Étude chronométrique de l'effet de la force d'association entre antécédent et conséquent dans une tâche d'inférence conditionnelle

La tâche d'inférence conditionnelle est l'une des plus utilisées dans l'étude du raisonnement. Elle consiste à produire une conclusion à partir d'un énoncé conditionnel de la forme si p, alors q (e.g. Si Rex est un chien, alors il a quatre pattes) et d'une prémisse mineure (p, non-p, q, ou non-q ; e.g. Rex est un chien). Grosset, Barrouillet, et Markovits (2005) ont montré que la force de l'association entre les propositions composant l'énoncé conditionnel influence les temps de réponse au syllogisme nommé Affirmation du Conséquent (AC, prémisse mineure q) et interagit avec la réponse donnée à ce syllogisme. Les auteurs attribuent cet effet à la recherche d'antécédent alternatif (e.g. Rex pourrait être un ours) que mèneraient les individus en résolvant AC. Nos résultats confirment ces observations avec vingt-cinq participants (âge moyen : 20.84 ans), en utilisant d'autres énoncés et une nouvelle version de la tâche d'inférence conditionnelle..

Que nous apprend la tâche de table de vérité probabiliste sur le raisonnement conditionnel ?

La tâche de table de vérité probabiliste consiste à demander à des individus d'estimer la probabilité qu'un énoncé conditionnel « Si p, alors q » soit vrai pour un ensemble donné. Elle a été conçue dans le but de démontrer que les individus estiment que la probabilité qu'un conditionnel soit vrai est équivalente à la probabilité que q soit vrai en supposant que p l'est aussi. Toutefois, la littérature a révélé que cette tâche reçoit souvent des réponses inattendues. Nous avons cherché à comprendre quels sont les déterminants de ces réponses. Cinq expériences ont montré que la tâche probabiliste était sensible à des variations minimes du contexte, que les taux des réponses qui lui étaient apportées n'étaient pas corrélées avec ceux des réponses à d'autres tâches de raisonnement et que les participants se référaient, lors de l'élaboration de leurs réponses, à des éléments sans lien avec leur interprétation du conditionnel

Self-efficacy, mindfulness, and perceived social support as resources to maintain the mental health of students in Switzerland’s universities of applied sciences: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Switzerland’s student population is at a particularly high risk of developing mental health disorders, creating a major challenge for Switzerland’s higher education establishments. Research to date has primarily sought to identify the risk factors affecting students’ mental health; however, their exposure to these factors is often unavoidable. Thus, the present study adopted a salutogenic approach focussing on the determinants of health. We examined the mental health resources available to students reported in the literature as being susceptible to helping them maintain good mental health despite their exposure to risk factors. Methods In February 2020, 2,415 first- and second-year bachelor’s degree students in applied sciences in French-speaking Switzerland completed an online questionnaire. The variables measured were self-evaluated mental health, perceived stress and three potential health resources: students’ feelings of self-efficacy, their capacity for mindfulness and their social support. The results were analysed using hierarchical linear regression models. Results When all the variables were included in the model without interaction effect, our results revealed that students’ self-evaluated mental health was negatively associated with perceived stress (β = -0.43, p < 0.001) and positively associated with the three potential health resources (self-efficacy: β = 0.26, p < 0.001; mindfulness: β = 0.10, p < 0.001; social support: β = 0.17, p < 0.001). An analysis of the interaction effects also revealed that a high level of self-efficacy was associated with perceived stress being less strongly linked to mental health (β = 0.29, p < 0.001). Conclusions These findings suggest that self-efficacy, mindfulness, and perceived social support are valuable resources for protecting students’ mental health. Thus, implementing interventions aimed at reinforcing them, could support students in applied sciences all along their academic pathway, in their classes and during their professional work experience placements

Factors protecting Swiss nurses’ health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal study

