A presente pesquisa busca compreender a psicogênese do pensamento combinatório. São analisados os mecanismos utilizados por estudantes do ensino médio para solucionar problemas experimentais de análise combinatória. Como base teórica é utilizada a Epistemologia Genética de Jean Piaget. Ela traz subsídios para compreender como esta noção é construída pelo sujeito. As hipóteses são baseadas na maneira pela qual alguns professores abordam não só a análise combinatória, mas também a maneira como os conteúdos de matemática são trabalhados ao longo dos anos escolares. A coleta de dados é feita de modo experimental e baseada no método clínico de Piaget. O pensamento dos sujeitos é analisado ressaltando suas semelhanças, enquanto estruturas de raciocínio, na construção das possibilidades. / This research seeks to comprehend the psychogenesis of combinatorial reasonig. We analyzed the mechanisms used by high school students to solve experimental combinatorics problems. As a theoretical basis is used Jean Piaget Genetic Epistemology. It illustrate how this concept is constructed by the subject. The hypothesis are based on manners which some teachers make the approach of combinatorics concept, and also the way mathematics contents are taught during school years. Data collection is done in on experimental way and based on Piaget clinical method. The thought of the subjects is analysed, emphasizing their likeness while reasoning structures that they show on the construction of the possibilities.

La désorganisation du discours est couramment observée en phase maniaque du trouble bipolaire. Elle peut se manifester par un langage incompréhensible, des idées décousues ou illogiques. Les premières études qui ont exploré les processus cognitifs sous-tendant ces perturbations du langage et du cours de la pensée dans le trouble bipolaire semblent en faveur de perturbations sémantiques. Pour déterminer la nature de ces perturbations, nous avons réalisé plusieurs études portant sur deux processus spécifiques : la propagation automatique de l’activation sémantique et l’inhibition sémantique. Pour évaluer ces processus nous avons construit deux tâches de décision lexicale basées sur l’amorçage sémantique. Celles-ci sont proposées à 17 patients bipolaires euthymiques ainsi qu’à un groupe de 61 personnes issues de la population générale pour lesquelles les traits de personnalité hypomaniaque et les tempéraments affectifs sont évalués. Les résultats montrent une moindre efficacité pour les deux processus dans le trouble bipolaire. Ces perturbations sont associées aux troubles du cours de la pensée. Dans la population générale, les résultats montrent que seule l’atteinte de la propagation automatique de l’activation est associée aux tempéraments hyperthymique et irritable. Cette association n’est pas retrouvée pour le processus d’inhibition sémantique, suggérant la mise en place de stratégies cognitives compensatoires lorsque les processus sont contrôlés. Nos résultats, associés à ceux de la littérature, semblent en faveur d’une approche dimensionnelle du trouble bipolaire et soulignent l’intérêt d’investiguer davantage la cognition dans les formes atténuées du trouble. / Disorganization of speech is commonly observed in the manic phase of bipolar disorder as incomprehensible language, disjointed or illogical ideas. Recent studies had explored the cognitive processes that underlie these disturbances of language and formal thought disorders in bipolar trouble. These studies appear to be in favor of semantic abnormalities. To determine the nature of these disturbances, we carried out studies which focus on two specific processes: the automatic spreading activation and the semantic inhibition. To assess these processes, two lexical decision tasks based on semantic priming were built. These tasks are proposed to 17 euthymic bipolar patients as well as to a group of 61 people from the general population for whom hypomanic personality traits and affective temperaments are evaluated. The results show lower efficacy for both processes in bipolar disorder. These disturbances are associated with the disturbances of formal thought disorders. In the general population, the results show that only the dysfunction of the automatic spreading activation is associated with hyperthymic and irritable temperaments. This association is not found for semantic inhibition, suggesting the intervention of compensatory cognitive strategies when the processes are controlled. Our results, combined with those of the literature, seem to be in favor of a dimensional approach to bipolar disorder and underline the interest of investigating cognition in the attenuated forms of the disorder.

