School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

About: School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences is a facility organization based out in Villejuif, France. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Politics & Context (language use). The organization has 1230 authors who have published 2084 publications receiving 57740 citations. The organization is also known as: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales & EHESS.

Breaking the mirror: Asymmetrical disconnection between the phonological input and output codes.

Abstract: In this paper, we study the link between the processing systems that sustain speech perception and production in a patient (F.A.) with conduction aphasia. Her pattern of performance in repetition task - quantitative but also qualitative striking difference in errors with pseudowords versus words - cannot be properly accounted for either by a perception deficit or by a production deficit. We discuss this finding according to theoretical models of phonological processing and show that it is best explained by an impaired ability to transfer phonological information from the perception to the production system. We also probed for a phonological link in the opposite direction, from the production to the perception system. F.A.'s results show that this link was not impaired. Overall, our results suggest that (a) the phonological codes in perception and in production are separate but connected by two conversion mechanisms and that (b) these two mechanisms can be disrupted independently.

Mentalizing under influence: abnormal dependence on prior expectations in patients with schizophrenia

Abstract: An impaired ability to appreciate other people's mental states is a well-established and stable cognitive deficit in schizophrenia, which might explain some aspects of patients' social dysfunction. Yet, despite a wealth of literature on this topic, the basic mechanisms underlying these impairments are still poorly understood, and their links with the clinical dimensions of schizophrenia remain unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which patients' impaired ability to appreciate other people's intentions (known as mentalizing) may be accounted for by abnormal interaction between the two types of information that contribute to this ability: (i) the sensory evidence conveyed by movement kinematics; and (ii) the observer's prior expectations. We hypothesized that this is not a generalized impairment, but one confined to certain types of intentions. To test this assumption, we designed four tasks in which participants were required to infer either: (i) basic intentions (i.e. the simple goal of a motor act); (ii) superordinate intentions (i.e. the general goal of a sequence of motor acts); (iii) social basic; or (iv) social superordinate intentions (i.e. simple or general goals achieved within the context of a reciprocal interaction). In each of these tasks, both prior expectations and sensory information were manipulated. We found that patients correctly inferred non-social, basic intentions, but experienced difficulties when inferring non-social superordinate intentions and both basic and superordinate social intentions. These poor performances were associated with two abnormal patterns of interaction between prior expectations and sensory evidence. In the non-social superordinate condition, patients relied heavily on their prior expectations, while disregarding sensory evidence. This pattern of interaction predicted the severity of 'positive' symptoms. Social conditions prompted exactly the opposite pattern of interaction: patients exhibited weaker dependence on prior expectations while relying strongly on sensory evidence, and this predicted the severity of 'negative' symptoms. We suggest both these patterns can be accounted for by a disturbance in the Bayesian inferential mechanism that integrates sensory evidence (conveyed by movement kinematics) into prior beliefs (about others' mental states and attitudes) to produce accurate inferences about other people's intentions.

Une approche pragmatique de l'analyse Alceste

Abstract: L'approche semantique est tres souvent la seule utilisee pour l'interpretation des resultats des analyses automatiques du discours. Dans le cadre de cet article nous nous interessons a l'un de ces logiciels, Alceste, souvent utilise par les chercheurs travaillant dans le domaine des representations sociales. Nous soutenons qu'une approche pragmatique de la communication et du langage est indispensable du point de vue theorique et pratique. A partir d'une illustration empirique, nous soulignons la possibilite de mettre en avant les traces indirectes de la communication dans le vocabulaire, grâce au concept de temperature informationnelle et, par la meme, nous montrons comment obtenir des indices pragmatiques aux cotes d'indices semantiques obtenus par ce logiciel.

Preference Is Biased by Crowded Facial Expressions

Abstract: Crowding occurs when nearby flankers impede the identification of a peripheral stimulus. Here, we studied whether crowded features containing inaccessible emotional information can nevertheless affect preference judgments. We relied on gaze-contingent crowding, a novel method allowing for constant perceptual unawareness through eye-tracking control, and we found that crowded facial expressions can bias evaluative judgments of neutral pictographs. Furthermore, this emotional bias was effective not only for static images of faces, but also for videos displaying dynamic facial expressions. In addition to showing an alternative approach for probing nonconscious cognition, this study reveals that crowded information, instead of being fully suppressed, can have important influences on decisions.