Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-10-10T20:08:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 anapauladasilva.pdf: 2729640 bytes, checksum: 70d04957f4e4a75abdba362b2698e4fe (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-10-16T13:32:08Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 anapauladasilva.pdf: 2729640 bytes, checksum: 70d04957f4e4a75abdba362b2698e4fe (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-16T13:32:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 anapauladasilva.pdf: 2729640 bytes, checksum: 70d04957f4e4a75abdba362b2698e4fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta tese apresenta um estudo de base experimental, em que se investigam as possíveis relações entre Linguagem, Teoria da Mente e Funções Executivas. Assume-se como Teoria da Mente (ToM – do inglês Theory of Mind) a capacidade cognitiva de o indivíduo perceber seus próprios estados mentais e os dos outros e, dessa forma, predizer suas ações ou comportamentos (ASTINGTON & GOPNIK, 1988, 1991; FELDMAN, 1992; WELLMAN, 1991). Já as Funções Executivas (FEs) são compreendidas como processos cognitivos impulsionados em atividades que demandam elevado nível de processamento, como planejar, inibir, coordenar e controlar uma sequência de ações para a manutenção de um determinado objetivo. Neste estudo, focalizam-se os seguintes domínios das FEs: memória de trabalho, inibição e flexibilidade cognitiva (DIAMOND, 2013; LEHTO et al.; 2003; MIYAKE et al.; 2000). A perspectiva teórica assumida é a de se considerar uma concepção minimalista de língua (CHOMSKY, 1995 – atual) e, mais especificamente, de faculdade da linguagem nos termos de Hauser et al. (2002), enquanto faculdade mental constituída de duas instâncias: a FLN (Faculty of Language in the narrow sense ou Faculdade da Linguagem em sentido estrito) e a FLB (Faculty of Language in the broad sense ou Faculdade da Linguagem em sentido amplo). A interface gramática-pragmática é investigada com base em uma teoria pragmática formal de natureza cognitiva, nos termos da Teoria da Relevância (SPERBER & WILSON, 2001; 2002). A hipótese que norteia este trabalho é a de que existe uma correlação entre o desenvolvimento das FEs e o desenvolvimento da ToM, com implicações para o raciocínio de CFs, e que o insucesso de crianças com idade inferior a 4 anos nesses testes não se deve precipuamente à falta de domínio de uma estrutura linguística recursiva, contrariando a proposta de Villiers (2005-2007). O objetivo geral deste estudo é o de melhor caracterizar a sobreposição de demandas cognitivas linguísticas e não linguísticas envolvidas em tarefas de Crenças Falsas (CFs) de 1ª ordem. Para isso, foram realizados dois conjuntos de experimentos. O primeiro conjunto, conduzido com crianças de 3-4 anos, tem os seguintes objetivos: (i) verificar em que medida a retomada anafórica por meio de DPs plenos acarreta menor demanda de processamento; (ii) aferir se a alteração do status informacional do texto narrado, estabelecendo-se a referência a personagens e objetos da história por meio de DPs plenos, interfere positivamente no desempenho das crianças; (iii) investigar em que medida a intencionalidade, enquanto fenômeno mental, constituise como pista relevante para a atribuição de CFs por essas crianças. O segundo conjunto de atividades experimentais, composto por 3 testes e uma tarefa clássica de CF, foi aplicado a crianças de 3;0-3;11 e 4;0-4;11 anos, as quais participaram de todas as atividades. Os objetivos são: (i) verificar o desempenho dessas crianças em tarefas que envolvem FEs, e (ii) verificar se há correlação entre os resultados obtidos nos testes e no experimento de CF. Os resultados indicam que a capacidade de lidar com a sobreposição de diferentes demandas cognitivas linguísticas e não linguísticas se constitui como fator diretamente relacionado à habilidade de conduzir um raciocínio de crenças falsas e que há uma correlação entre o desempenho das crianças em tarefas voltadas às FEs e à de CF. / This doctoral dissertation presents an experimental based study, which investigates the possible relations between Language, Theory of Mind and Executive Functions. Theory of Mind (ToM) is understood as the cognitive capacity of an individual to perceive their own mental states and those of others and, thus, to predict their actions or behaviors (ASTINGTON & GOPNIK, 1988, 1991; FELDMAN, 1992; WELLMAN, 1991). Executive Functions (EFs) are understood as cognitive processes driven by activities that demand a high level of processing, such as planning, inhibiting, coordinating and controlling a sequence of actions for the maintenance of a certain objective. In this study, we focus on the following domains of EFs: working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility (DIAMOND, 2013; LEHTO et al., 2003; MIYAKE et al., 2000). The theoretical perspective assumed is to consider a minimalist conception of