Making sense of infant familiarity and novelty responses to words at lexical onset

This study suggests that familiarity and novelty preferences in infant experimental tasks can in some instances be interpreted together as a single indicator of language advance. We provide evidence to support this idea based on our use of the auditory headturn preference paradigm to record responses to words likely to be either familiar or unfamiliar to infants. Fifty-nine 10-month-old infants were tested. The task elicited mixed preferences: Familiarity (longer average looks to the words likely to be familiar to the infants), novelty (longer average looks to the words likely to be unfamiliar) and no-preference (similar-length of looks to both type of words). The infants who exhibited either a familiarity or a novelty response were more advanced on independent indices of phonetic advance than the infants who showed no preference. In addition, infants exhibiting novelty responses were more lexically advanced than either the infants who exhibited familiarity or those who showed no-preference. The results provide partial support for Hunter and Ames' (1988) developmental model of attention in infancy and suggest caution when interpreting studies indexed to chronological age

Jackson, J.B.C., Buss, L.W. & Cook, R.E. (Editors). — Population Biology and the Evolution of Clonal organisms. New Haven et London, Yale University Press, 1986

Hallé Francis. Jackson, J.B.C., Buss, L.W. & Cook, R.E. (Editors). — Population Biology and the Evolution of Clonal organisms. New Haven et London, Yale University Press, 1986. In: Revue d'Écologie (La Terre et La Vie), tome 42, n°3, 1987. pp. 322-323

Bewley, J.D. et Black, M. — Physiology and biochemistry of seeds in relation to germination. Volume 2. Viability, dormancy and environmental control. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg and New York, 1982

Hallé Francis. Bewley, J.D. et Black, M. — Physiology and biochemistry of seeds in relation to germination. Volume 2. Viability, dormancy and environmental control. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg and New York, 1982. In: Revue d'Écologie (La Terre et La Vie), tome 39, n°1, 1984. p. 115

Zimmermann, M.H. — Xylem structure and the ascent of sap. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, Springer-Verlag, 1983

Hallé Francis. Zimmermann, M.H. — Xylem structure and the ascent of sap. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo, Springer-Verlag, 1983. In: Revue d'Écologie (La Terre et La Vie), tome 39, n°2, 1984. pp. 247-248

Quelques arguments en faveur d'un Parc national situé dans le Centre Nord

Although the project to create a national Park in Guiana has been well received by scientists, some of them regret its location in the south of the Department. The author has already given the reasons for his disagreement in this matter on several occasions. Here he expresses his viewpoint as a biologist and citizen, and argues in favor of a Park that would encompass the most vulnerable part of Guiana.Le projet de création d'un parc national en Guyane est bien accueilli par les scientifiques, mais certains d'entre eux déplorent sa localisation au sud du département. L'auteur a déjà exprimé à plusieurs reprises les raisons de son désaccord sur ce point. Il expose ici son point de vue de biologiste et de citoyen, et plaide en faveur d'un parc qui engloberait la partie la plus vulnérable de la Guyane.Hallé Francis. Quelques arguments en faveur d'un Parc national situé dans le Centre Nord. In: Journal d'agriculture traditionnelle et de botanique appliquée, 40ᵉ année, bulletin n°1-2,1998. Conserver, gérer la biodiversité : quelle stratégie pour la Guyane ? sous la direction de Marie Fleury et Odile Poncy. pp. 533-539