Notre travail de thèse porte sur les troubles du langage et de la pensée rencontrés chez des personnes souffrant de trouble bipolaire mais aussi, à un moindre degré, chez des personnes présentant des traits de personnalité hypomaniaque. Afin d’explorer les processus sémantiques qui sous-tendent ces troubles, nous avons réalisé plusieurs études à l’aide d’une tâche de résolution d’ambiguïté sémantique couplée à l’enregistrement de l’activité cérébrale (EEG et IRMf) afin de repérer des marqueurs nous aidant à la compréhension des mécanismes sous-tendant l’expression clinique ou sub-clinique de certains symptômes du trouble bipolaire.Nos travaux montrent des difficultés d’inhibition sémantique dans les deux populations qui se traduisent, sur le plan électrophysiologique, par une réduction de l’amplitude de la composante N400 en condition d’inhibition sémantique, corrélée au score de Vitalité Sociale (traits de personnalité hypomaniaque) en population générale et au score d’hypomanie chez les patients bipolaires. Des activations cérébrales sont également corrélées à la présence de traits de personnalité hypomaniaque au niveau du gyrus frontal supérieur et du lobule pariétal inférieur. Ces régions sont activées également chez les patients bipolaires comparativement au groupe contrôle, ainsi que d’autres régions fronto-temporales latéralisées à droite. Nos résultats vont dans le sens d’une modification du processus d’inhibition sémantique observable chez les patients bipolaires et dès la présence de traits de personnalité hypomaniaque. Nos travaux, associés à la littérature, nous suggèrent que les modulations de la composante N400 ou que les activations fronto-pariéto-temporales retrouvées pourraient être des marqueurs transnosographiques correspondant à la dimension clinique des troubles du langage et de la pensée dans le cadre du spectre bipolaire, mais également dans d’autres pathologies telles que les troubles du spectre de la schizophrénie. / Our thesis explores the underlying mechanisms of thought and language disorders commonly observed in patients suffering from bipolar disorder, but also to a lesser degree, in people with hypomanic personality traits. To explore the underlying semantic processes, we conducted four studies with a semantic ambiguity resolution task coupled with event-related potentials recording and fMRI. Our aim was to identify biomarkers for a better comprehension of clinical or subclinical symptoms associated with bipolar disorder.Through our studies, we have shown difficulties to handle semantic inhibition in the two explored populations with, at an electrophysiological level, a reduced N400 amplitude during semantic inhibition process, correlated to Social Vitality score (hypomanic personality traits) in non-clinic population, and to hypomania score in bipolar patients. In the fMRI studies, activations of the superior frontal gyrus and of the inferior parietal lobule were correlated to hypomanic traits and were also found in bipolar patients when compared to the control group. Supplementary right fronto-temporal activations were observed in bipolar patients. Our results imply an impairment of the semantic inhibition process already present in people with bipolar disorders and people with hypomanic traits. These results combined with the existing literature suggest that N400 modulations and fronto-temporo-parietal activations found might be transnosographic biomarkers of thought and language disorders, in bipolar spectrum disorders but also in other disorders like schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

[pt] Esta dissertação é um estudo experimental que busca investigar a construção da referência de expressões nominais inseridas em contextos discursivos. Um dos objetivos foi analisar se falantes nativos do português brasileiro fazem uso de informações dadas no contexto para interpretação de expressões nominais definidas. O outro objetivo foi verificar em que medida presença de traços de personalidade esquizotípica em falantes normais interfere na integração de informações contextuais na construção da referência. Para realizar a investigação, foi conduzido um teste de linguagem acompanhado de dois questionários psicométricos para medir traços gerais de personalidade esquizotípica e traços de desordens do pensamento. O experimento foi conduzido com adultos universitários do Rio de Janeiro. Os resultados indicam que no geral os falantes do português brasileiro têm preferência por interpretar uma expressão nominal definida como se referindo a uma única entidade, mas são sensíveis às informações dadas no contexto, de modo que a referência de uma expressão nominal definida pode ser uma classe de indivíduos quando o contexto fornece informações ostensivas nessa direção. Correlações entre os resultados do teste de linguagem e os resultados dos questionários psicométricos sugerem que falantes com baixas habilidades para conversas e afeto constrito apresentam possibilidades interpretativas mais restritas, especialmente quando o contexto favorece referência a um único individuo. Embora, a investigação conduzida sobre a relação entre linguagem e esquizotipia seja preliminar, os resultados encontrados indicam possíveis interferências de traços de personalidade esquizotípica na construção da referência pela linguagem. / [en] This thesis is an experimental study to investigate how the reference of nominal expressions is built within a discourse context. The first goal was to analyze how native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese use contextual information in interpreting definite descriptions. The second goal was to determine whether or not traces of schizotypal personality can interfere in the integration of contextual information in building reference. The linguistic experimental study was accompanied by two psychometric scales. The psychometric scales were used to measure general traits of schizotypal personality and thought disorders. The participants in the experiment were adult native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro, and the results showed that in general the participants had a significant preference for interpreting a definite description as referring to a single entity. However, they were sensitive to contextual information and reference to a group of entities (king reading) was licensed when the context was favorable. Correlations between the linguistic results and the results of the psychometric scales suggest that speakers with low conversational ability and constricted affect are more restrictive in their interpretation choices, displaying a greater preference for reference to a single entity, especially in contexts favoring single entity reference. Although this is a preliminary investigation, our experimental findings indicate that traits of schizotypy can interfere in how reference is built within language.

The characteristics of patient speech are used in clinical settings to make assumptions about the thought processes of people with psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. However, there have not been any studies of the language of people with schizophrenia that present evidence drawn from a large group of speakers. This study employs a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to determine whether 140 medicated individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia exhibit the linguistic abnormalities claimed in the literature. It also compares the speech of people with schizophrenia with that of people diagnosed with depression in order to assess whether there is a statistically significant difference in presence and/or frequency of abnormal speech between the two groups. Ultimately this study finds that all of the specific types of abnormal language behavior described in the literature do occur among a large group of individuals with schizophrenia. However, many such behaviors also occur among individuals with depression; there was a significant difference between the two groups for three of the twelve categories of language features assessed in this study, which were peculiar word choice, illogicality and distractibility. Further characteristics of the language of individuals with schizophrenia were also found, which could be a basis for improving clinical diagnostic materials.