language (CHOMSKY, 1995 - current) and, more specifically, the language faculty according to Hauser et al. (2002), as a mental faculty consisting of two instances: the FLN (Faculty of Language in the narrow sense) and the FLB (Faculty of Language in the broad sense). The Grammar Pragmatics interface is investigated based on a formal Pragmatics theory of cognitive nature, in line with the Relevance Theory (SPERBER & WILSON, 2001; 2002). The hypothesis that guides this work is that there is a correlation between the development of EFs and the development of ToM, with implications for the reasoning of False Beliefs (FBs), and that the failure of children under 4 years of age in these tests is not due to the lack of mastery of a recursive linguistic structure, contrary to de Villiers' proposal (2005-2007). The general objective of this study is to better characterize the overlapping of linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive demands involved in first-order false-belief tasks. For this purpose, two sets of experiments were performed. The first set, conducted with children of 3-4 years, has the following objectives: (i) to verify to what extent the anaphoric resumption through and full DPs entails a lower demand for processing; (ii) to verify whether the alteration of the informational status of the narrated text, establishing the reference to characters and objects of the story through full DPs, interferes positively in the performance of the participant children; (iii) to investigate the extent to which intentionality, as a mental phenomenon, constitutes a relevant clue to the attribution of FBs by these children. The second set of experimental activities, consisting of 3 pretests and a classic FB task, was applied to children of 3;0-3;11 and 4;0-4;11 years old, who participated in all activities. The objectives are: (i) to verify the performance of these children in tasks involving EFs, and (ii) to verify whether there is a correlation between the results obtained in the pretests and in the FB experiment. The results indicate that the ability to cope with the overlapping of different linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive demands is directly related to the ability to conduct false belief reasoning and that there is a correlation between the children's performance in tasks related to EFs and to FB.

Orientador: Ruth Elisabeth Vasconcellos Lopes / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T18:06:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Freire_GustavoAndradeNunes_D.pdf: 3785988 bytes, checksum: 79bd2cc2155eb07b2761cd8c4c994105 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Este trabalho busca investigar, do ponto de vista da Gramática Gerativa, a aquisição linguística de complementos sentenciais de verbos perceptivos e causativos em português brasileiro (doravante, PB) e inglês e sua interação com o desenvolvimento da Teoria da Mente. Investiga-se qual a relação fundamental entre linguagem e cognição extralinguística, como essa relação é desenvolvida e o que falta nesse mapeamento linguístico no decorrer do desenvolvimento da criança. Mais especificamente, investigamos como as crianças adquirem os verbos perceptivos e causativos e seus complementos sentenciais e mostramos que o lugar ideal para explicá-la é na interface entre Aquisição da Linguagem e Teoria da Mente. Partimos da hipótese de que existe uma correlação entre as propriedades do evento percebido e a aquisição da linguagem e para sustentá-la destacamos as diferenças entre os complementos finitos e infinitivos. A partir delas, prevê-se que a aquisição dos complementos infinitivos de verbos perceptivos e causativos é anterior à aquisição dos complementos finitos, dada a complexidade desse último tipo. Examinamos também os verbos perceptivos não-agentivos ver e ouvir e atestamos que, além de nomearem o modo sensorial como auditivo ou visual, eles também codificam linguisticamente noções relacionadas ao conhecimento e crença do falante sobre a maneira como um determinado estado de coisas no mundo é percebido. Os verbos causativos perifrásticos fazer e deixar estão intimamente relacionados com as modalidades causativas, que codificam noções de intenção e volição (seja no sujeito da sentença matriz ou no sujeito da sentença encaixada). Essas propriedades dizem respeito, em maior ou menor grau, ao desenvolvimento da Teoria da Mente e, para analisar como elas se relacionam com a aquisição da linguagem, aplicamos experimentos sobre cada tipo verbal em cerca de 95 crianças em aquisição do inglês e 95 crianças em aquisição do PB, com idades entre 4 e 9 anos. Em linhas gerais, os resultados aqui mostraram que as crianças apresentam uma forte tendência de se guiarem pelas propriedades objetivas do evento, enquanto o adulto é capaz de processar as evidências disponíveis para computar a situação percebida. O mesmo pode ser afirmado para os verbos fazer e