L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier l’impact de la fatigue du consommateur sur son traitement de l’information ublicitaire. Plus précisément, nous désirons comprendre comment la fatigue influence le processus de traitement visuel de la publicité, ainsi que les attitudes et la mémorisation. En nous appuyant sur la théorie d’adéquation des ressources, nous postulons que le traitement de l’information publicitaire, et donc l’efficacité de la publicité, est optimal quand le niveau de ressources cognitives disponible (niveau de fatigue du consommateur) correspond au niveau de ressources exigé (niveau de complexité de la publicité). Nos résultats mettent en lumière des effets de la fatigue différents selon les deux échantillons de notre recherche (étudiants et salariés). Les étudiants fatigués adoptent une stratégie visuelle de balayage pour compenser les effets de la fatigue et rendre le traitement de l’information plus facile. Les salariés fatigués adoptent une stratégie visuelle d’attention soutenue consistant à mobiliser le peu de ressources disponibles pour traiter l’information de façon efficace. Cette stratégie visuelle d’attention soutenue a un impact positif sur la mémorisation de la publicité. Nous montrons enfin que la théorie d’adéquation des ressources n’est pas le cadre théorique approprié pour étudier notre objet de recherche. En effet, les ressources cognitives s’avèrent être dynamiques : si elles y sont motivées, les personnes peuvent adapter leur niveaude ressources à la tache à accomplir. Les implications théoriques, méthodologiques et managériales de ces résultats sont discutées. / This research aims at studying the impact of consumers’ tiredness on the way they perceive and process advertising information. More specifically, we try to understand how tiredness influences advertisements’ visual processing as well as consumers’ attitudes and memorization. Relying on Resource Matching theory, we hypothesize that advertising informationprocessing, and therefore advertising efficiency, is optimal when the level of available resources (consumers’ tiredness) matches the level of required resources (advertisement complexity). Results show that the impact of tiredness differs according to sample under consideration (students or staff members). Tired students adopt a “screening” visual strategyin order to compensate for tiredness effects and ease their information processing. Tired staff members adopt a “sustained attention” visual strategy consisting in mobilizing their few available resources in order to efficiently process information. In this second case, sustained visual attention leads to better advertising memorization. We show that the Resource Matching theory is not the appropriate theoretical framework to study our research object. Indeed, we find that cognitive resources are dynamic:if motivated to do so, individuals are able to adapt their resource level according to the processing task. Theoretical, methodological and managerial implications are discussed.

Motor and communication disabilities are common conditions that may implicate restrictions in daily life. With development of eye tracking technology, a solution referred to as eye-gaze interaction has been generated to support people with their limiting conditions to solve communication and computer access issues. By using eye tracking technology, which calculates the user’s eye-gaze location on a computer screen, user’s are able to control computers with their eyes as an input. This interaction method is quite unique and complex since the eyes serves both as an input and output source. Usability aspects revolving human information processing are therefore important to consider when designing user interfaces. In collaboration with Tobii AB, the study evaluated two separate eye-gaze interaction systems for controlling computers. 7 participants conducted user tests, one for each application, and answered interview questions during the tests regarding their usability experience. Based on the collected data,17 design guidelines was established with a purpose to enhance usability for eye-gaze interaction systems.

