Les magiciens trompent souvent l’esprit des spectateurs en manipulant certaines de leurs limites cognitives. Ainsi, la magie offre probablement un terrain original pour étudier certains processus cognitifs tels que la perception, l’attention, le raisonnement... Dans cette thèse, nous proposons plusieurs recherches qui tentent d’étudier scientifiquement les mécanismes psychologiques en jeu dans la prestidigitation. Dans une première partie, nous discutons de l’intérêt de cette « science de la magie » en passant en revue les principales recherches du siècle dernier à aujourd’hui, puis en discutant de plusieurs terrains d’investigations inexplorés et sans doute prometteurs. Dans une seconde partie, nous centrons nos recherches sur une illusion perceptive robuste dans laquelle les participants ont l’impression de « voir » une balle disparaître en l’air : la Vanishing Ball Illusion (VBI). Dans une première étude, nous explorons le rôle du regard du magicien dans la sensibilité à cette illusion. Dans une seconde étude, nous testons l’hypothèse selon laquelle la VBI serait basée sur un effet de Representational Momentum, ce dernier se référant à la tendance des observateurs à "se souvenir" du point d'arrêt d'une scène dynamique de façon décalée dans le sens du mouvement. Dans une troisième partie, nous explorons les mécanismes psychologiques en jeu dans un autre outil très utilisé par les magiciens et peu étudié par la psychologie à ce jour : l’utilisation d’une « fausse solution ». Pour terminer, nous discutons de l’ensemble des résultats et abordons différentes perspectives de recherches qui nous semblent prometteuses dans le domaine de la psychologie de la prestidigitation. / Magicians often trick spectators’ mind by manipulating some of their cognitive limitations. Thus, magic offers an original basis for studying cognitive processes, such as perception, attention, reasoning, etc. In this vein, the present thesis proposes some research that scientifically explores the psychological mechanisms at stake in magic tricks. In the first part of the manuscript, we discuss the interests of an “experimental science of magic” by reviewing the main research from the last century to the present and by presenting some yet unexplored promising areas. In the second part, we focus our research on a robust illusion in which participants ‘‘perceive’’ an imaginary ball disappearing into the air: the Vanishing Ball Illusion (VBI). In a first experimental study, we explore the role of the magician’s gaze in illusion sensitivity. In a second study, we test the hypothesis that VBI could be based on a Representational Momentum effect, the latter referring to the tendency of observers to perceive the stopping point of a moving scene as being located farther ahead in the direction of motion than it really is. In the third part of our manuscript, we explore the psychological mechanisms at stake in another tool often used by magicians and poorly known to psychologists: the use of a “false solution”. Finally, we discuss the overall results and we propose promising research perspectives in the “science of magic”.

A representational predicament for an employee is a negative experience in which that employee believes that a key authority, such as his/her supervisor, has unfavorable perceptions about himself/herself caused by misconception, bias, or ignorance. That implies he/she is experiencing injustice at the workplace. Drawing for underlying explanations on the theories of interactional justice and equity, this study examines, through quantitative and qualitative methods, how autocratic leadership influences subordinates’ representational predicaments and in turn adversely affects subordinates’ behaviors in the workplace. The model developed in this thesis proposes that a subordinate is likely to have a stronger experience of representational predicaments if his/her supervisor adopts an autocratic leadership approach. It also predicts that a subordinate’s workplace behaviors are more likely to be influenced if he/she perceives that he/she has a representational predicament vis-a-vis his/her supervisor. To test the hypotheses, a total of 222 employees from 7 business enterprises in mainland China were surveyed through multi-wave questionnaires. Among this sample, 14 subordinates who scored high and 7 subordinates who scored low on a scale for representational predicaments were interviewed one to one and face to face. Results of structural equation modeling supported the mediating role of representational predicaments between autocratic leadership and subordinates’ workplace behaviors. In other words, the whole hypothesized model was well supported by both quantitative and qualitative data. Findings of this research bear both theoretical and practical implications, for the research not only examines representational predicaments in a new geographical context, but also advances the understanding of the underlying mechanisms that explain the mediating effect of representational predicaments. Furthermore, by having deeper insights into the adverse impacts of both autocratic leadership and representational predicaments, managers may be encouraged to seek to understand their subordinates better and thus avoid the adverse impacts that this research identifies.