deixar, pois inicialmente apenas os seus significados mais concretos e gerais são atestados. Para ambos os tipos verbais verificamos que a gramática infantil vai na direção da do adulto, mostrando que existe uma relação entre o conhecimento sintático-semântico e o desenvolvimento da Teoria da Mente. Os resultados corroboram ainda a hipótese de que existe uma correlação entre o evento denotado e sua aquisição / Abstract: This dissertation investigates, from the Generative Grammar framework, the linguistic acquisition of sentential complements to perception and causative verbs in Brazilian Portuguese (henceforth, PB) and English and their interaction with the acquisition of Theory of Mind. The fundamental relationship between language and extralinguistic cognition, the development of such relationship and what is missing in the linguistic mapping throughout children's development are investigated. More specifically, we investigate how children acquire perception and causative verbs and their sentential complements and we show that the ideal place to explain it is within Language Acquisition and Theory of Mind interface. We hypothesized that there is a correlation between the properties of the perceived event and language acquisition and to sustain it we highlight the differences between finite and infinitive complements. From them, it is anticipated that the acquisition of infinitival complements to causative and perception verbs is prior to the acquisition of finite ones, given the complexity of the latter type. We also examined the non-agentive perception verbs see and hear and attested that in addition to naming the sensory mode as auditory or visual, they also linguistically encode notions related to the speaker's knowledge and belief about the way a certain state of affairs in the world is perceived. The periphrastic causative verbs make and let are closely related to the causative modalities, which encode notions of intention and volition (whether in the subject of the main clause or in the subject of the embedded sentence). These properties are related, in a greater or lesser degree, to the development of Theory of Mind and to analyze how they relate to language acquisition we have administered experiments about each type verbal with about 95 children acquiring English and 95 children acquiring PB, between 4 and 9 years of age. In general, the results have shown that children tend to be strongly guided by the objective properties of the event, whereas the adult is able to process the available evidence to compute the perceived situation. The same can be said for the verbs make and let, because initially only their concrete and more general meanings are attested. For both verbal types we attested the child's grammar moves towards the adult one, showing that there is a relationship between the syntactic-semantic knowledge and the Theory of Mind development. The results corroborate the hypothesis that there is a correlation between the denoted event and its acquisition / Doutorado / Linguistica / Doutor em Linguística

This thesis addresses young adults with Alström syndrome (AS). AS causes acquired deafblindness, a severe, progressive, combined auditory and visual impairment affecting daily life and self-reliance to a degree that full participation depends on help from others and society. AS is an autosomal, recessively inherited single-gene disorder that affects the ALMS1 gene. AS has a multi-systemic pathology including a high incidence of additional multiple endocrine abnormalities, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary fibrosis, restrictive lung disease and progressive hepatic and renal failure leading to reduced life expectancy. The focus in the present thesis is on the development of Theory-of-mind (ToM) and on how ToM relates to the development of certain cognitive skills and the characteristics of the individual social network. ToM refers to the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. The results reveal that individuals with AS displayed a significantly higher degree of heterogeneity in the performance of ToM tasks, and some individuals with AS performed on an equal level with nondisabled individuals. ToM performance was predicted by verbal ability and executive functioning (EF), whereas working memory capacity (WM) proved to be an indirect predictor. Later onset of visual loss further characterized AS individuals with better ToM. The sizes of the social networks of individuals with AS were smaller relative to those of nondisabled individuals, and many of the acquaintances were professionals working with individuals with AS. The number of friends correlated with ToM performance. Methods to improve verbal ability and EF, and interventions to enhance social participation in childhood of individuals with AS might prove to be fruitful. In addition assistive technology to establish and maintain friendships in adulthood is required.