La première année de vie constitue une étape critique dans le développement des capacités de traitement des expressions faciales. Olfaction et expressions sont toutes deux étroitement liées, et il est reconnu que dès la naissance les enfants sont capables d’intégrer leur environnement de façon multi-sensorielle. Toutefois, la plupart des travaux sur le traitement multimodal des visages et des expressions se sont restreints à l’étude des interactions audio-visuelles.Dans ce travail de thèse, nous avons en premier lieu levé différentes ambiguïtés concernant l’ontogenèse des capacités de traitement des expressions. Les résultats obtenus ont permis de spécifier l’évolution des stratégies d’exploration visuelle des émotions au cours de la première année, et de démontrer la présence d’une distinction progressive des expressions selon leur signification émotionnelle. Au moyen de l’EEG, nous avons aussi précisé la nature et le décours temporel de la distinction des expressions chez les nourrissons de 3 mois.Le second objectif de nos travaux a été d’approfondir les connaissances sur le traitement multi-sensoriel des expressions, en nous intéressant spécifiquement aux interactions olfacto-visuelles. Nos expériences en potentiels évoqués ont permis de préciser le décours de l’intégration cérébrale de l’odeur dans le traitement des expressions chez l’adulte, et de démontrer la présence d’interactions similaires chez l’enfant de 3 mois. Nous avons également démontré qu’à 7 mois, les odeurs déclenchent une recherche d’expression spécifique. Il ressort de ces travaux que l’olfaction pourrait contribuer à l’établissement des capacités de traitement des expressions faciales. / The first year of life is critical for the development of the abilities to process facial expressions. Olfaction and expressions are both strongly linked to each other, and it is well known that infants are able to multisensorially integrate their environment as early as birth. However, most of the studies interested in multisensory processing of facial expressions are restricted to the investigation of audio-visual interactions.In this thesis, we firstly aimed to resolve different issues concerning the ontogenesis of infants’ ability to process facial expressions. Our results allowed to specify the development of visual exploratory strategies of facial emotions along the first year of life, and to demonstrate that a progressive distinction of expressions according to their emotional meaning is present. Using the EEG, we were also able to specify the nature and the time course of facial expressions distinction in 3-month-old infants.The second objective of our studies was to expand the knowledge concerning the multisensory processing of facial expressions. More specifically we wanted to investigate the influence of olfacto-visual interactions on this processing. Our event-related potentials experiments allowed to specify the time course of the cerebral integration of olfaction in the visual processing of emotional faces in adults, and to demonstrate that similar interactions are present in infants as young as 3 month-old. We also demonstrated that at 7 months of age odors trigger the search for specific facial expressions. Our results suggest that olfaction might contribute to the development of infants’ ability to process facially displayed emotions.

O Contraste Sucessivo é um dos paradigmas experimentais que modelam a experiencia de perda. Nele, os organismos deixam de estarem expostos à eventos reforçadores, apetitivos e/ou preferidos para entrarem em contato com outros de menor qualidade ou valor. Isto resulta numa série de estratégias comportamentais caracterizadas por um importante componente emocional, uma diminuição na execução da resposta (consumatória ou operante) que não está mais correlacionada com a consequência, um aumento na execução de respostas que eram menos prováveis, e uma conservação da estrutura do comportamento exibido antes da perda ou deterioro. A função dos estímulos antecedentes e/ou discriminativos envolvidos, que constituem a parte vigente da contingência que foi quebrada, também tem se mostrado comprometida. Contudo, a interação entre essas características tem sido estudada de modo separado, seja por complicações técnicas ou por isolamento teórico entre os paradigmas. Neste experimento se apresenta uma proposta que tenta obter uma caracterização mais abrangente das estratégias comportamentais que emergem numa situação de perda, aproveitando a versatilidade topológica e funcional da resposta ocular, e a disponibilidade de recursos técnicos que permitem obter medidas precisas dela. Para isso, no procedimento utilizado foram disponibilizadas alternativas de resposta com diferentes valores de reforçamento em cada. 192 fotografias do IAPS foram categorizadas segundo seu valor emotivo e seu conteúdo em seis categorias: Eróticas, Filhotes (Agradáveis), Paisagens naturais, Paisagens artificiais (Neutrais), Doenças e Violência (Desagradáveis). Pares dessas