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic reached Europe in early 2020 and impacted nurses over a prolonged period, notably causing heavy work overloads. Exposure to sources of stress in such situations is inevitable, which can put nurses’ health at risk. The present study took a salutogenic approach to investigating nurses’ health and the principal factors protecting it found in the literature (i.e., resilience, post-traumatic growth, social support, and certain organizational factors), as well as how those elements evolved from February 2021 to September 2022. Methods All nurses working at eight French-speaking Swiss hospitals who accepted to disseminate the study to their employees were invited to complete an online questionnaire at four time points (February 2021, September 2021, March 2022, and September 2022: T0, T1, T2, and T3, respectively) and respond to items measuring their health, factors protecting their health, and their perceived stress levels. Data were analyzed using random-intercept linear regression models. Results A cumulated total of 1013 responses were collected over all measurement points (625 responses at T0; 153 at T1; 146 at T2; 89 at T3). Results revealed that nurses’ health had not changed significantly between measurements. However, their perceived stress levels, feelings of being supported by their management hierarchies, and belief that they had the means to deliver a high quality of work all diminished. At every measurement point, nurses’ health was negatively associated with perceived stress and positively associated with resilience, perceived social support, and the belief that they were provided with the means to deliver a high quality of work. Conclusion Despite the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic, the factors recognized as protective of nurses’ health played their role. The lack of improvements in nurses’ health in periods when the pandemic’s effects lessened suggests that the pressure they were experiencing did not drop during these moments. This phenomenon may have been due to the need to clear backlogs in scheduled surgery and the work overloads caused by prolonged staff absences and nurses quitting the profession. Monitoring changes in nurses’ health is thus crucial, as is establishing measures that promote factors protective of their health. Organizational factors influencing nurses’ working conditions are also key and should not be neglected

Protective factors and coping styles associated with quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic ::a comparison of hospital or care institution and private practice nurses

In France, nurses work either in hospitals and care institutions or in private practice, following physicians’ prescriptions and taking care of patients at their homes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these populations of nurses were exposed to numerous sources of stress. The main objective of the present study was to identify the protective factors they mobilized to face the crisis and how these factors contributed to sustaining their quality of life (QoL). A cross-sectional study was conducted to answer these questions. Overall, 9898 French nurses participated in the study, providing demographic information and filling out QoL (WHOQOL-BREF), perceived stress (PSS-14), resilience (CD-RISC), social support (MSPSS), and coping style (BRIEF-COPE) questionnaires. The results revealed very few differences between the two groups of nurses, which is surprising given the drastically different contexts in which they practice. Social support and two coping strategies (positive reframing and acceptance) were associated with a high QoL, whereas perceived stress and four coping strategies (denial, blaming self, substance use, and behavioral disengagement) were associated with poor QoL. In the light of these results, we recommended promoting social support and coping strategies to help nurses cope during the pandemi

Epitaxial growth of cobalt oxide phases on Ru(0001) for spintronic device applications

Cobalt oxide films are of technological interest as magnetic substrates that may support the direct growth of graphene, for use in various spintronic applications. In this work, we demonstrate the controlled growth of both Co_3O_4(111) and CoO(111) on Ru(0001) substrates. The growth is performed by Co molecular beam epitaxy, at a temperature of 500 K and in an O_2 partial pressure of 10^(−4) Torr for Co_3O_4(111), and 7.5 × 10^(−7) Torr for CoO(111). The films are distinguished by their dissimilar Co 2p x-ray photoemission (XPS) spectra, while XPS-derived O/Co stoichiometric ratios are 1.33 for Co3O4(111) and 1.1 for CoO(111). Electron energy loss (EELS) spectra for Co_3O_4(111) indicate interband transitions at ~2.1 and 3.0 eV, while only a single interband transition near 2.0 eV is observed for CoO(111). Low energy electron diffraction (LEED) data for Co_3O_4(111) indicate twinning during growth, in contrast to the LEED data for CoO(111). For Co_3O_4(111) films of less than 20 Å average thickness, however, XPS, LEED and EELS data are similar to those of CoO(111). XPS data indicate that both Co oxide phases are hydroxylated at all thicknesses. The two phases are moreover found to be thermally stable to at least 900 K in UHV, while ex situ atomic force microscopy measurements of Co_3O_4(111)/Ru(0001) indicate an average surface roughness below 1 nm. Electrical measurements indicate that Co_3O_4(111)/Ru(0001) films exhibit dielectric breakdown at threshold voltages of ~1 MV cm^(−1). Collectively, these data show that the growth procedures yield Co_3O_4(111) films with topographical and electrical characteristics that are suitable for a variety of advanced device applications