Thesis (M.S. in psychology)--Washington State University, May 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 19-21).

Thesis (M. S.)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007. / Bruce N. Walker, Committee Chair ; Wendy Rogers, Committee Member ; Gregory Corso, Committee Member.

L’étude de l’espace et notamment l’espace domestique, présente plusieurs intérêts et tend depuis plusieurs années à devenir un concept clé dans les recherches en sciences humaines qui se concentrent de plus en plus à étudier l'homme dans ses actions, ses organisations, ses rapports, ses traces... A la fin du siècle dernier, considéré comme celui des grands changements ayant bouleversé l’environnement et le fonctionnement des êtres humains, et au début d’un nouveau millénaire qui continue à être travaillé par les mêmes mutations, il nous appartient en tant que chercheur de nous interroger sur l’impact de ces bouleversements sur la structure familiale sociale et spatiale pour déterminer ce qui a changé et ce qui a résisté au changement. En prenant l’image cinématographique comme médium, nous tentons de montrer le sens des mouvements socio-spatiaux et identitaires, et ce à travers l’analyse des modes d’occupation et d’appropriation de l’espace domestique et de ses alentours au miroir de la filmographie de Nouri Bouzid (1986-2006). / The study of space, in particular the domestic-space, presents several interests and tends for a long time to become a key concept in human science researches, which concentrate more and more to study the individual in his shares, organizations, relationships… At the end of the last century, considered as century of big changes having upset the environment and the functioning of the human beings, and with the beginning of a new millennium which continues to be worked by the same mutations, it belongs to us as researcher to wonder about the impact of those changes on the social and spatial family structure to determinate what changed and what resisted for change. Taking the cinematographic image as a medium, we try to show the sense of socio-spatial and identity movements, through the analysis of the modes of occupation and appropriation of domestic space and its surroundings, in the mirror of Nouri Bouzid filmography (1986-2006).

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Doctorat en sciences psychologiques / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