Ce travail de thèse s’intéresse à la Théorie de l’Esprit (TdE) dans les stades précoces de la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) et le Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). La TdE est un processus central de la cognition sociale permettant d’inférer les états mentaux d’autrui et de nous adapter aux interactions sociales auxquelles nous sommes confrontés chaque jour. Des travaux ont mis en évidence un déficit de TdE chez le patient MA mais son authenticité reste discutée et celui-ci est attribuer aux autres troubles cognitifs des patients. Par ailleurs, une seule étude à ce jour s’était intéressée à la TdE chez le patient MCI, laissant un champ d’étude inexploré malgré l'intérêt de cet état pour le diagnostic précoce des pathologies dégénératives. Ce travail a pour but d’approfondir les données existantes sur le fonctionnement de la TdE dans la MA et le MCI et présente également l’ambition d’évaluer, pour la première fois dans ces populations, la TdE au plus près de son fonctionnement quotidien dans une tâche impliquant le patient dans une vraie interaction sociale. Les résultats montrent que les patients présentent bien un déficit de TdE y compris sur la tâche immersive, suggérant que ce déficit est observable dans des situations proches de la vie quotidienne. Les patients présentent également un déficit sur une tâche plus classique de TdE, la nature de leurs erreurs témoignant de l’authenticité de ce déficit. Ce travail tend donc à confirmer la présence d’un dysfonctionnement de la TdE dans les stades débutants de la MA et dans le MCI. Ce déficit est précoce, authentique et observé pour la première fois dans une situation d’interaction sociale réelle. / This work investigates Theory of Mind (ToM) ability in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). ToM is a core feature of social cognition allowing us to infer and understand other’s mental states (i.e. beliefs, intentions, knowledge), in order to adapt our behavior in everyday social interactions. Previous works evidenced ToM deficit in AD patients, but the authenticity of this deficit is still debated and is attributed to other cognitive dysfunctions of patients. Moreover, only one study investigated ToM in MCI. This area thus requires further investigation since MCI represents an interesting concept for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders. The purpose of this work is to further investigate ToM functioning in both AD and MCI with the ambition to evaluate for the first time ToM in close-to-everyday conditions with a task involving the patient in a real interaction. Results show that patients present ToM impairment even in a real interactive task suggesting that this deficit is noticeable in naturalistic conditions closed to everyday interactions. Patients also present difficulties in a classical ToM task, the nature of their errors suggesting genuine ToM difficulties. This work therefore confirms the presence of a ToM impairment in early AD and MCI. This impairment is precocious, authentic and is observed for the first time in a real social interaction.

