Françoise Askevis-Leherpeux

Joindre le geste à la parole : les liens entre la parole et les gestes co-verbaux

La nature des liens entre la parole et les gestes co-verbaux est depuis longtemps etudiee sans qu’un reel consensus n’apparaisse. Nous passons en revue et discutons l’ensemble des approches s’etant interrogees sur la question. Il en ressort que, contrairement au point de vue defendu par McNeill (2005), les interactions entre les deux modalites ne se manifestent pas uniquement au sein d’un systeme de communication global. Elles peuvent egalement se produire au moment de la planification ou de l’execution motrice du comportement de communication, et peuvent etre facilitatrices ou competitives (Feyereisen, 2007). Nous discutons les implications pour une prise en charge plus efficace des patients souffrant de troubles du langage, tels que les patients aphasiques ou atteints de la maladie d’Alzheimer.

Dès 5 ans, les filles rejettent l'obésité

Resume Cette etude avait pour objectif majeur de tester l’hypothese d’une asymetrie de genre dans la stigmatisation de l’obesite chez des jeunes enfants. Elle avait aussi pour objectif de tester si, des ce jeune âge, l’obesite est associee a une perception de responsabilite (perception des causes) et de controlabilite (perception des solutions).On a demande a des filles et des garcons, âges de 5 et 6 ans, de ranger par ordre de preference decroissante six dessins representant des filles et des garcons variant en corpulence (maigre, obese et intermediaire). Puis on leur a demande de repondre a un questionnaire mesurant leurs perceptions des causes et des solutions.Les resultats confirment que le rejet des enfants obeses, de meme sexe ou de sexe oppose, est plus marque de la part des filles que des garcons. Ils montrent egalement que, si garcons et filles penchent vers des explications internes de l’obesite, seules les filles soulignent que l’obesite est controlable. Elles ajoutent que faire du sport peut etre une solution efficace.Ainsi, des ce tres jeune âge, la stigmatisation de l’obesite traduit une asymetrie de la categorisation de genre. Les filles, particulierement severes a l’egard de leurs pairs obeses, pensent que l’obesite peut se maitriser et semblent avoir internalise les standards normatifs de la beaute feminine.

Verbal and gestural communication in interpersonal interaction with Alzheimer's disease patients

Communication can be defined as a verbal and non verbal exchange of thoughts and emotions. While verbal communication deficit in Alzheimers disease is well documented, very little is known about gestural communication, especially in interpersonal situations. This study examines the production of gestures and its relations with verbal aspects of communication. Three patients suffering from moderately severe Alzheimers disease were compared to three healthy adults. Each one were given a series of pictures and asked to explain which one she preferred and why. The interpersonal interaction was video recorded. Analyses concerned verbal production (quantity and quality) and gestures. Gestures were either non representational (i.e., gestures of small amplitude punctuating speech or accentuating some parts of utterance) or representational (i.e., referring to the object of the speech). Representational gestures were coded as iconic (depicting of concrete aspects), metaphoric (depicting of abstract meaning) or deictic (pointing toward an object). In comparison with healthy participants, patients revealed a decrease in quantity and quality of speech. Nevertheless, their production of gestures was always present. This pattern is in line with the conception that gestures and speech depend on different communicational systems and look inconsistent with the assumption of a parallel dissolution of gesture and speech. Moreover, analyzing the articulation between verbal and gestural dimensions suggests that representational gestures may compensate for speech deficits. It underlines the importance for the role of gestures in maintaining interpersonal communication.

The Influence of the Nonverbal Behaviour of Examiners on Children's Psychometric Performances.

This study analysed the effects of the nonverbal behaviour of an examiner on low and high achievers’ psychometric performances. The examiner, who was blind to children’s’ achievement level, varied the nonverbal style she adopted when giving instructions. As expected, a warm style led children to score higher than a neutral one. Moreover, warmth effect did not depend on achievement level. It implies that the nonverbal behaviour of an examiner may modify psychological assessments and play a subtle role both in educational decisions and educational guidance.RésuméCette recherche analyse les résultats d’enfants à des tests psychométriques en fonction du style non verbal adopté par l’examinatrice pendant la phase de lecture des consignes et de leur niveau scolaire, qu’elle ignore. Conformément aux attentes, les scores sont plus élevés quand les consignes ont été données dans un style chaleureux plutôt que neutre. Cet effet ne dépend pas du niveau scolaire de l’enfant. Cela implique que le comportement non verbal d’un examinateur peut modifier l’évaluation psychologique d’un enfant et jouer ainsi un rôle subtil dans les décisions éducatives et l’orientation scolaire.

Are virtues national, supranational, or universal?

Many studies investigated cultural differences in values, most notably by Hofstede and Schwarz. Relatively few have focused on virtues, a related and important concept in contemporary social science. The present paper examines the similarities and differences between nations, or blocks of - culturally related - nations on the perceived importance of virtues. Adults (N = 2.809 students) from 14 countries were asked to freely mention which virtues they found important to practice in daily life, and next to rate a list of 15 virtues, which reflect the most frequently mentioned categories in The Netherlands, as found in a previous study. The 14 nations included the United States, Mexico, nine European and three Asian nations. For the free-listed virtues, we compared the top-ten lists of most frequently mentioned virtues across the nations. We used a correspondence analysis on the frequency table to assess the relationships between the virtues and nations. For the 15 virtues ratings, a MANOVA, and follow-up ANOVA’s were used to examine effects of nation, age, gender and religion. We found strong evidence for relationships between nations and blocks of culturally related nations and the importance attached to various virtues. There appear to be some country specific virtues, such as generosity in France, but also some relatively universal virtues, most notably honesty, respect, and kindness.