Observations of animal distributions have revealed that population densities have tracked resource quality. Various models have been proposed to account for such “resource matching.” For example, the Ideal Free Distribution (Fretwell and Lucas 1970) model employs habitat selection rules which assume mobile animals evaluate available habitat patches and select the highest quality patch first. I examined movement patterns of northern crayfish (Orconectes virilis) in response to habitat patches of different quality to test this assumption. I found that animals were more likely to leave a low quality patch than a high quality patch even when there were no other patches available, suggesting that the quality of encountered resources plays a significant role in subsequent decisions about movement. However, many animals did not leave the first patch they encountered, even when better habitat existed elsewhere and was well within their ability to sample it. Finally, not all crayfish selected the best site they encountered. My studies demonstrate that the response to resources is complex, and IFDs and other distribution models may rely on overly simplified assumptions about habitat selection behavior.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier l’impact de la fatigue du consommateur sur son traitement de l’information ublicitaire. Plus précisément, nous désirons comprendre comment la fatigue influence le processus de traitement visuel de la publicité, ainsi que les attitudes et la mémorisation. En nous appuyant sur la théorie d’adéquation des ressources, nous postulons que le traitement de l’information publicitaire, et donc l’efficacité de la publicité, est optimal quand le niveau de ressources cognitives disponible (niveau de fatigue du consommateur) correspond au niveau de ressources exigé (niveau de complexité de la publicité). Nos résultats mettent en lumière des effets de la fatigue différents selon les deux échantillons de notre recherche (étudiants et salariés). Les étudiants fatigués adoptent une stratégie visuelle de balayage pour compenser les effets de la fatigue et rendre le traitement de l’information plus facile. Les salariés fatigués adoptent une stratégie visuelle d’attention soutenue consistant à mobiliser le peu de ressources disponibles pour traiter l’information de façon efficace. Cette stratégie visuelle d’attention soutenue a un impact positif sur la mémorisation de la publicité. Nous montrons enfin que la théorie d’adéquation des ressources n’est pas le cadre théorique approprié pour étudier notre objet de recherche. En effet, les ressources cognitives s’avèrent être dynamiques : si elles y sont motivées, les personnes peuvent adapter leur niveaude ressources à la tache à accomplir. Les implications théoriques, méthodologiques et managériales de ces résultats sont discutées. / This research aims at studying the impact of consumers’ tiredness on the way they perceive and process advertising information. More specifically, we try to understand how tiredness influences advertisements’ visual processing as well as consumers’ attitudes and memorization. Relying on Resource Matching theory, we hypothesize that advertising informationprocessing, and therefore advertising efficiency, is optimal when the level of available resources (consumers’ tiredness) matches the level of required resources (advertisement complexity). Results show that the impact of tiredness differs according to sample under consideration (students or staff members). Tired students adopt a “screening” visual strategyin order to compensate for tiredness effects and ease their information processing. Tired staff members adopt a “sustained attention” visual strategy consisting in mobilizing their few available resources in order to efficiently process information. In this second case, sustained visual attention leads to better advertising memorization. We show that the Resource Matching theory is not the appropriate theoretical framework to study our research object. Indeed, we find that cognitive resources are dynamic:if motivated to do so, individuals are able to adapt their resource level according to the processing task. Theoretical, methodological and managerial implications are discussed.