Jacques Theureau

Activity organization and knowledge construction during competitive interaction in table tennis

Using a semiological framework and course-of-action theory, this study analyzes the activity of a top-level table tennis player during a match. Recorded data from an international meet was obtained and then supplemented by verbalization data from a post-match interview. The meaningful units that made up the players course of action were labelled so as to: (a) reconstruct the dynamics of the activity as the match took place, (b) point out how the players mode of involvement evolved, and (c) determine how knowledge was constructed in action. The player began the match by attempting to discover the particular features of the opponents play. This was followed by the reproduction of the effective actions just discovered. The players activity during the match did not consist of applying predefined plans, but included exploration, learning, disguising, and indetermination. The results raise the question of the role of practice and training in producing skillful performance.

Theoretical and methodological issues related to long term creative cognition: the case of musical composition

The theme of large temporal span of cognition is emerging as a key issue in cognitive anthropology and ergonomics. We will consider it through the analysis of a musical composition process, that of Voi(rex) by Philippe Leroux, in which sketches and score writing are articulated through the use of different kinds of computer software. After presenting the data collecting method, we will consider the analysis of the resulting data concerning the writing of two movements of Voi(rex). Such an analysis will allow us: (1) to draw methodological conclusions about the time and mode of inquiry; (2) to specify the notion of situated cognition in situations essentially pre-established by the actor; (3) to set out two families of theoretical results relating to large temporal span cognitive phenomena: the first concerns the notion of an idea and its role in the development of the creative process; the second deals with the notion of the appropriation of tools and the making of situated individual cognition.

An analysis of a user's exploration and learning of a multimedia instruction system

Abstract In a situated-cognition framework, this article takes an ergonomic approach to describing and interpreting a user’s activity on a computer-assisted interactive learning environment. The environment was designed to improve sports instructors’ knowledge and understanding of some of the major issues in sports training. By focusing on the dynamics of the user-computer interaction, this exploratory study was aimed at validating the system prototype and proposing effective, user-friendly enhancements. The meaning the user grants to his/her actions and the organization of those actions are studied in reference to course-of-action theory. Observation data for a user was collected on-line and supplemented a posteriori by self-appraisal verbalization data. The results present a description and an explanation of the local and global organization of the user’s course of action. They demonstrate the complexity of his exploration and learning activity, how he activates and constructs knowledge during action, and his emotional states that alternate between feelings of apprehension, enjoyment, and effort. The implications of these results for the design of computer-assisted learning environments are discussed.

Nuclear Reactor Control Room Simulators: Human Factors Research and Development

Abstract: Simulator studies are powerful means for understanding, designing and managing the complexity of nuclear reactor control if, along with their scenarios, they are correctly designed for that purpose. This contribution to an international state of the art of the use of nuclear reactor control room simulators in human factors research and development summarises the trends and novelties in the theories and methodologies (the reduction of the ambitions of cognitive simulation and the renewal of process-tracing methods, the eclectic search for theoretical and methodological complementarity, the conquests of situation awareness and their limitations, the study of cooperation), in the use of the results (with stress on probabilistic human reliability analysis and design of procedures) and in the construction of simulated situations (with stress on part task simulations and on relations between testing practical and empirical hypotheses and testing theoretical ones).

Use of Nuclear-Reactor Control Room Simulators in Research and Development

Abstract Simulator studies are powerfull means to know, design and manage the complexity of nuclear-reactorcontrol, if they are correctly designed for that purpose. This contribution to an international state of the art precises the trends and novelties in the use of the results, in the theories and methodologies and in the construction of the simulated situations, i.e. in the conditions for an efficient use of the techniques of simulator design.