L'essor des travaux en informatique affective voit la naissance de diverses questions de recherches pour étudier les interactions agents /humains. Parmi elles, se pose la question de l'impact des relations interpersonnelles sur les stratégies de communications. Les interactions entre un agent conversation et un utilisateur humain prennent généralement place dans des environnements collaboratifs où les interlocuteurs partagent des buts communs. La relation interpersonnelle que les individus créent durant leurs interactions affecte leurs stratégies de communications. Par ailleurs, des individus qui collaborent pour atteindre un but commun sont généralement amenés à négocier. Ce type de négociation permet aux négociateurs d'échanger des informations afin de mieux collaborer. L'objectif cette thèse est d'étudier l'impact de la relation interpersonnelle de dominance sur les stratégies de négociation collaborative entre un agent et un humain. Ce travail se base sur des études en psychologie sociale qui ont défini les comportements liés à la manifestation de la dominance dans une négociation. Nous proposons un modèle de négociation collaborative dont le modèle décisionnel est régi par la relation de dominance. En effet, en fonction de sa position dans le spectre de dominance, l'agent est capable d'exprimer une stratégie de négociation spécifique. En parallèle, l'agent simule une relation interpersonnelle de dominance avec son interlocuteur. Pour ce faire, nous avons doté l'agent d'un modèle de théorie de l'esprit qui permet à l'agent de raisonner sur les comportements de son interlocuteur afin de prédire sa position dans le spectre de dominance. Ensuite, il adapte sa stratégie de négociation vers une stratégie complémentaire à celle détectée chez son interlocuteur. Nos résultats ont montré que les comportements de dominance exprimés par notre agent sont correctement perçus. Par ailleurs, le modèle de la théorie de l'esprit est capable de faire de bonnes prédictions avec seulement une représentation partielle de l'état mental de l'interlocuteur. Enfin, la simulation de la relation interpersonnelle de dominance a un impact positif sur la négociation: les négociateurs atteignent de bon taux de gains communs. De plus, la relation de dominance augmente le sentiment d'appréciation entre les négociateurs et la négociation est perçue comme confortable. / The rise of work in affective computing sees the emergence of various research questions to study agent / human interactions. Among them raises the question of the impact of interpersonal relations on the strategies of communication. Human/agent interactions usually take place in collaborative environments in which the agent and the user share common goals. The interpersonal relations which individuals create during their interactions affects their communications strategies. Moreover, individuals who collaborate to achieve a common goal are usually brought to negotiate. This type of negotiation allows the negotiators to efficiently exchange information and their respective expertise in order to better collaborate. The objective of this thesis is to study the impact of the interpersonal relationship of dominance on collaborative negotiation strategies between an agent and a human. This work is based on studies from social psychology to define the behaviours related to the manifestation of dominance in a negotiation. We propose a collaborative negotiation model whose decision model is governed by the interpersonal relation of dominance. Depending on its position in the dominance spectrum, the agent is able to express a specific negotiation strategy. In parallel, the agent simulates an interpersonal relationship of dominance with his interlocutor. To this aim, we provided the agent with a model of theory of mind that allows him to reason about the behaviour of his interlocutor in order to predict his position in the dominance spectrum. Afterwards, the agent adapts his negotiation strategy to complement the negotiation strategy detected in the interlocutor. Our results showed that the dominance behaviours expressed by our agent are correctly perceived by human participants. Furthermore, our model of theory of mind is able de make accurate predictions of the interlocutor behaviours of dominance with only a partial representation of the other's mental state. Finally, the simulation of the interpersonal relation of dominance has a positive impact on the negotiation: the negotiators reach a good rate of common gains and the negotiation is perceived comfortable which increases the liking between the negotiators.

Much is known about when children acquire an understanding of mental states, but few, if any, experiments identify social contexts in which children tend to use this capacity and dispositions that influence its usage. Social exclusion is a common situation that compels us to reconnect with new parties, which may crucially involve attending to those parties’ mental states. Across two studies, this line of inquiry was extended to typically developing preschoolers (Study 1) and young children with and without anxiety disorder (AD) (Study 2). Children played the virtual game of toss “Cyberball” ostensibly over the Internet with two peers who first played fair (inclusion), but eventually threw very few balls to the child (exclusion). Before and after Cyberball, children in both studies completed stories about peer-scenarios. For Study 1, 36 typically developing 5-year-olds were randomly assigned to regular exclusion (for no apparent reason) or accidental exclusion (due to an alleged computer malfunction). Compared to accidental exclusion, regular exclusion led children to portray story-characters more strongly as intentional agents (intentionality), with use of more mental state language (MSL), and more between-character affiliation in post-Cyberball stories. For Study 2, 20 clinically referred 4 to 8-year-olds with AD and 15 age- and gender-matched non-anxious controls completed stories before and after regular exclusion. While we replicated the post regular-exclusion increase of intentional and MSL portrayals of story-characters among non-anxious controls, anxious children exhibited a decline on both dimensions after regular exclusion. We conclude that exclusion typically induces young children to mentalize, enabling more effective reconnection with others. However, excessive anxiety may impair controlled mentalizing, which may, in turn, hamper effective reconnection with others after exclusion.

