This thesis offers a new approach to mind modelling in modernist narratives. Taking Nietzsche’s work as exemplary of modernist ideas about cognition’s relational basis, I argue that conceptual blending theory, a particularly cogent model of a fundamental cognitive process, has roots in modernism. I read inscriptions of relational cognition in modernist narratives as “conceptual blends” that invite cognitive mobility as a central facet of reader response. These blends, which integrate conceptual domains, invite similarity-seeing and difference-seeing, exposing the reader to new conceptual content and new cognitive styles; she is thus better able to negotiate the reading-related complexities of modernist narrative’s formal innovations and the real-world complexities of modernity’s local and global upheavals. Chapter One considers blending’s interrelated rhetorical motivations and cognitive effects in Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller narratives: bringing together English and Chinese domains, Chiang’s blends defamiliarize his readers’ culturally entrenched assumptions, invite collaborative reading strategies, and thus equip his readers for relating flexibly to a newly globalized world. Moving away from blends in a text’s narration, Chapter Two focuses on blends as textual structuring principles. I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as a thinking mind with fundamentally relational cognitive processes; I consider the mobile cognitive operations we perform reading about a text’s mind thinking and thinking along with it. Chapters Three and Four cross the nebulous text-peritext border to examine blends in modernist prefaces. Chapter Three focuses on blends in Joseph Conrad’s and Henry James’s prefaces, relating them, through the reading strategies they invite, to the narratives they accompany. Chapter Four considers allographic prefaces to Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets and two of Chiang’s narratives: blends in these prefaces invite the cognitive mobility necessary for reconceptualizing both allographic preface-text and East-West relations. All four chapters treat the modernist narrative text as a textual system whose blends, often interacting and borderless, signal reciprocal, mutually permeable relations among its textual levels. Dialogic relations also underwrite the interaction between these blends and blends the reader performs when engaging with them. Modernist narratives model (bear inscriptions of) cognition’s relational processes in order to model (shape) the reader’s mind.

This thesis offers a new approach to mind modelling in modernist narratives. Taking Nietzsche’s work as exemplary of modernist ideas about cognition’s relational basis, I argue that conceptual blending theory, a particularly cogent model of a fundamental cognitive process, has roots in modernism. I read inscriptions of relational cognition in modernist narratives as “conceptual blends” that invite cognitive mobility as a central facet of reader response. These blends, which integrate conceptual domains, invite similarity-seeing and difference-seeing, exposing the reader to new conceptual content and new cognitive styles; she is thus better able to negotiate the reading-related complexities of modernist narrative’s formal innovations and the real-world complexities of modernity’s local and global upheavals. Chapter One considers blending’s interrelated rhetorical motivations and cognitive effects in Chiang Yee’s Silent Traveller narratives: bringing together English and Chinese domains, Chiang’s blends defamiliarize his readers’ culturally entrenched assumptions, invite collaborative reading strategies, and thus equip his readers for relating flexibly to a newly globalized world. Moving away from blends in a text’s narration, Chapter Two focuses on blends as textual structuring principles. I read Virginia Woolf’s The Waves as a thinking mind with fundamentally relational cognitive processes; I consider the mobile cognitive operations we perform reading about a text’s mind thinking and thinking along with it. Chapters Three and Four cross the nebulous text-peritext border to examine blends in modernist prefaces. Chapter Three focuses on blends in Joseph Conrad’s and Henry James’s prefaces, relating them, through the reading strategies they invite, to the narratives they accompany. Chapter Four considers allographic prefaces to Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets and two of Chiang’s narratives: blends in these prefaces invite the cognitive mobility necessary for reconceptualizing both allographic preface-text and East-West relations. All four chapters treat the modernist narrative text as a textual system whose blends, often interacting and borderless, signal reciprocal, mutually permeable relations among its textual levels. Dialogic relations also underwrite the interaction between these blends and blends the reader performs when engaging with them. Modernist narratives model (bear inscriptions of) cognition’s relational processes in order to model (shape) the reader’s mind.