L’objectif général de cette thèse était de déterminer dans quelle mesure les entraînements auditifs pouvaient conduire à une modification de la perception du voisement en français en termes d’identification, de discrimination et de perception catégorielle (PC). L’originalité de notre méthodologie reposait sur l’étude à la fois des effets entraînements sur la perception d’un contraste particulier (e.g. +15/+45 ms DEV) mais également sur la perception catégorielle de stimuli variant le long d’un continuum (e.g. +75, +45, +15, -15, -45 et -75 ms DEV). En effet, la majorité des études de la littérature se limitent à étudier les effets des entraînements sur un contraste bien particulier (e.g. Golestani & Zatorre, 2004 ;Tremblay et al. 1998 ;Tremblay et al. 2001). Grâce à notre paradigme, il nous était possible de quantifier l’apprentissage sur un contraste spécifique mais aussi d’en étudier les éventuels effets de généralisation sur l’ensemble du continuum.<p><p>Dans une première étude, nous avons tenté d’évaluer les limites du système perceptif en matière d’extraction de l’information statistique en travaillant sur de fines différences acoustiques (Etude 1). Au fil des années, une partie de plus en plus importante de la littérature s’est développée, soutenant que la formation des catégories phonologiques reposait sur l’extraction des régularités statistiques existant dans la production des phonèmes. Cependant, en aucun cas la question des limites que pouvait imposer le système perceptif n’a été posée. Pour ce faire, nous avons décidé de déterminer dans quelle mesure l’exposition à une grande variabilité de stimuli séparés par de fines différences acoustiques pouvait conduire à l’amélioration des capacités de discrimination d’un contraste spécifique.<p><p>Par la suite, nous avons sommes concentrés sur la question des modifications de la PC suite à un entraînement. L’idée principale était de déterminer dans quelle mesure un entraînement centré sur une valeur particulière du continuum et mettant en jeu un contraste (i.e. opposition entre deux stimuli) pouvait avoir un impact sur la PC. Pour ce faire, nous avons commencé par entraîner des participants à identifier (Etude 2) des stimuli autour de trois frontières non-phonologiques (-30, -45 et -60 ms DEV). <p><p>Ensuite, nous avons entraîné d’autres participants à discriminer (Etude 3) des stimuli autour de deux frontières non-phonologiques (-30 et -45 ms DEV). Les modifications perceptives étaient évaluées sur différents paramètres qui caractérisent la PC (voir Introduction – La Perception Catégorielle) chez des adultes normo-entendant. Nos hypothèses reposaient sur l’idée selon laquelle, plus on s’éloigne de la frontière phonologique, plus les modifications perceptives seraient difficiles. Toutefois, les discontinuités perceptives pourraient interagir, facilitant ainsi les changements.<p>Sur base des résultats de ces études, nous nous sommes intéressés à la malléabilité de la perception catégorielle chez des enfants de troisième maternelle et de deuxième primaire (Etude 4). Dans ce cas, nous avons décidé d’entraîner les enfants à identifier des stimuli autour de la frontière phonologique du français (0 ms DEV) et autour d’une frontière non-phonologique (-30 ms DEV). L’idée sous-jacente était que les enfants, et plus particulièrement ceux qui n’avaient pas encore appris à lire, puissent être plus sensibles aux modifications perceptives imposées par leur environnement.<p><p>Par la suite, la question des entraînements auditifs comme source de changements chez les enfants et adultes normo-entendant s’est élargie aux pathologies et notamment dans les troubles spécifiques du langage (Etude 5). En effet, il est reconnu que ces enfants présentent des difficultés dans la perception des sons de parole et notamment du voisement. Dans cette étude, nous avons donc tenté de restructurer la PC au moyen d’un entraînement basé sur une tâche de discrimination. Malgré leur difficulté sévère à traiter le matériel auditif, ces enfants ne présentent pas des troubles de l’audition. Nous nous attendions donc à une amélioration de leurs habilités à percevoir le voisement.<p><p>Enfin, nous nous sommes interrogés sur les facteurs qui pouvaient contribuer, en plus des séances d’entraînement, à la consolidation des représentations phonologiques en mémoire. Parmi ceux-ci, la littérature dans le domaine visuel et moteur indique que le sommeil contribue à consolider ce qui a été appris. Nous avons donc décidé de nous intéresser aux rôles et aux bénéfices du sommeil dans la consolidation des apprentissages auditif chez des adultes normo-entendant (Etude 6).<p> / Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study explored the critical features of temporal synchrony for the facilitation of prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation using an animal model, the bobwhite quail. The following related hypotheses were examined: (1) the availability of temporal synchrony is a critical feature to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning, (2) a single temporally synchronous note is sufficient to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning, with respect to unimodal stimulation, and (3) in situations where embryos are exposed to a single temporally synchronous note, facilitated perceptual learning, with respect to unimodal stimulation, will be optimal when the temporally synchronous note occurs at the onset of the stimulation bout. To assess these hypotheses, two experiments were conducted in which quail embryos were exposed to various audio-visual configurations of a bobwhite maternal call and tested at 24 hr after hatching for evidence of facilitated prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. Experiment 1 explored if intermodal equivalence was sufficient to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. A Bimodal Sequential Temporal Equivalence (BSTE) condition was created that provided embryos with sequential auditory and visual stimulation in which the same amodal properties (rate, duration, rhythm) were made available across modalities. Experiment 2 assessed: (a) whether a limited number of temporally synchronous notes are sufficient for facilitated prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation, and (b) whether there is a relationship between timing of occurrence of a temporally synchronous note and the facilitation of prenatal perceptual learning. Results revealed that prenatal exposure to BSTE was not sufficient to facilitate perceptual learning. In contrast, a maternal call that contained a single temporally synchronous note was sufficient to facilitate embryos’ prenatal perceptual learning with respect to unimodal stimulation. Furthermore, the most salient prenatal condition was that which contained the synchronous note at the onset of the call burst. Embryos’ prenatal perceptual learning of the call was four times faster in this condition than when exposed to a unimodal call. Taken together, bobwhite quail embryos’ remarkable sensitivity to temporal synchrony suggests that this amodal property plays a key role in attention and learning during prenatal development.