This thesis focuses on the relationship between theory of mind and language skills in Czech preschoolers. The theoretical part summarizes current knowledge about theory of mind, its relationship to language skills, and some areas of development of preschool children. The empirical part describes the research of the relationship between theory of mind and language skills of Czech preschoolers. Fifty-five children in total participated in this research, twenty children in a younger group (m=42 months), and thirty-five children in an older group (m=54 months). Theory of mind has been assessed by two false-belief tasks: Sally-Ann Task, and Smarties task. Language skills were tested by Grammar reasoning test, and Understanding of grammar test from test battery of Seidlová-Málková and Smolík (2014). The older group has significantly better results in false-belief tasks then the younger group. Despite anticipated results, there was not statistically significant difference between the younger and the older groups' language skills. A moderate positive correlation was found between language skills and false-belief understanding in both groups. KEYWORDS Theory of Mind, False Belief Understanding, Language Skills, Preschoolers, Sally-Ann Task, Smarties Task

<p>The Theory of Applied Mind of Programming (TAMP) provides a new model for describing how programmers think and learn. Historically, many students have struggled when learning to program. Programming as a discipline lives in logic and reason, but theory and science tell us that people do not always think rationally. TAMP builds upon the groundbreaking work of dual process theory and classical educational theorists (Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner) to rethink our assumptions about cognition and learning. Theory guides educators and researchers to improve their practice, not just their work but also their thinking. TAMP provides new theoretical constructs for describing the mental activities of programming, the challenges in learning to program, as well as a guidebook for creating and recognizing the value of theory.</p> <p>This dissertation is highly nontraditional. It does not include a typical empirical study using a familiar research methodology to guide data collection and analysis. Instead, it leverages existing data, as accumulated over a half-century of computing education research and a century of research into cognition and learning. Since an applicable methodology of theory-building did not exist, this work also defines a new methodology for theory building. The methodology of this dissertation borrows notation from philosophy and methods from grounded theory to define a transparent and rigorous approach to creating applied theories. By revisiting past studies through the lens of new theoretical propositions, theorists can conceive, refine, and internally validate new constructs and propositions to revolutionize how we view technical education.</p> <p>The takeaway from this dissertation is a set of new theoretical constructs and promising research and pedagogical approaches. TAMP proposes an applied model of Jerome Bruner's mental representations that describe the knowledge and cognitive processes of an experienced programmer. TAMP highlights implicit learning and the role of intuition in decision making across many aspects of programming. This work includes numerous examples of how to apply TAMP and its supporting theories in re-imagining teaching and research to offer alternative explanations for previously puzzling findings on student learning. TAMP may challenge conventional beliefs about applied reasoning and the extent of traditional pedagogy, but it also offers insights on how to promote creative problem-solving in students. </p><br>