fotografias foram apresentadas num arranjo de quatro quadrantes na tela do computador, antecedidas de forma consistente por Figuras geométricas específicas para cada categoria, enquanto os tempos de fixação eram registrados com um rastreador ocular. Uma sétima figura geométrica foi pareada aleatoriamente com fotografias de todas as categorias. Após atingir um critério de estabilidade baseado no ranqueamento e correspondência entre os tempos de fixação das Figuras geométricas e das Fotografias, as Fotografias da categoria mais observada foram substituídas por Fotografias daquela correspondente ao terceiro lugar, mas continuaram sendo antecedidas pela mesma Figura geométrica. Os resultados mostraram que o procedimento foi sensível às condições e a manipulação experimental. Foi possível estabelecer um ranqueamento entre as categorias a partir das respostas oculares e caracterizar um padrão de observação após a incongruência introduzida. No caso, as preferências exibidas pela participante foram reorganizadas, com um aumento nos tempos de fixação das categorias agradáveis, evitação das fotografias da categoria Doença enquanto a Figura geométrica que à antecedia começou a ser mais observada, e um aumento no tempo de fixação da categoria de imagens aleatórias. No caso das Categorias alteradas, as fotografias de Filhotes (terceira categoria no ranqueamento) que começaram a ser antecedidas pela Figura geométrica correspondente à categoria Violência (a mais observada), foram menos observadas do que àquelas antecedidas pela figura geométrica treinada na fase anterior. São discutidas as melhoras que o procedimento poderia ter assim como o uso das medidas mais apropriadas na exploração de diversos fenômenos comportamentais. Se analisa se os resultados podem ser entendidos dentro do paradigma de contraste e por último se apresentam comentários sobre a necessidade de aproveitar os desenvolvimentos técnicos que permitem executar experimentos mais complexos / Successive Contrast is one of the experimental paradigms that models the experience of loss. On it, organisms are no longer exposed to reinforcing, appetitive and/or preferred events, but to some others with less quality or value. This results in different behavioral strategies characterized by an important emotional component, a decrement in the response not any longer associated with the consequence (consummatory or operant), an increment in less likely responses, and a preservation of behavioral structure from before the impairment. The role of the antecedent and / or discriminative stimuli involved, which constitute the current part of the contingency that has been broken, has also shown to be compromised. However, the interaction between these characteristics has been studied separately, either by technical complications or by theoretical isolation between paradigms. In this study, we propose a procedure to obtain a more comprehensive characterization of the behavioral strategies that emerge in a situation of loss, taking advantage of the topological and functional versatility of the ocular response, and the availability of technical resources that allow to obtain precise measurements of it. To solve this, alternatives for responding with different values of reinforcement were available. 192 photographs from the IAPS were categorized into six categories according to their emotional value and their content: Erotic, Puppies (Pleasant), Natural Landscapes, Artificial Landscapes (Neutral), Diseases and Violence (Unpleasant). Pairs of these photographs were presented in a four-quadrant arrangement on the computer screen, consistently preceded by specific geometric figures for each category, while fixation times were recorded with an eye tracker. A seventh geometric figure was randomly paired with photographs of all categories. After reaching a stability criterion based on the ranking and correspondence between the fixation times of the Geometric Figures and the Photographs, the Photographs of the most observed category were replaced by Photographs of the one corresponding to the third place, but continued to be preceded by the same Geometric Figure. The results showed that the procedure worked well within our experimental conditions and manipulation. It was possible to establish a ranking from the ocular responses among the categories and to characterize a pattern of observation after the introduced incongruity. The preferences exhibited by the participant were reorganized, with an increase in the fixation time of the pleasant categories, avoidance of photographs of the category Disease while its geometric Figure became more observed, and an increase in the fixation time of the category of random images. On the changed Categories, the photographs of Pups (third category in the ranking) that began to be preceded by the geometric Figure corresponding to the category Violence (the most observed category), were less observed than those preceded by the geometric figure trained in the previous phase. The improvements that the procedure could have as well as the use of the most appropriate measures in the exploration of several behavioral phenomena are discussed. It is analyzed if the results can be understood within the contrast paradigm and finally comments are made on the need to take advantage of the technical developments that allow to execute more complex experiments