Research on post-industrial memory have recently brought to attention the role of workers’ collective memory in deindustrialised landscapes. However, the role of memory in continued and developed industries is a theme largely unexplored. Drawing on tangent research interests in absent-presences, spectrality, and more-than-representational theory, this thesis extends research on post-industrial memory by exploring collective memory in one such continued industry—the transformed and transforming commuter railway Roslagsbanan in Stockholm, Sweden. Through a case-study using autoethnography and mobile in-depth interviews with railway workers, the thesis shows how the past in representational and more-than-representational form provide affective encounters for workers in their everyday lives. Through encounters with remnants of the past, workers’ collective memory provides meaning to the present through materialities, stories, photographs, embodiments, places, and landscapes. However, as the landscape and workplace transform in what workers see as both development and ruination, the opportunity for memory to surface is challenged. With relevance for research on (post)industrial memory, the thesis shows how memory becomes an animating force in everyday work caught up in a liminality between development and ruination. Practiced in a continued industry, memory becomes a way to enliven the present.

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A representação do milagre no cinema é um problema. O seu caráter descontínuo solicita do(a) realizador(a) uma tomada de posição: esconder as marcas das operações fílmicas, camuflando-as em prol de uma transparência, ou explicitar sem disfarces os artifícios empregados. Supõe-se que o milagre no cinema seja mais bem resolvido quando se apresenta frontalmente, expondo as suas fraturas através da exacerbação do meio fílmico. A hipótese acima, de natureza axiológica, será verificada na análise de filmes que tematizam três milagres dos Evangelhos: Anunciação, Cura do cego e Ressurreição. Cada milagre será articulado a um diferente problema de representação. Na primeira parte da tese, estudaremos a Anunciação no cinema à luz dos motivos plásticos herdados de sua vasta iconografia. Na segunda parte, dedicada à Cura do cego, analisaremos as operações empregadas na representação do milagre a partir das questões que se colocam pela figuração da imagem religiosa. Na terceira parte da tese, por fim, a Ressurreição: veremos as estratégias de encenação adotadas em função da crença do espectador na representação. / The representation of the miracle in films is a problem. Its discontinuous aspect demands from the director to take a position: to hide the traces from the filmic operations, dissimulating them for transparency purpose, or to underline the effects employed. In this thesis we will argue that the miracle is better represented when it shows itself frontally, exposing its disruptions in the explicitness of the filmic means. In order to verify the axiological hypothesis above, we will analyze several films that stage three miracles of the Gospels: Annunciation, Healing of the blind and Resurrection. Each of them will be articulated to a different representational problem. In the first part of the thesis, we will study the Annunciation in films according to the motifs inherited from its vast iconography. In the second part, dedicated to the Healing of the blind, we will analyze the filmic operations employed and the questions posed by the figuration of the religious image. In the third part of the thesis, finally, the Resurrection: we will see the strategies of staging adopted according to the belief of the spectator in the representation.