L’objectif général de cette thèse est d’explorer le développement des fonctions exécutives (FE) et des théories de l’esprit (TdE) chez l’enfant ayant une cardiopathie congénitale cyanogène (CCC) et ceci à une période clé dans la construction de ces capacités de « haut niveau » et dans leurs relations fonctionnelles réciproques. L’étude des enfants ayant une CCC et présentant un risque d’hypoxie circonscrit à la période néonatale permet d’explorer la vulnérabilité précoce des capacités neurocognitives à maturation tardive comme les FE et les TdE. En adoptant une approche longitudinale et transversale, nos objectifs visent à (1) déterminer la trajectoire développementale des FE (inhibition, mémoire de travail et flexibilité cognitive) et spécifier la nature et le degré de leurs dysfonctionnements (2) caractériser le développement des capacités méta-représentationnelles et évaluer le rôle prédictif des différentes composantes exécutives dans les TdE de premier et deuxième ordre, (3) explorer la généralisation des dysfonctionnements aux TdE avec un contenu mental affectif, (4) déterminer les facteurs de risque neurologique néonataux associés aux déficits exécutifs et en TdE, (5) évaluer la contribution des dysfonctionnements exécutifs, des variables médicales et démographiques sur la prévalence de prise en charge de ces enfants. Une cohorte de 45 enfants nés avec une CCC opérés à coeur ouvert en période néonatale et un groupe d’enfants sains ont été évalués à un âge moyen de 5 ans (T1) puis ont été à nouveau testés pendant deux années consécutives (T2 et T3). Nos résultats ont mis en évidence un profil de dysfonctionnement hétérogène selon l’âge et le domaine cognitif. Ainsi, naitre avec une CCC altère la progression développementale des FE et des TdE avec toutefois une normalisation pour les composantes ayant une émergence plus précoce. Les liens prédictifs observés entre les niveaux initiaux des FE et le développement ultérieur des TdE reflètent des mécanismes de construction typiques mais néanmoins décalés dans le temps. Enfin, le diagnostic prénatal de la CCC, qui a un rôle neuroprotecteur face au risque de cyanose néonatale, est également associé à un meilleur pronostic des FE et des TdE. Ce travail de thèse offre des résultats pionniers dans la compréhension de l’impact des vulnérabilités neurologiques néonatales sur la dynamique développementale de fonctions neurocognitives complexes. / The general aim of this doctoral dissertation is to explore the development of executive functions (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) in school-aged children with a cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD) at a key developmental period of progression and functional interactions between these “higher order functions”. The study of children born with a cyanotic CHD and exposed to a hypoxic risk limited to the neonatal period allows to explore the early vulnerability of late developing neurocognitive functions such as EF and ToM. We used a longitudinal and cross-sectional approach in order to: (1) determine the developmental trajectory of EF (inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility) and specify their nature and degree of impairment, (2) characterize the development of meta-representational abilities as well as EFs predictive roles in first- and second-order ToM, (3) evaluate the potential generalization of dysfunction to ToM with an affective component, (4) determine neonatal neurological risk factors associated to EF and ToM impairments, (5) evaluate the impact of executive impairments and medical and demographic variables on the early use of remediation services in these children. A cohort of 45 children born with a cyanotic CHD who underwent neonatal open-heart surgery and a group of comparison children were evaluated at a mean age of 5 years (T1) and then followed-up for two consecutive years (T2 and T3). Our results showed a heterogeneous pattern of dysfunction depending on age and specific domains. Cyanotic CHD affects the dynamics of development for these functions even though the earliest developing abilities tend to normalize. Predictive relations observed between early EF and later ToM suggest typical developmental mechanisms though chronologically delayed. Finally, prenatal diagnosis of the cyanotic CHD, known to play a neuroprotective role for cyanosis management is also associated to a better prognosis for EF and ToM outcomes. This work offers pioneer results on the comprehension of the impact of neonatal neurological vulnerabilities on the developmental dynamics of complex neurocognitive abilities.