Les fauteuils roulants électriques (FRE) ont permis à nombre de personnes handicapés moteurs de retrouver une mobilité satisfaisante, ce qui a amélioré leur qualité de vie, un vaste champ d’activités leur étant devenu accessible. Lors de la prescription d’un FRE ou d’une phase d’apprentissage à la conduite il est cependant nécessaire d’évaluer les capacités de ces personnes à piloter un fauteuil. Dans ce contexte, notre objectif consiste à déterminer des paramètres pertinents permettant de décrire la qualité de la conduite d’un FRE pour des personnes ayant des déficiences motrices sévères. Tout d’abord, nous avons modélisé le système pilote-FRE par le modèle OPCM (Optimal Preview Control Model) de Sharp. Ce modèle est basé sur la distance anticipée (Dp) par l’utilisateur durant sa conduite du FRE. Cette distance a été estimée grâce à un système de suivi du regard combiné avec le simulateur 3D ViEW du laboratoire LCOMS. Un panel de 15 sujets valides a été recruté pour faire des tests de conduite sur simulateur et valider la modélisation OPCM. La distance Dp a permis de décrire le comportement du pilote. Ensuite, une analyse de la distance anticipée Dp en fonction de différentes zones du parcours (slalom serré, virage, slalom large), a montré que ce paramètre peut être utilisé pour différencier les différents comportements de conduite liées aux différentes situations du parcours. Ensuite nous avons comparé cette distance anticipée entre deux groupes, familiarisés et novices vis-à-vis de la conduite en FRE. L’analyse a montré que le groupe familiarisé présente une distance Dp plus importante que le groupe novice. Enfin, une dernière expérience a eu lieu au Centre de Réadaptation de Flavigny sur Moselle (54, France). Nous avons estimé la distance anticipée (Dp) pour des sujets à déficiences motrices sévères, afin de valider le paramètre Dp comme indicateur de performance. Une étude de cas a été établie portant sur 5 enfants en situation de handicap, en comparant leurs résultats à ceux obtenus précédemment sur un panel de personnes valides / The Powered wheelchairs (PW) allowed many people with motor disabilities to find a suitable mobility, which improved their quality of life. Hence, a vast field of activities has become accessible for them. When prescribing a PW or in a learning phase, however, it is necessary to evaluate the ability of these people to drive a wheelchair. In this context, our goal is to determine relevant parameters to describe the quality of driving on PW for people with disabilities. First, we modeled the pilot-PW system using the OPCM (Optimal Preview Control Model) model proposed by Sharp. This model is based on the preview distance (Dp) of the user during his driving. This distance has been estimated thanks to an eye-tracking system combined with the ViEW 3D simulator of the LCOMS laboratory. A panel of 15 healthy subjects was recruited to drive the PW on a 3D simulator and to validate the OPCM modeling. This distance Dp allows to describe the behavior of the pilot. If this distance is important, it guarantees the tracking trajectory of the OPCM model. Otherwise, the OPCM model diverges. This shows that if the user looks a long part of his future path, he will better anticipate the future control applied to the PW (change of direction, braking, etc.), which allows him to follow his path. In this situation the user has a tracking behavior. In the otherwise, the user’s behavior is rather compensatory. Then, an analysis of preview distance Dp with respect to the different zones of the path (tight slalom, turn, wide slalom), showed that the parameter Dp can be used to differentiate the different driving behaviors related to the different situations of the path. Next, we compared the preview distance between two groups, familiar and novice with regard to the PW driving. The analysis showed that the familiar group has a greater distance value than the novice group. Finally, a last experiment took place at the Rehabilitation Center of Flavigny sur Moselle (54, France). We estimated the preview distance (Dp) for subjects with severe motor impairment, in order to validate the parameter Dp as a performance indicator. A case study analysis was established on five children with disabilities comparing their results with those previously obtained with the healthy subjects

