A first theoretical model of self-directed cognitive control development

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Voluntary task switching in children:Switching more reduces the cost of task selection

peer reviewedEmerging cognitive control supports increasingly efficient goal-directed behaviors. With age, children are increasingly expected to decide autonomously and with little external aid which goals to attain. However, little is known about how children engage cognitive control in such a self-directed fashion. The present study examined self-directed control development by adapting the voluntary task switching paradigm-the gold standard measure of this control form in adults-for use with 5-6-year-old and 9-10-year-old children. Overall, p(switch) suggested that even younger children can engage self-directed control successfully. However, other measures showed they struggled with task selection. Specifically, compared with older children and adults, they relied more on systematic strategies which reduced the cost of task selection, even when the strategy involved switching more often. Like externally driven control, self-directed control relies critically on task selection processes. These two forms of control likely form a continuum rather than two discrete categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

A First Theoretical Model of Self-Directed Cognitive Control Development

peer reviewe

Typologie et représentations des ensembles résidentiels fermés ou sécurisés en France

Cette contribution vise dans un premier temps à réaliser un recensement des programmes fermés avec contrôle des accès en France. Puis, une typologie des ensembles fermés a été mise en œuvre. Enfin, l'article s'oriente vers une étude des représentations qui ont cours à propos des ensembles résidentiels fermés, par une analyse des discours produits par les principaux acteurs concernés par le phénomène : les promoteurs, les résidants de ces complexes fermés et enfin les élus et techniciens en charge de l'urbanisme ou de l'habitat

Understanding autonomous behaviour development: Exploring the developmental contributions of context-tracking and task selection to self-directed cognitive control.

peer reviewedGaining autonomy is a key aspect of growing up and cognitive control development across childhood. However, little is known about how children engage cognitive control in an autonomous (or self-directed) fashion. Here, we propose that in order to successfully engage self-directed control, children identify, and achieve goals by tracking contextual information and using this information to select relevant tasks. To disentangle the respective contributions of these processes, we manipulated the difficulty of context-tracking via altering the presence or absence of contextual support (Study 1) and the difficulty of task selection by varying task difficulty (a)symmetry (Study 2) in 5-6 and 9-10-year-olds, and adults. Results suggested that, although both processes contribute to successful self-directed engagement of cognitive control, age-related progress mostly relates to context-tracking

Algorithme de bandit et obsolescence : un modèle pour la recommandation

Un nombre croissant de systèmes numériques font appel à des algorithmes de bandits pour combiner efficacement exploration de l'environnement et exploitation de l'information accumulée. Les modèles de bandits classiques sont toutefois assez naïfs : ils se bornent à un nombre fixé de choix disponibles (appelés bras), et à des réponses ne variant pas au cours du temps. Pour les moteurs de recommandation, par exemple, il s'agit de limitations sévères : de nouveaux items à recommander apparaissent régulièrement, et les anciens ont une tendance prévisible à perdre de l'attractivité. Pour faire face à ces problèmes, des stratégies capables de gérer l'évolution temporelle du gain moyen associé à chaque bras ont été proposées. Si ces stratégies sont assez générales, elles ne sont pas forcément les plus efficaces dans le cas où la forme de cette évolution temporelle est largement connue a priori. Dans cet article nous proposons deux nouvelles stratégies capables de prendre en compte d'une part l'obsolescence progressive de chaque bras, et d'autre part l'arrivée de nouveaux bras : Fading-UCB, pour laquelle nous fournissons une analyse détaillée de la borne supérieure de regret, et Trust and abandon. Nous montrons expérimentalement que les deux stratégies proposées permettent d'obtenir de meilleures performances que celles obtenues par les stratégies de l'état de l'art

Leakage radiation microscopy of surface plasmons launched by a nanodiamond-based tip

Leakage-radiation microscopy of a thin gold film demonstrates the ability of an ensemble of fluorescent diamond nanoparticles attached onto the apex of an optical tip to serve as an efficient near-field surface-plasmon polariton launcher. The implementation of the nanodiamond-based tip in a near-field scanning optical microscope will allow for an accurate control on the launching position, thereby opening the way to scanning plasmonics.Comment: 21st European Conf. on Diamond, Diamond- Like Materials, Carbon Nanotubes, and Nitrides: "Diamond 2010", Budapest, September 2010 (Oral by OM

Disentangling the respective contribution of task selection and task execution in self-directed cognitive control development

peer reviewedTask selection and task execution are key constructs in cognitive control development. Yet, little is known about how separable they are and how each contributes to task switching performance. Here, 60 4- to 5-year olds, 60 7- to 8-year olds, and 60 10- to 11-year olds children completed the double registration procedure, which dissociates these two processes. Task selection yielded both mixing and switch costs, especially in younger children, and task execution mostly yielded switch costs at all ages, suggesting that task selection is costlier than task execution. Moreover, both task selection and execution varied with task self-directedness (i.e., to what extent the task is driven by external aids) demands. Whereas task selection and task execution are dissociated regarding performance costs, they nevertheless both contribute to self-directed control

The logic of transcriptional regulator recruitment architecture at cis-regulatory modules controlling liver functions.

Control of gene transcription relies on concomitant regulation by multiple transcriptional regulators (TRs). However, how recruitment of a myriad of TRs is orchestrated at cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) to account for coregulation of specific biological pathways is only partially understood. Here, we have used mouse liver CRMs involved in regulatory activities of the hepatic TR, NR1H4 (FXR; farnesoid X receptor), as our model system to tackle this question. Using integrative cistromic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and interactomic analyses, we reveal a logical organization where trans-regulatory modules (TRMs), which consist of subsets of preferentially and coordinately corecruited TRs, assemble into hierarchical combinations at hepatic CRMs. Different combinations of TRMs add to a core TRM, broadly found across the whole landscape of CRMs, to discriminate promoters from enhancers. These combinations also specify distinct sets of CRM differentially organized along the genome and involved in regulation of either housekeeping/cellular maintenance genes or liver-specific functions. In addition to these TRMs which we define as obligatory, we show that facultative TRMs, such as one comprising core circadian TRs, are further recruited to selective subsets of CRMs to modulate their activities. TRMs transcend TR classification into ubiquitous versus liver-identity factors, as well as TR grouping into functional families. Hence, hierarchical superimpositions of obligatory and facultative TRMs bring about independent transcriptional regulatory inputs defining different sets of CRMs with logical connection to regulation of specific gene sets and biological pathways. Altogether, our study reveals novel principles of concerted transcriptional regulation by multiple TRs at CRMs

A first theoretical model of self-directed cognitive control development

Cognitive control (also referred to as executive functions) corresponds to a set of cognitive processes that support the goal-directed regulation of thoughts and actions. It plays a major role in complex activities and predicts later academic achievement. Importantly, while growing up, children are progressively transitioning from engaging cognitive control in an externally driven fashion, i.e., relying on external guidance, to exerting it self-directedly, i.e., autonomously determining when and how to engage it. Although growing self-directedness in cognitive control engagement is critical to autonomy gains during childhood, relatively little is known about the underlying cognitive mechanisms. Incorporating previous main proposals in cognitive control development, we propose that self-directed control development is driven by the ability to identify relevant goals, facilitated through accumulated knowledge on how to engage cognitive control with age. Importantly, we argue that there are two key processes that are part of successful goal identification: context-tracking and goal selection. We argue that most developmental changes are linked to context-tracking as the demands on this process are particularly high in self-directed situations. We then derived main predictions from this theoretical model as well as promising future directions