Les premiers robots sont apparus dans les usines, sous la forme d'automates programmables. Ces premières formes robotiques ont le plus souvent un nombre très limité de capteurs et se contentent de répéter une séquence de mouvements et d'actions. De nos jours, de plus en plus de robots ont à interagir ou coopérer avec l'homme, que se soit sur le lieu de travail avec les robots coéquipiers ou dans les foyers avec les robots d'assistance. Mettre un robot dans un environnement humain soulève de nombreuses problématiques. En effet, pour évoluer dans le même environnement que l'homme et comprendre cet environnement, le robot doit être doté de capacités cognitives appropriées. Au delà de la compréhension de l'environnement matériel, le robot doit être capable de raisonner sur partenaires humains afin de pouvoir collaborer avec eux ou les servir au mieux. Lorsque le robot interagit avec des humains, l'accomplissement de la tâche n'est pas un critère suffisant pour quantifier la qualité de l'interaction. En effet, l'homme étant un être social, il est important que le robot puisse avoir des mécanismes de raisonnement lui permettant d'estimer également l'état mental de l'homme pour améliorer sa compréhension et son efficacité, mais aussi pour exhiber des comportements sociaux afin de se faire accepter et d'assurer le confort de l'humain. Dans ce manuscrit, nous présentons tout d'abord une infrastructure logicielle générique (indépendante de la plateforme robotique et des capteurs utilisés) qui permet de construire et maintenir une représentation de l'état du monde à l'aide de l'agrégation des données d'entrée et d'hypothèses sur l'environnement. Cette infrastructure est également en charge de l'évaluation de la situation. En utilisant l'état du monde qu'il maintient à jour, le système est capable de mettre en oeuvre divers raisonnements spatio-temporels afin d'évaluer la situation de l'environnement et des agents (humains et robots) présents. Cela permet ainsi d'élaborer et de maintenir une représentation symbolique de l'état du monde et d'avoir une connaissance en permanence de la situation des agents. Dans un second temps, pour aller plus loin dans la compréhension de la situation des humains, nous expliquerons comment nous avons doté notre robot de la capacité connue en psychologie développementale et cognitive sous le nom de “théorie de l'esprit” concrétisée ici par des mécanismes permettant de raisonner en se mettant à la place de l'humain, c'est à dire d'être doté de “prise de perspective”. Par la suite nous expliquerons comment l'évaluation de la situation permet d'établir un dialogue situé avec l'homme, et en quoi la capacité de gérer explicitement des croyances divergentes permet d'améliorer la qualité de l'interaction et la compréhension de l'homme par le robot. Nous montrerons également comment la connaissance de la situation et la possibilité de raisonner en se mettant à la place de l'homme permet une reconnaissance d'intentions appropriée de celui-ci et comment nous avons pu grâce à cela doter notre robot de comportements proactifs pour venir en aide à l'homme . Pour finir, nous présenterons une étude présentant un système de maintien d'un modèle des connaissances de l'homme sur diverses tâches et qui permet une gestion adaptée de l'interaction lors de l'élaboration interactive et l'accomplissement d'un plan partagé. / The first robots appeared in factories, in the form of programmable controllers. These first robotic forms usually had a very limited number of sensors and simply repeated a small set of sequences of motions and actions. Nowadays, more and more robots have to interact or cooperate with humans, whether at the workplace with teammate robots or at home with assistance robots. Introducing a robot in a human environment raises many challenges. Indeed, to evolve in the same environment as humans, and to understand this environment, the robot must be equipped with appropriate cognitive abilities. Beyond understanding the physical environment, the robot must be able to reason about human partners in order to work with them or serve them best. When the robot interacts with humans, the fulfillment of the task is not a sufficient criterion to quantify the quality of the interaction. Indeed, as the human is a social being, it is important that the robot can have reasoning mechanisms allowing it to assess the mental state of the human to improve his understanding and efficiency, but also to exhibit social behaviors in order to be accepted and to ensure the comfort of the human. In this manuscript, we first present a generic framework (independent of the robotic platform and sensors used) to build and maintain a representation of the state of the world by using the aggregation of data entry and hypotheses on the environment. This infrastructure is also in charge of assessing the situation. Using the state of the world it maintains, the system is able to utilize various spatio-temporal reasoning to assess the situation of the environment and the situation of the present agents (humans and robots). This allows the creation and maintenance of a symbolic representation of the state of the world and to keep awareness of each agent status. Second, to go further in understanding the situation of the humans, we will explain how we designed our robot with the capacity known in developmental and cognitive psychology as "theory of mind", embodied here by mechanisms allowing the system to reason by putting itself in the human situation, that is to be equipped with "perspective-taking" ability. Later we will explain how the assessment of the situation enables a situated dialogue with the human, and how the ability to explicitly manage conflicting beliefs can improve the quality of interaction and understanding of the human by the robot. We will also show how knowledge of the situation and the perspective taking ability allows proper recognition of human intentions and how we enhanced the robot with proactive behaviors to help the human. Finally, we present a study where a system maintains a human model of knowledge on various tasks to improve the management of the interaction during the interactive development and fulfillment of a shared plan.