This thesis is an autoethnography based on a two week Trans-Siberian railway journey from Moscow to Vladivostok in October 2011. It explores the role of memory in our spatial surroundings, the effect remembering has on the way we move through and interpret the present and ourselves. In the chapters about community, rhythms, memory/imagination, and landscape the journey becomes a backbone for the personal narratives and the stories of others, which intertwining unveil the complex relationship between the self and the world, the present and the absent, and the imagined. Thesis explores the inevitable mobility of the mind, which sees us losing the ability to stay fastened to physical spaces, images and our own being, and opening the possibility to travel in time, space and memory. The physical landscape, landscape of Siberia gradually becomes almost invisible, disappears and re-emerges as a series of personal images and stories, feelings and dreams, suggesting that even moving through the vastest landscapes in the world we are always travelling inward, towards an understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

A percepção gestual de três licenciandos em situações de uso de representações estruturais químicas (REQ) foi caracterizada em uma disciplina do curso de licenciatura de Metodologia de Ensino de uma universidade pública. Esta percepção foi construída a partir da análise em entrevistas de Lembrança Estimulada por Vídeo (LEV), de uma enquete e da análise de situações de sala de aula de episódios de ensino. A LEV é uma técnica de origem cognitiva que foi adaptada para o estudo em uma abordagem sociocultural. A comparação de dados nesta pesquisa empregou a multimodalidade como modelo teórico e metodológico para caracterizar as interações multimodais em sala de aula. Na categorização de episódios de ensino, adaptamos algumas categorias de Silva (2008) como as operações epistêmicas, a proxêmica e os suportes. Na análise gestual, utilizamos a categorização de Kendon (2004). A percepção gestual foi construída com categorias inspiradas no funcionalismo de Lemke (2009). Contrastamos a análise de aula com a entrevista e a enquete para validar as respostas da entrevista. Os resultados da comparação entre a percepção dos licenciandos contribuíram para diferenciar como cada sujeito identifica sua performance gestual. / The gestural perception of three pre-service teachers has been characterized when using of chemical structural representations (CSR) from public university in a course of Chemistry Teaching. This perception has been constructed with analysis of Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRI), polls and classroom analysis of teaching episodes. SRI is a technique based on cognitive approach which has adapted to sociocultural perspective. We compared data using multimodality as a theoretical methodological model to characterize multimodal interactions at classroom. In categorization of teaching episodes, we adapted some categories from Silva (2008) like epistemic operations, proxemic and media. In gestural analysis, we used Kendon (2004) categories. The gestural perception has been constructed motivate by functionalist of Lemke (2009). We contrast classroom analysis with interviews and polls to increase the reliability of answers in interviews. Results of comparative between pre-service teacher perceptions is some differences how each subject index their gestural performance.

Hemispatial neglect, is a major cause of post-stroke disability and poor functional recovery. Hence, identifying sensitive methods to assess and rehabilitate neglect is important. Chapters 3 and 4 focused on development of novel assessment techniques for representational neglect. The 'Shopping Mall' and 'Clock Cueing' tasks improved upon previous tests and were useful in identifying dissociations in representational neglect based on type of stimuli (topological, non-topological) and time of assessment (pre-stroke, post-stroke) in chronic stroke patients. Chapters 5 and 6 investigated the efficacy of offline inhibitory repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) in producing short (<1 month) and long term (>6 months) changes in visual neglect behaviour. Overall, the findings from these chapters were limited due to lack of sufficient power. After controlling for the effect of baseline performance, the Intervention group's Activities of Daily Living scores significantly improved in the short-term post rTMS, as compared to the Control group. The fMRI task attempted to recruit attention-based top down modulation of sensory activity. It revealed relative hypoactivation of the right occipital lobe in the four left neglect patients tested, both pre and post rTMS, when compared to elderly controls. Chapter 7 explored cognitive predictors of spatial and object neglect in the sub-acute stage after controlling for demographic and stroke related factors, using multivariate blocked logistic regressions. Cognitive performance indicative of spatial attention and selective attention to local features predicted both spatial and object neglect. In addition, coding of spatial relations between features also predicted spatial neglect. Suggestions for combining neglect rehabilitation techniques to target these cognitive processes are discussed. Overall, this thesis provides novel methods to improve representational neglect assessment and highlights the importance of ancillary cognitive domains in contributing to both representational and visual neglect. The rTMS research provides study design-related insights to incorporate in future studies with larger patient samples.