This study aims from a gender perspective to examine how the audience pay attention to people of power in news media. To examine this we viewed how televiewers pay attention to party leaders in televised political debates. The studys gender perspective can be divided into two main aspects, on one hand whether the party leaders gender have any impact on the televiewers attention and on the other hand whether the televiewers gender have any impact on how they divide their attention. The questions examined are “how do televiewers pay attention to male versus female party leaders in political televised debates?” and “what differences and similarities can be found in how male versus female televiewers pay attention to party leaders in political televised debates?”. To get a comprehensive understanding of the audiences attention we combined two different methods; eye tracking methodology and qualitative interview. Eye tracking generated objective knowledge of the televiewers visual fixations while the qualitative interview gave us a deeper understanding of their memorialization. Five men and five women participated in this study.  Our results show that our participants give more detailed attention to the female party leaders appearances, while to a greater extent remembering the male party leaders political statements. We found more similarities than differences in how male versus female televiewers pay attention to party leaders, both with and without regard of the party leaders gender. For example male politicians seem to be the norm for what makes a party leader, since many participants primarily tend to fixate on them while also remembering their statements. However, our male participants tend to make fewer but longer fixations while our female participants instead tend to make more but shorter fixations. To summarize the results, we can see that both the party leaders and the televiewers gender have an significance to the televiewers attention.

L'oculométrie est un ensemble de techniques dédié à enregistrer et analyser les mouvements oculaires. Dans cette thèse, je présente l'étude, la conception et la mise en œuvre d'un système oculométrique numérique, non-intrusif permettant d'analyser les mouvements oculaires en temps réel avec une webcam à distance et sans lumière infra-rouge. Dans le cadre de la réalisation, le système oculométrique proposé se compose de quatre modules: l'extraction des caractéristiques, la détection et le suivi des yeux, l'analyse de la variété des mouvements des yeux à partir des images et l'estimation du regard par l'apprentissage. Nos contributions reposent sur le développement des méthodes autour de ces quatre modules: la première réalise une méthode hybride pour détecter et suivre les yeux en temps réel à partir des techniques du filtre particulaire, du modèle à formes actives et des cartes des yeux (EyeMap); la seconde réalise l'extraction des caractéristiques à partir de l'image des yeux en utilisant les techniques des motifs binaires locaux; la troisième méthode classifie les mouvements oculaires selon la variété générée par le Laplacian Eigenmaps et forme un ensemble de données d'apprentissage; enfin, la quatrième méthode calcul la position du regard à partir de cet ensemble d'apprentissage. Nous proposons également deux méthodes d'estimation:une méthode de la régression par le processus gaussien et un apprentissage semi-supervisé et une méthode de la catégorisation par la classification spectrale (spectral clustering). Il en résulte un système complet, générique et économique pour les applications diverses dans le domaine de l'oculométrie. / Gaze tracker offers a powerful tool for diverse study fields, in particular eye movement analysis. In this thesis, we present a new appearance-based real-time gaze tracking system with only a remote webcam and without infra-red illumination. Our proposed gaze tracking model has four components: eye localization, eye feature extraction, eye manifold learning and gaze estimation. Our research focuses on the development of methods on each component of the system. Firstly, we propose a hybrid method to localize in real time the eye region in the frames captured by the webcam. The eye can be detected by Active Shape Model and EyeMap in the first frame where eye occurs. Then the eye can be tracked through a stochastic method, particle filter. Secondly, we employ the Center-Symmetric Local Binary Patterns for the detected eye region, which has been divided into blocs, in order to get the eye features. Thirdly, we introduce manifold learning technique, such as Laplacian Eigen-maps, to learn different eye movements by a set of eye images collected. This unsupervised learning helps to construct an automatic and correct calibration phase. In the end, as for the gaze estimation, we propose two models: a semi-supervised Gaussian Process Regression prediction model to estimate the coordinates of eye direction; and a prediction model by spectral clustering to classify different eye movements. Our system with 5-points calibration can not only reduce the run-time cost, but also estimate the gaze accurately. Our experimental results show that our gaze tracking model has less constraints from the hardware settings and it can be applied efficiently in different real-time applications.

