Paris West University Nanterre La Défense

About: Paris West University Nanterre La Défense is a education organization based out in Paris, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Computer science & Politics. The organization has 895 authors who have published 1430 publications receiving 21712 citations.

Developing communicative postures

Abstract: This article analyses the development of a composite communicative posture, the shrug (which can combine palm-up flips, lifted shoulders and a head tilt), in a video corpus of spontaneous interactions between a typically developing British girl, Ellie, and her mother, filmed at home one hour each month from Ellie’s tenth month to her fourth birthday. The systematic coding of every shrug yields a total of 124 tokens (Ellie: 98; her mother: 26), providing results in terms of forms, functions and input. Ellie’s first shrug components emerge from non-linguistic actions and she acquires them one at a time starting with the hands: these features recall the development of complex signs among deaf children of the same age ( Reilly & Anderson, 2002 for ASL). The functions of Ellie’s shrugs gradually diversify from the expression of absence at 1;04 to other epistemic and non-epistemic meanings (affective and dynamic). Adult intervention plays a crucial role as adults recurrently equate Ellie’s physical movements with speech, thereby contributing to the emergence of their communicative functions as gestural emblems ( Ekman & Friesen, 1969 ).

Stability in the Intermittence

Abstract: The site of Umm el Tlel (El Kowm Basin, Syria) has revealed an extremely rich stratigraphic sequence, in particular for the Middle Paleolithic, which allows synchronic and diachronic approaches to the analysis of occupation dynamics. Complex VI3 corresponds to a lacustrine phase during which the site was regularly covered by water and sedimentary deposits. Nine archeological layers are present, dating to around 70 ka. The assemblage from layer VI3a has revealed the co-existence of at least two chaines operatoires of reduction: (a) recurrent Levallois focused on the production of points associated with quadrangular and overshot flakes; (b) recurrent Levallois focused on the production of points, laminar and quadrangular flakes. Other data, such as that related to the remains of hunted fauna recovered in this layer, complement these results and also contribute to a better understanding of the status of the site of Umm el Tlel and, more generally, its role within a broader territory that we can now better define. In a diachronic perspective, occupation dynamics can also be addressed by the study of all of the archeological layers in complex VI3. Based on results of analyses completed, these layers are remarkably uniform throughout this specific geological context, from all perspectives (reduction techniques, hunting strategies and faunal treatment, sites functions, etc.). Thus, the human behaviors revealed by the material recovered from complex VI3, although relatively complex, seem to have been quite stable. This stability, at present difficult to quantify in terms of duration, suggests a degree of rigidity in Mousterian territories where, despite intermittent occupations, human groups regularly returned to the same places to carry out the same range of activities.

Minimal group identity and gender in ultimatum games

Abstract: Social identity, or group membership, affects economic outcomes However, this influence may differ according to the nature of the groups involved Investigating the weakest group cohesion necessary to influence individual behaviors, we undertook three linked ultimatum game experiments involving a minimal categorization process Three main results are presented here: (i) Belonging to a minimal group affects behaviors; (ii) Men and women differ systematically in the nature of this influence and (iii) The ‘label’ given to a minimal group is in itself not neutral