Si l’avenir de notre planète dépend en effet, comme le confirme Roberts et al. (2009), de la maitrise d’une “jeune discipline”, la restauration écologique, il est de notre devoir d’investir pour assurer un maintien et amélioration des services des écosystèmes, des connectivités écologiques et des cycles biologiques qui dépendent du fonctionnement des écosystèmes dégradés. Si la connaissance des écosystèmes méditerranéens, la maitrise des techniques d’ingénierie écologique témoignent d’importantes avancées au courant des dernières décennies, le transfert sur le terrain et la mise en œuvre de ces techniques reste assez lacunaire notamment dans les milieux où de fortes interactions avec les communautés humaines nécessitent une appropriation et adoption des méthodes d’intervention. Le contexte du bassin méditerranéen, hot spot de biodiversité, contexte socio-politique tendu et souvent instable, développement démographique intense, urbanisation souvent peu planifiée et de surcroît une histoire de coévolution des hommes et des paysages qui date depuis le néolithique, rend ce transfert encore plus complexe. Comment abaisser les résistances et mieux faire accepter les solutions techniques proposées ? Comment faire de sorte que les gens acceptent mieux une modification portant sur leur environnement de vie? Est- il possible d’initier un changement d’attitude et une modification comportementale portant sur les solutions proposées ? En d’autres termes, sommes-nous en mesure de mieux faire accepter les techniques et les méthodes d’intervention sur un environnement/ écosystème lorsque celles-ci heurtent les a priori des communautés humaines concernées? En partant de ces grandes questions, le travail de thèse s’inscrit dans une problématique bien particulière : Comment modifier les attitudes des individus vis-à-vis les modifications de leur environnement proche? L’hypothèse de départ étant qu’en agissant sur les processus sous jacents au changement d’attitude, on devrait améliorer la possibilité d’accepter le principe et les techniques d’intervention relatifs à une action sur l’environnement. Si on souhaite initier un changement d’attitude, il faut modifier les relations d’action à l’objet dont le frein principal est la consistance des individus. Il faut donc modifier à la fois la flexiblité cognitive, l’expérience émotionnelle et l’affordance. Les hypothèses opérationnelles se déclinent donc comme suit : H1 : Flexibilité cognitive et changement d’attitude: En améliorant la flexibilité cognitive Il est possible d’augmenter l’acceptabilité vis-à-vis le principe et les techniques d’intervention relatifs à une action sur l’environnement H2 : Expérience émotionnelle et changement d’attitude: l’expérience émotionnelle d’une personne et sa perception de l’espace peuvent induire un changement d’attitude vis-à-vis le principe et les techniques d’intervention relatifs à une action sur l’environnement H3 : Affordances et changement d’attitude : Un changement d’affordance peut contribuer à initier un changement d’attitude chez une personne vis-à-vis le principe et les techniques d’intervention relatifs à une action sur l’environnement. Ces hypothèses seront testées sur l’exemple de réhabilitation des carrières d’extraction au Liban- contexte méditerranéen. / If the future of our planet depends indeed on the mastering of the « young discipline” that is ecological restauration, as confirmed in Roberts et al. (2009), it is our duty to invest in the preservation and improvement of ecosystem services, ecological connectivity and biological cycles that rely on the functioning of corrupted ecosystems. Mediterranean ecosystems knowledge and the mastering of ecological engineering techniques have made substantial progress during the last decades. Unfortunately, the transfer of these techniques on the field and their implementation are still sparse, and notably in environments where consistent interactions with human communities require the appropriation and adoption of intervention methods. The Mediterranean basin, which is considered a hotspot for diversity, evolves in tense and often unstable sociopolitical conditions, along with huge demographic increase, poorly-planned urbanization and a long history of coevolution of men and landscapes dating back to the Neolithic period. This makes this transfer of techniques yet more complex. In this context, how can we overcome the resistance and win acceptance on the proposed technical solutions? How can we bring people to better accept modifications relating to their life environments? Is it possible to initiate an attitude and behavioral change towards the proposed solutions? In other words, can we induce acceptance for the intervention techniques and methods on an environment/ecosystem when these are met with the stereotypes disseminated by the concerned human communities? Starting from these questions, this thesis wishes to address a specific problematic: how can we change the behaviors of individuals towards the modifications of their close environment? The original hypothesis is the following: by influencing the processes underlying behavioral change, we can improve the acceptation of the principle and intervention techniques relating to environmental action. Should we wish to initiate a change in attitude, we need to modify the “action to object” relations, which are mainly slowed down by the consistency of individuals. We therefore need to modify, not only their cognitive flexibility, but also their emotional experience and affordance. Thus, the operational hypotheses break down as follows: H1: Cognitive flexibility and attitude change: by improving cognitive flexibility, it is possible to increase acceptability towards the principle and techniques of intervention relating to environmental action. H2: Emotional experience and attitude change: A person’s emotional experience and their space perception can induce a change in attitude towards the principle and techniques of intervention relating to environmental action. H3: Affordance and attitude change: A change in affordance can contribute to initiate a change in attitude in a person towards the principle and techniques of intervention relating to environmental action. These hypotheses will be tested on the example of quarries rehabilitation in Lebanon – in a Mediterranean context.

