L’objectif de ce travail vise l’approfondissement des connaissances sur le traitement des gestes sans signification en mémoire de travail. Cette recherche se décompose en 5 études réparties sur trois temps : la caractérisation de la structure dédiée à ces stimuli ; les stratégies utilisées spontanément ; l’optimalisation des performances par des stratégies induites. Nos deux premières études montrent que les gestes sans signification sont traités par une composante dédiée en mémoire de travail. Celle-ci fonctionnerait à la manière de la boucle phonologique de Baddeley, Allen et Hitch (2011) tout en étant distincte d’elle. Les deux études suivantes mettent en évidence l'utilisation spontanée d’une verbalisation qui sert à l’évaluation des performances, sans pour autant les améliorer. À la vision des gestes, des traitements mnésiques verbaux et moteurs opèreraient en parallèle, sans pour autant que les traces mnésiques se combinent. Enfin, la dernière étude établit que le rappel gestuel est facilité par l’utilisation d’une stratégie verbale induite. En revanche, les performances ne sont pas améliorées par une stratégie de répétition gestuelle. Une combinaison entre différentes traces mnésiques peut donc s’effectuer en cas d’induction d’une stratégie permettant la concordance entre geste et mot. La discussion de la thèse s’articule autour d’une mise à jour du modèle de Baddeley et al. (2011), par l’addition d’une nouvelle composante nommée « boucle motrice ». Les gestes semblant être particulièrement sujets au contexte, nous ouvrons également le cadre de cette recherche sur les théories de cognitions ancrées et incarnées (Wilson, 2002 ; Barsalou, 2008), ainsi que sur le modèle des processus imbriqués (Cowan, 2001) / The objective of this work is to improve knowledge on the treatment of meaningless gestures in working memory. This research is based on five studies divided into three phases: the characterization of the structure dedicated to these stimuli; strategies used spontaneously; and optimization of performance due to induced strategies. Our first two studies show that meaningless gestures are processed by a dedicated working memory component. This component operates like the phonological loop of Baddeley, Allen and Hitch (2011) whilst being distinct from it. The next two studies highlight spontaneous verbalization, which is used in metacognitive judgments of performances, yet without improving the latter. When participants are watching gestures, both verbal and motor encoding could operate at the same time, though without combination of memory traces. The last study shows that the recall of gestures is facilitated by the use of an induced verbal strategy. However, performance is not improved by a gestural strategy. By consequence, a combination of the different memory traces is possible when words match gestures. The discussion of the thesis is structured around an update of Baddeley’s model (Baddeley et al., 2011) by adding a new component called the "motoric loop". As the gestures seem to be particularly prone to context, we are also opening the framework of this research on theories of embodied cognition (Wilson, 2002) and grounded cognition (Barsalou, 2008), as well as the embedded processes model of working memory (Cowan, 2001)

過去累積許多關於自閉症類兒童模仿的研究；其中，Lyons等人（2011）提出自動化因果編錄（ACE）是相當重要的理論。ACE認為自閉症類兒童之所以重演缺乏目標的動作，是因為部件相連作業呈現的外觀連續性，令自閉症類兒童較易將缺乏目標的動作視為導致目標動作前的必要動作。於是本研究的目的在於驗證自閉症類兒童的動作重演表現是否符合自動化因果編錄理論的預測：當部件分離時，自閉症類兒童無法推論缺乏目標的動作是否有出現的必要，於是動作重演將減少。本研究邀請24名自閉症類兒童，以及配對心理年齡30個月大的21名發展遲緩兒童與24名一般發展兒童，將部件相連與部件分離作業當作組內的操弄變項，並另外施測無意義物體動作作業，將帶有目標的有關動作、缺乏目標的無關動作與無意義物體動作三者當作依變項，比較三組兒童的動作重演表現。結果發現：一、自閉症類兒童在有關動作前重演的無關動作並沒有在部件分離作業中較少，此結果不支持ACE理論。二、自閉症類兒童能夠重演無關動作，不易重演無意義物體動作，或許是因為自閉症類兒童可以重演物體本身提供的動作屬性，然而抑制已形成的習慣有困難。三、自閉症類兒童重演有關動作與無意義物體動作的表現較另二組差，兩者正相關，而無關動作的重演表現與另二組無異，也許是因為無意義物體動作與有關動作的相似度較高，皆可被視為示範動作中的主要目標動作，而無關動作較屬於次要的動作；換句話說，或許自閉症類兒童的困難在於重演主要目標的動作，但是重演次要動作的困難則不明顯。整體而言，本研究對於早期自閉症類兒童的社會學習障礙提出可能的觀點。 / Research showed distinctive imitative pattern in children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), and one of the possible explanations is automatic causal encoding (ACE; Lyons et al, 2011). In ACE’s view, connective parts of task facilitate ASDs to copy actions without goals, which are seen as necessary to occur before copying actions with goals. Present research is to examine ACE theory in ASDs: when parts of the task separate, ASDs cannot infer the necessity of actions with goals to copy, and behaviors copying reduce. 69 children at mental age 30 months (24 ASDs, 21 developmental delay, and 24 normal development) enrolled our experiment, which was composed of connective parts of task, separate parts of task, and meaningless object movement task, with related actions (related to goal), unrelated actions(unrelated to goal), and meaningless object movements served as dependent variables. Several findings arose. First, copying behaviors of unrelated actions prior to related actions did not decline in separate parts of task, which disapprove ACE theory. Second, irrelevant actions copying was unimpaired in ASDs, while meaningless object movements copying seemed difficult for ASDs, which may due to ASDs’ ability to copy object properties of actions, but inability to inhibit habituated routines. Third, ASDs copied related actions and meaningless object movements less than the other groups, and the two actions were positively correlated, while unrelated actions copying showed no difficulty. This demonstrates that related actions and meaningless object movements are both actions with primary goals, while unrelated actions are subordinate actions; namely, one possible difficulty for ASDs to copy is actions with primary goal, while copying subordinate actions seems unimpaired. In sum, present research provides perspectives on ASDs’ impairments with social learning.

The aim of this essay is to provide an answer to the question "What is the Meaning of Meaningless sex in Dystopia?". It will show that meaningful concepts such as sexual satisfaction, pleassure, passion, love, bonding, procreation and family are handled as threats in dystopian societies described in well-known novels as We, Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four . It will explain how the conflict between the collective and the individual influences peoples' sexuality. It will also show how leading powers in the three dystopian societies use different methods to remove the significanse and functions of sex. It will suggest meaningless sex is a means to control the masses in a collective and that meaningful sex is an act of rebelion against the state. / .