The evaluation of the gloss of human hair, following wet/dry chemical treatments such as bleaching, dyeing and perming, has received much scientific and commercial attention. Current gloss analysis techniques use constrained viewing conditions where the hair tresses are observed under directional lighting, within a calibrated presentation environment. The hair tresses are classified by applying computational models of the fibres' physical and optical attributes and evaluated by either a panel of human observers, or the computational modelling of gloss intensity distributions processed from captured digital images. The most popular technique used in industry for automatically assessing hair gloss is to digitally capture images of the hair tresses and produce a classification based upon the average gloss intensity distribution. Unfortunately, the results from current computational modelling techniques are often found to be inconsistent when compared to the panel discriminations of human observers. In order to develop a Gloss Evaluation System that produces the same judgements as those produced from both computational models and human psychophysical panel assessments, the human visual system has to be considered. An image based Gloss Evaluation System with gonio-capture capability has been developed, characterised and tested. A new interpretation of the interaction between reflection bands has been identified on the hair tress images and a novel method was developed to segment the diffuse, chroma and specular regions from the image of the hair tress. A new model has been developed, based on Hunter's contrast gloss approach, to quantify the gloss of the human hair tress. Furthermore, a large number of hair tresses have been treated with a range of hair products to simulate different levels of hair shine. The Tresses have been treated with different commercial products. To conduct a psychophysical experiment, one-dimensional scaling paired comparison test, a MATLAB GUI (Graphical user interface) was developed to display images of the hair tress on calibrated screen. Participants were asked to select the image that demonstrated the greatest gloss. To understand what users were attending to and how they used the different reflection bands in their quantification of the gloss of the human hair tress, the GUI was run on an Eye-Tracking System. The results of several gloss evaluation models were compared with the participants' choices from the psychophysical experiment. The novel gloss assessment models developed during this research correlated more closely with the participants' choices and were more sensitive to changes in gloss than the conventional models used in the study.

Behavioural scientists argue that ‘social learning' provides the link between biological phenomena and cultural phenomena because of its role in the ‘cultural transmission' of knowledge among individuals within and across generations. However, leading authors within the social sciences have proposed alternative ways of thinking about social life not founded on the Modern oppositions including nature-culture, biology-culture, body-mind, and individual-society. Similarly, the distinction between a domain of nature and a domain of nurture has also been extensively criticized within biology. Finally, advocates of ‘radical embodied cognitive science' offer an alternative to the representational-computational view of the mind which supports the conventional notion of culture and cultural information. This thesis attempts to integrate developmental systems theory, radical embodied cognitive science, and relational thinking, with the goal to bring the field of social learning closer to these critical theoretical developments. In Chapter 2, I find no justification for the claim that the genome carries information in the sense of specification of biological form. Chapter 3 presents a view of ontogeny as a historical, relational, constructive and contingent process. Chapter 4 uses the notions of environmental information, abilities, affordances, and intentions to make sense of behaviour and learning. In Chapter 5, I argue that the notion of social learning can be understood in terms of relational histories of development rather than in terms of transmission of information. I then report empirical studies investigating behavioural coordination and social learning consistent with this theoretical framework. Chapter 6 presents evidence that dyads in a joint making activity synchronize their attention constrained by their changing situation and that coordination of attention is predictive of implicit and explicit learning. Chapter 7 presents evidence that joint attention does not require gaze following and that attentional coordination is predictive of learning a manual task. Together, these theoretical and empirical studies suggest a new way of thinking about how humans and other animals live and learn socially, one that is consistent with critical theoretical and philosophical developments that are currently neglected in the literature on social learning.

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