In the current study, children’s understanding of false belief, intention, and their ability to distinguish the appearance of a character from its reality was investigated. Seventy-two three to five years olds were recruited from several preschools in the Silicon Valley in California. During the experiment, children were shown an animated movie in a computer and asked the false belief, intention, and appearance-reality distinction questions. Following the animated movie, children were also asked if they understand 10 mental words that depicted the human mind, such as think, want, believe, etc. The relationship between the children’s knowledge of the human mind and the mental words they understood was explored. Results of the current study revealed that children who were four and half to five performed better than children three and half to four on false belief tasks. Children’s performance on intention and appearance-reality distinction questions did not differ significantly across age. However, girls’ performance was superior to boys’ performance on intention questions. Similarly, girls’ knowledge of overall naïve psychology was also superior to that of boys. Moreover, the order of the naïve psychology concepts that children passed in current study was from intention to appearance-reality distinction and then false belief. Finally, the regression analysis of the data revealed that the mental word vocabulary children processed was closely related to naïve psychology development. More specifically, the number of total mental words that were reported by children or assessed by contextual questions was a significant predictor of naïve psychology knowledge.

This research study investigated preschoolers' naive theory of the human body in understanding the cause of death. The empirical investigation showed that urban and suburban preschoolers (ages 5 and 6) have an understanding of a naive theory of the human body and that some do make reference to a 'vitalistic causality' in explaining organ function. Furthermore, most of the participants gave an external explanation for the cause of death (e.g. gunshots, poison, sticks), but those participants who gave an internal (biological) explanation for the cause of death were well-informed about the biological teleology of body organs. These findings conclude that education, socio-economic factors and culture influence the acquisition of a naive theory of biology. The need for guidance to educators, in explaining the concept of death to preschoolers, was further emphasised. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)

This research study investigated preschoolers' naive theory of the human body in understanding the cause of death. The empirical investigation showed that urban and suburban preschoolers (ages 5 and 6) have an understanding of a naive theory of the human body and that some do make reference to a 'vitalistic causality' in explaining organ function. Furthermore, most of the participants gave an external explanation for the cause of death (e.g. gunshots, poison, sticks), but those participants who gave an internal (biological) explanation for the cause of death were well-informed about the biological teleology of body organs. These findings conclude that education, socio-economic factors and culture influence the acquisition of a naive theory of biology. The need for guidance to educators, in explaining the concept of death to preschoolers, was further emphasised. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)

Régulièrement, les associations caritatives sollicitent financièrement des millions d’individus pour mener leurs actions sur le terrain. Représentant un enjeu majeur, ces campagnes de communication médiatique ont pour objectif d’appeler aux dons afin de collecter des fonds leur permettant de pérenniser leurs actions et de maintenir une indépendance à la fois financière et politique. Articulant une double méthodologie qualitative et expérimentale et l’aide d’un contexte théorique pluridisciplinaire mobilisant des ressources théoriques issues notamment des modèles psychosociaux de la réception, de la communication persuasive et de la communication engageante, la thèse vise le double objectif de mieux comprendre les processus de production et de réception de la communication d’appel aux dons des associations caritatives. Dans une logique de recherche action et devant l’importance des enjeux humains, nous proposons également des pistes pour contribuer à accroitre l’efficience des dispositifs de communication. / Charities regularly solicit millions of individuals financially to carry through their actions on the field. Representing a major stake, these media communication campaigns aim at calling for donations in order to raise funds which enable them to keep up their actions and maintain an independence both financially and politically. However, in literature so far, no research has been carried out about the socio-cognitive processes involved in this type of communication.Structuring a double qualitative and experimental methodology and the help of a theoretical multidisciplinary context calling up the theoretical resources mainly from the psychosocial models of the reception, the persuasive communication and the binding communication, this dissertation targets a double objective, namely a better understanding of the production and of the reception processes involved in the binding communication of charity fundraising campaigns