Aline Crédeville vie et recherche entremêlées

Auditory text presentation improves learning with pictures and texts. With sequential text-picture presentation, cognitive models of multimedia learning explain this modality effect in terms of greater visuo-spatial working memory load with visual as compared to auditory texts. Visual texts are assumed to demand the same working memory subsystem as pictures, while auditory texts make use of an additional cognitive resource. We provide two alternative assumptions that relate to more basic processes: First, acoustic-sensory information causes a retention advantage for auditory over visual texts which occurs no matter if a picture is presented or not. Second, eye movements during reading hamper visuo-spatial rehearsal. Two experiments applying elementary procedures provide first evidence for these assumptions. Experiment 1 demonstrates that, regarding text recall, the auditory advantage is independent of visuo-spatial working memory load. Experiment 2 reveals worse matrix recognition performance after reading text requiring eye movements than after listening or reading without eye movements. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study simultaneously evaluates confirmatory information search theory and dual-process theory in a selection process that uses reference letters as the evaluation tool. Confirmatory information search suggests that evaluators give attention to information that is congruent with first impressions. Dual-processes theory suggests that evaluators give attention to information that is incongruent with first impressions. Using a sample of undergraduate students, in two separate experiments, we found that a poor impression from the résumé led to more positive information and less negative information searching in reference letters than did a good impression. These results of both experiments suggest that reference letter evaluators are likely to use cognitive processes associated with dual-process theory. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This study investigated the effects of expertise and cues of the performance-process on self-assessment, using a 2 × 2 factorial design with factors 'Expertise' (Lower vs. Higher) and 'Performance-Process Cue' (Cued vs. Non-cued). The cues, consisting of replays of integrated records of participants' eye movements and actions on the computer screen, were hypothesised to help the lower expertise group to remember and the higher expertise group to evaluate their task performance, by allowing them to review both physical actions (reflected in mouse/keyboard operations) and cognitive actions (reflected in eye movements) made during task performance. The results were in line with this hypothesis. Implications of these findings for self-assessment theory and the use of eye tracking recordings as a performance-process cue are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In a naturalistic newspaper reading study, two pairs of information graphics have been designed to study the effects of (a) the spatial contiguity principle and (b) the dual scripting principle by means of eye tracking measurements. Our data clearly show that different spatial layouts have a significant effect on readers' eye movement behaviour. An integrated format with spatial contiguity between text and illustrations facilitates integration. Reading of information graphics is moreover significantly enhanced by a serial format, resulting from dual attentional guidance. The dual scripting principle is associated with a bottom-up guidance through the spatial layout of the presentation, suggesting a specific reading path, and with a top-down guidance through the conceptual pre-processing of the contents, facilitating information processing and semantic integration of the material. The integrated and serial formats not only attract readers' initial attention but also sustain the readers' interest, thereby promoting a longer and deeper processing of the complex material. The results are an important contribution to the study of the cognitive processes involved in text-picture integration and offer relevant insights about attentional guidance in printed media, computer-based instructional materials and textbook design. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In two studies, students' difficulties in using multiple external representations were effectively addressed. In a first explorative study (N = 16), we investigated the allocation of visual attention (as assessed by gaze data) on external representations, its relation to learning and learners' beliefs on the representations' functions. Results confirmed that students were not aware of the functions. In a subsequent experiment (N = 30), we analysed effects of informing students about the function of diagrams in worked examples on learning, mediating effects of visual attention and moderating effects of prior knowledge. The instruction had strong effects on learning, which were partially mediated by visual attention. Prior knowledge moderated both, the effects of the instruction on visual attention and of visual attention on learning. Implications for research into multiple representations and instructional design are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Conversational agents are becoming more widespread in computer technologies but there has been little research in how humans interact with them. Two eye tracking studies investigated how humans distribute eye gaze towards conversational agents in complex tutoring systems. In Study 1, participants interacted with the single-agent tutoring system AutoTutor. Fixation times showed that the agent received most attention throughout the interaction, even when display size was statistically controlled. In Study 2, participants interacted with iSTART. Fixations were on the relevant agents when these agents spoke. Both studies provided evidence that humans regard animated conversational agents as conversational partners in the communication process. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Betrayal Trauma Theory (BTT) holds that certain traumas, such as incest, should be uniquely categorized as betrayal trauma: a subcategory of trauma in which the violation of trust, within a close relationship, occurs in the context of a traumatic event. According to BTT, betrayal trauma results in either partial or complete traumatic amnesia because repression is adaptive when a victim depends on a perpetrator for physical or emotional needs. In a test of BTT, undergraduates screened for betrayal and non-betrayal trauma histories provided detailed accounts of these events. In order to account for threats to internal validity that are often overlooked by traumatic amnesia researchers, we also assessed factors known to compromise narrative detail. Consistent with BTT predictions, more betrayal was associated with less detailed trauma narratives. However, this relationship was no longer significant after controlling for survivor age, avoidance symptoms, gender and purposeful omission of detail. