favours the naturalization of unequal social behaviour in the public sphere, based on a scientifically dubious understanding of nature. The constructivist approach therefore does not amount to denying the empirical constraint of nature. It proposes to identify the circulation of representations between society in general and science in particular, in order to provide reflexive and scientific analytical tools to address the ethical, political and epistemic issues involved in this circulation.L'article poursuit un double objectif. D'une part, il propose une revue de l'articulation des concepts de genre et de sexe au prisme de la biologie de l'évolution dans le champ des études féministes francophones (cette délimitation tenant à la fois à des raisons de place, de pertinence scientifique et d'accessibilité au public non spécialiste). A cette fin, il propose également une définition du concept de constructivisme qui soit compatible avec le naturalisme, s'inscrivant en cela dans l'état contemporain de la philosophie générale des sciences. Une fois mis en place ces éléments de cartographie du débat, le second objectif de l'article consiste à prendre au sérieux la diversité actuelle des concepts de sexe en biologie. Il insiste sur la nécessité d'une clarification conceptuelle des différents niveaux impliqués, et propose pour cela d'en finir avec la terminologie unique du sexe : celle-ci, en favorisant des confusions entre différents concepts, constitue un coût cognitif qu'il faut dépasser. Ce coût cognitif s'articule à un coût social. En effet, un tel flou conceptuel favorise en même temps dans la sphère publique une naturalisation abusivepuisque scientifiquement douteuse-de comportements sociaux inégalitaires. L'approche constructiviste ne consiste donc pas à nier la contrainte empirique de la nature. Il s'agit plutôt, à partir de la mise en évidence de la circulation des représentations entre la société en général et la science en particulier, de se doter d'outils d'analyse réflexifs et scientifiquement maîtrisés pour aborder les problématiques éthiques, politiques et épistémiques impliquées par cette circulation
De Finettian Logics of Indicative Conditionals Part II: Proof Theory and Algebraic Semantics
No full textInternational audienceIn Part I of this paper, we identified and compared various schemes for trivalent truth conditions for indicative conditionals, most notably the proposals by de Finetti (1936) and Reichenbach (1935, 1944) on the one hand, and by Cooper ( Inquiry , 11 , 295–320, 1968) and Cantwell ( Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic , 49 , 245–260, 2008) on the other. Here we provide the proof theory for the resulting logics and , using tableau calculi and sequent calculi, and proving soundness and completeness results. Then we turn to the algebraic semantics, where both logics have substantive limitations: allows for algebraic completeness, but not for the construction of a canonical model, while fails the construction of a Lindenbaum-Tarski algebra. With these results in mind, we draw up the balance and sketch future research projects
De Finettian Logics of Indicative Conditionals Part I: Trivalent Semantics and Validity
No full textInternational audienceThis paper explores trivalent truth conditions for indicative conditionals, examining the “defective” truth table proposed by de Finetti (1936) and Reichenbach (1935, 1944). On their approach, a conditional takes the value of its consequent whenever its antecedent is true, and the value Indeterminate otherwise. Here we deal with the problem of selecting an adequate notion of validity for this conditional. We show that all standard validity schemes based on de Finetti’s table come with some problems, and highlight two ways out of the predicament: one pairs de Finetti’s conditional (DF) with validity as the preservation of non-false values (TT-validity), but at the expense of Modus Ponens; the other modifies de Finetti’s table to restore Modus Ponens. In Part I of this paper, we present both alternatives, with specific attention to a variant of de Finetti’s table (CC) proposed by Cooper (Inquiry 11, 295–320, 1968) and Cantwell (Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 49, 245–260, 2008). In Part II, we give an in-depth treatment of the proof theory of the resulting logics, DF/TT and CC/TT: both are connexive logics, but with significantly different algebraic properties
Socially mediated overlap in vocal interactions between free-ranging black howler monkeys
No full textInternational audienceConversation rules such as overlap avoidance and coordinated overlap have been reported in nonhuman animals, and seem to be adaptive responses to the requirements of social life. Some species display both patterns in an apparently flexible way, but the social factors mediating their respective usage remain poorly documented. We investigated the potential social factors guiding the usage of these temporal rules during collective howling in six free-ranging groups of black howler monkeys (Alouatta pigra). First, we found that adult males' vocalizations rarely overlap those of other callers while most adult females' calls overlap other members' calls, especially that of other females. Second, whereas some call types (notably affiliative calls) are typically emitted without overlap, roars (agonistic loud calls) overlap more frequently. Third, coordinated overlap is more frequent during intergroup competition. Our findings support the hypothesis that overlap avoidance and coordinated overlap are two different (here sex-related) vocal alliance social behaviors, at least for some nonhuman primates. More comparative investigations are now needed to explore further their evolutionary trajectories in this lineage