Mgr. Věra Pilecká The interaction of information science and cognitive sciences with emphasis on information retrieval (dissertation thesis) (Vzájemné ovlivňování informační vědy a kognitivních věd s důrazem na vyhledávání informací) Abstract Focus of this thesis is on the description of the interaction of information science and cognitive sciences with emphasis on information retrieval which is influenced by some of the cognitive aspects. The introductory chapter deals with the definition of information science and paradigms inspired by a cognitive approach (cognitive and socio-cognitive paradigm). Then a cognitive science is defined including its basis, methods and application. In the third chapter, a comparison between information and cognitive science is included, and their interaction and common interests are described. Fourth chapter focuses on information retrieval and influencing factors, including search methods, user information behaviour, and user cognitive characteristics and mental models. The final chapter presents two surveys focused on the use of intuitive and analytical information retrieval styles during searching on Google, and the perception of the differences between traditional and online teaching of the effective reading techniques. Both surveys illustrate the influence of users'...

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À partir du milieu des années 2010 s’observe, dans les milieux festifs de la scène musicale montréalaise, l’émergence d’initiatives pour faire face aux oppressions multiples qui ont cours dans ses espaces. La lutte contre les violences sexuelles, les discriminations et les micro-agressions sexistes, racistes, homophobes, transphobes et capacitistes devient le cheval de bataille d’activistes impliqué·es dans la scène. Cette thèse s’attèle à expliquer l’apparition et étudier la mise en œuvre de nouvelles pratiques dites anti-oppressives dans la scène musicale montréalaise à partir de deux points de vue : celui de la scène alternative de musique électronique dansante, comportant les espaces clandestins de la scène rave et les petits festivals de niche, et celui de la scène commerciale incluant les grands festivals de renom montréalais. C’est à partir de la littérature sur la sociologie des mouvements sociaux, qui offre des approches analytiques nous informant sur l’émergence de l’action collective, que je propose une étude détaillée de l’activisme sur la scène musicale. Cette étude a été rendue possible grâce à une collecte de données qualitative par entrevues auprès d’une trentaine d’acteurs et d’actrices de la scène (artistes, promoteur·rices, directeurs d’entreprises, travailleur·euses communautaires et employé·es). Dans la scène alternative, l’émergence des initiatives repose sur une alliance entre son éthos discursivement construit, ses pratiques culturelles spécifiques et la politisation radicale de quelques initié·es activistes. Ces dernier·ères souhaitent mettre en pratique leurs idéaux d’espace plus sûr (safer space) à travers une implication formelle dans deux organisations, le Collectif d’intervention contre les oppressions (CICLOP) et l’Association pour la réduction des risques (ARéR). Ces militant·es développent des savoirs qu’iels diffusent sur la scène à l’aide de techniques pédagogiques qui sont étudiées dans la thèse. Dans la scène commerciale, l’émergence des pratiques s’explique par une structure d’opportunités politiques favorable, dynamisée par le mouvement #MoiAussi et ses corollaires, conjuguée à des efforts de diffusion par des passeurs individuels, institutionnels et politiques. / Since mid-2010, we can observe on the Montreal nightlife and music scene the emergence of initiatives trying to break multiple oppressions going on in its spaces. The struggle against sexual violence, sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and ableist discriminations and microaggressions has become the key issue of activists acting in those spaces. This thesis wishes to explain the emergence and implementation of new anti-oppressive practices on the Montreal music scene from two perspectives: one from the alternative electronic dance music scene, including niche festivals and rave scene’s underground spaces; the other from the mainstream scene, including big festivals. The literature concerning social movements sociology, offering analytical models that inform on the emergence of collective action, helped me propose a detailed study of activism on the music scene, being possible due to a qualitative data collection with about thirty scene actors (artists, promoters, business directors, community workers, and employees). The results indicate that, on the alternative scene, initiatives’ emergence is explained by the alliance between its discursively constructed ethos, its specific cultural practices and some insiders radical politization processes. Those insiders wish to put into practice their safer space ideals through their participation into two formal organizations: Collectif d’intervention contre les oppressions (CICLOP), and Association pour la réduction des risques (ARéR). These activists develop knowledge that they diffuse on the scene through diverse pedagogical technics. On the mainstream scene, practices’ emergence is explained by a favourable political opportunities’ structure, dynamized by the #MeToo movement and its corollaries, combined with the diffusion efforts carried by individual, institutional et political brokers whose roles are closely studied in the thesis.

The thesis deals with second language acquisition (SLA) of Czech in Russian and English students. It presents the main theories of SLA (generative and cognitive approaches) and compares them to the results of author's research into L2 acquisition of Czech morphology and syntax in speakers of two typologically and structurally different mothertongues. It shows that language transfer plays an important role in SLA and that some of the generative assumptions about SLA that are claimed to apply universally cannot be proven for Czech.