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prior research suggests that recognition of a person's face can be facilitated by exaggerating the distinctive features of the face during training. We tested if this 'reverse-caricature effect' would be robust to procedural variations that created more difficult learning environments. Specifically, we examined whether the effect would emerge with frontal rather than three-quarter views, after very brief exposure to caricatures during the learning phase and after modest rotations of faces during the recognition phase. Results indicate that, even under these difficult training conditions, people are more accurate at recognizing unaltered faces if they are first familiarized with caricatures of the faces, rather than with the unaltered faces. These findings support the development of new training methods to improve face recognition. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Volunteer staff from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) were presented with sets of anonymised physiological data recorded over approximately 45 minute periods from former patients. Staff were asked to select medical/nursing actions appropriate for each of the patients whose data were displayed. Data were shown in one of three conditions (a) as multiple line graphs similar to those commonly shown on the ward, or as textual descriptions generated by (b) expert medical/nursing staff or (c) computerised natural language generation (NLG). An overall advantage was found for the human generated text, but NLG resulted in decisions that were at least as good as those for the graphical displays with which staff were familiar. It is suggested that NLG might offer a viable automated approach to removing noise and artefacts in real, complex and dynamic data sets, thereby reducing visual complexity and mental workload, and enhancing decision-making particularly for inexperienced staff. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Pezdek and Blandon-Gitlin () found that 25% of their participants reported as plausible or very plausible that they themselves could have been a victim of childhood sexual abuse without being able to remember it. In addition, they found that the 25% figure increased to 61% for participants who reported that they were likely at some point in their life to seek psychotherapy. Given past work showing that it is easier to implant a false memory for plausible events, and counter to Pezdek and Blandon-Gitlin's conclusions, these data point to a substantial danger of implanting false memories of childhood sexual abuse during therapy in many people and in most people who are likely to go into therapy. Theoretical issues regarding plausibility are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The goal of the present study was to ascertain whether individual differences in self-esteem, self-confidence, assertiveness and number of siblings could predict young children's responses to cross-examination style questioning. Five- and 6-year-old children (N = 137) participated in a unique staged event and were then interviewed with analogues of direct and cross-examination. Despite highly accurate direct examination reports, children made a large number of changes to these reports during cross-examination, resulting in a significant decrease in accuracy. Poor cross-examination performance was associated with low levels of teacher-rated self-confidence, self-esteem and assertiveness, raising concern that the children who are likely to fare poorly during cross-examination may be the very children who are most likely to appear as witnesses in the courtroom. Furthermore, number of siblings was inversely related to cross-examination performance. Further research is required to pinpoint the specific mechanism(s) behind this finding. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The above article (DOI: ) was published online in Early View on 31 May 2008. A printing error was subsequently identified in the article.Page 1: Incorrect author name. 'Tin Valentine' should be 'Tim Valentine'

This study investigated self-regulation processes in a professional task, a beverage service task, using the model of self-regulated study. The main purpose was to explore how self-regulatory activity changes both with professional experience and with memory task demands. In a simulated beverage service task, 22 beginner waiters and 22 experienced waiters were asked to request the drink ordered by each customer until they were sure they knew the entire order. Then, they had to execute an immediate recall of the customer-beverage pairs and a delayed recall. Results showed that globally beginners did not modify their self-regulation processes as a function of task demands. By contrast to beginners, experienced waiters increased their self-regulatory activity when they had to face with a more demanding task. Besides, experts showed higher recall performance than beginners under all conditions. In the conclusion, results from this more naturalistic task were compared to those obtained in experimental studies and discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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In two influential articles, Paul Ekman and associates have determined 'who can catch a liar' and reported that 'a few can catch a liar'. The current article seeks to clarify these contributions. It provides information that was not mentioned in Ekman's journal articles. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bond (2008) objects to the attention given to two of our publications on lie detection accuracy because of what he suggests is incompetence in one case and suppression of data in the other. It is our opinion that his claims are based principally on a tortured re-interpretation of a manuscript we attempted to publish that he has kept in his possession for more than a decade and cites without our permission. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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