Despite enormous informational complexity in the optical environment, the visual world is effortlessly seen as coherent. Indeed, an object may change in virtually all of its physical properties and in its spatial location and yet maintain a constant perceptual identity. Apparently pieces of information registered in different segments of space-time, but referring to the same object, are perceptually integrated. Kahneman, Treisman and Gibbs (in progress) explored the cognitive organization corresponding to this perceptual organization; the present thesis represents an extension of their work. To study the spatiotemporal integration of information regarding moving objects they developed the preview paradigm. The prototypical visual display of this paradigm consists of three phases: (a) Letters are presented, each within a line-figure object, and are then removed (field-1), (b) the empty objects move to new positions, (c) letters are again presented in the objects and a marker appears, cueing one of them (field-2). The task is to name the letter in the cued object. The critical reaction time (RT) comparison is between consistent conditions (the target letter is previewed in the target object) and inconsistent conditions (the target letter is previewed, but in another object). An RT advantage for consistent conditions is termed the object effect because it represents object-specific facilitation. Object effects were generated in many experiments, including one utilizing only apparent motion to create objects. Certain experiments suggested that the object effect does not occur at a lexical or semantic level, but involves information concerning physical properties. The present thesis further explores the physical nature of the information integration underlying the object effect. Preview experiments were conducted, typically not with a letter-naming task, but with tasks requiring stimulus identification on the basis of a particular physical property. In experiments utilizing four moving line figures, object effects were obtained with presence and size. These effects were not artifacts of attending to field-1 or of confusing field-1 with field-2. In experiments utilizing apparent motion, object effects were obtained with color and with letters. Duodimension experiments elaborated the paradigm by introducing variation on a response-irrelevant dimension. The presence object effect was reduced by response-irrelevant shape inconsistency; the size object effect was eliminated by response-irrelevant shape inconsistency; the color object effect was unaffected by response-irrelevant letter-shape inconsistency; the letter object effect was slightly reduced by response-irrelevant color inconsistency. The duodimension results suggest that the object-specific representation underlying the object effect consists of somewhat conjoined properties. This has implications for the role of attention in the object effect, and inspires the speculation that motion might be special with respect to attention. Accounts of the object effect rival to Kahneman et al.'s can be proposed: that it results from the integration of response tendencies rather than stimulus information, that it is based on a decrease in apparent distance between stimuli rather than on their unitization, and that its seeming retroactivity is an illusion produced by the relative quickness with which low spatial frequencies are processed. The present results support arguments against each of these accounts. The general conclusion of this thesis is that the spatiotemporal integration underlying the object effect does involve information about physical properties. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Four studies were undertaken to investigate the advance planning and perception of simple rhythmic patterns. Subjects listened to patterns of identical, computer-generated tones and then reproduced them as accurately as possible by tapping on a single response key. Section One focussed on the advance planning of isochronous rhythmic patterns in which subjects performed the additional task of initiating pattern reproduction as quickly as possible. In Experiment 1, subjects listened to patterns of one to six tones with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of 300 ms. The reproduction phase involved no stimulus uncertainty. Reaction time (RT) was found to increase linearly with number of response events. Advance planning thus occurs for patterns reproduced as slow as 300 ms per response event. Stimulus uncertainty is not a necessary condition for RT to increase with response complexity. In Experiment 2, subjects reproduced patterns of one to eight tones with ISIs of 200, 400, 600, and 800 ms. A linear RT trend was found only at the 200-ms rate. Patterns slower than this rate did not display "response coherence". Patterns at the 200-ms and 400-ms rates showed evidence of grouping through the accenting of first and last intervals. These patterns' displayed "perceptual coherence". Section Two focussed on the perceptual organization of patterns in which pattern structures could suggest the grouping of events as two equal-duration intervals. In Experiment 3, subjects reproduced two series of patterns, one series in which the suggested grouping-intervals were initiated by external-world events, and one in which they were not. Pattern structures in the latter series were not suggestive enough to induce grouping of events as two equal-duration intervals. Patterns were instead grouped as two intervals of unequal duration showing that the relative temporal positions of external-world events dominates in simple perceptual grouping. Experiment 4 investigated the upper temporal limit of perceptual grouping intervals and the influence of number of group constituents. Results showed that perceptual grouping of events that span more than 1800 ms is seldom accomplished and that grouping occurs when intervals contain up to seven constituents. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

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