Basic and advanced numerical performances relate to mathematical expertise but are fully mediated by visuospatial skills

Recent studies have highlighted the potential role of basic numerical processing in the acquisition of numerical and mathematical competences. However, it is debated whether high-level numerical skills and mathematics depends specifically on basic numerical representations. In this study mathematicians and nonmathematicians performed a basic number line task, which required mapping positive and negative numbers on a physical horizontal line, and has been shown to correlate with more advanced numerical abilities and mathematical achievement. We found that mathematicians were more accurate compared with nonmathematicians when mapping positive, but not negative numbers, which are considered numerical primitives and cultural artifacts, respectively. Moreover, performance on positive number mapping could predict whether one is a mathematician or not, and was mediated by more advanced mathematical skills. This finding might suggest a link between basic and advanced mathematical skills. However, when we included visuospatial skills, as measured by block design subtest, the mediation analysis revealed that the relation between the performance in the number line task and the group membership was explained by non-numerical visuospatial skills. These results demonstrate that relation between basic, even specific, numerical skills and advanced mathematical achievement can be artifactual and explained by visuospatial processing

When contact goes wrong: Negative intergroup contact promotes generalized outgroup avoidance

This paper broadens our understanding of the consequences of negative intergroup contact. Study 1 reports cross-sectional evidence that negative contact with European immigrants in Britain is not only associated with increased prejudice, but also the avoidance of future contact with this group. Studies 2A and 2B provided an experimental replication in a different intergroup context. A negative encounter with an outgroup member, but not an ingroup member, was found to reduce intentions to engage in contact with the outgroup in the future. Study 3 went on to demonstrate that the effect of negative contact on outgroup avoidance is not limited to the contacted outgroup, but is indirectly associated with reduced intentions to engage with other, secondary outgroups—an effect we refer to as avoidance generalization effect. Negative contact was also associated with lower general contact self-efficacy. Together, findings suggest that negative contact is damaging not just because it increases prejudice but also because it compromises future engagement with diversity

Positive and negative intergroup contact: interaction not asymmetry

This research reports a novel investigation into the comparative effects of positive and negative direct and extended intergroup contact on intergroup orientations. It tested the generality of the positive-negative asymmetry effect among majority (N = 357) and minority (N = 101) group members in Iceland. Little evidence of asymmetry was observed: the beneficial effects of positive contact were mostly as strong as the detrimental effects of negative contact, for both direct and extended contact. However, evidence was found for alternative interaction models in which positive contact buffers the negative effects of negative contact, and negative contact enhances the benefits of positive contact. These interaction effects were found only for direct contact and principally in the majority group, but were also found for the minority group, though more weakly. No interaction was observed for extended contact. It appeared that differential group salience elicited by positive and negative contact could partly contribute to the explanation of the observed effects, at least in the majority sample

Does intergroup contact predict personality? A longitudinal study on the bidirectional relationship between intergroup contact and personality traits

We conducted a longitudinal study to test whether, in addition to being predicted by personality, intergroup contact is longitudinally associated with personality traits. Participants were 388 majority (Italian) and 109 minority (immigrant) first-year highschool students. Results revealed a bidirectional relationship between contact and personality: quality of contact was longitudinally associated with greater agreeableness and openness to experience, while agreeableness and openness to experience were longitudinal predictors of contact quality. An unexpected negative longitudinal association also emerged between quantity of contact and agreeableness. These effects were not moderated by group of belonging (majority vs. minority). Our findings highlight the importance of integrating research on intergroup contact with research on personality

Secondary transfer effect among children: The role of social dominance orientation and outgroup attitudes

Research has provided evidence that the effects of intergroup contact on prejudice reduction are not limited to the outgroup one has contact with (primary outgroup). Rather, they extend to secondary outgroups uninvolved in the contact situation (secondary transfer effect; Pettigrew, 2009, Social Psychology, 40, 55). We aimed to provide the first empirical evidence for the emergence of the secondary transfer effect among children. Majority (Italian) and minority (with an immigrant background) elementary schoolchildren were administered a questionnaire including measures of contact with the primary outgroup (minority children for the majority, majority children for the minority), prejudice towards the primary outgroup and towards a dissimilar secondary outgroup (disabled children), and social dominance orientation. Results revealed that among the majority group, contact with the primary outgroup had indirect associations with reduced prejudice towards the secondary outgroup. Specifically, we found evidence for sequential mediation by social dominance orientation and prejudice towards the primary outgroup. No secondary transfer effects emerged among minority group members. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings, arguing for the importance of identifying the core processes driving the secondary transfer effec

Mechanisms of fate and construction of a life force in the short stories of Theodor Storm and Guy de Maupassant

La nouvelle étant un récit bref, elle est à même de représenter le tragique de l'existence : elle attrape sur le vif tous les événements de la vie et les présente dans une économie restreinte. Theodor Storm et Guy de Maupassant ne manquent pas à cette règle et proposent des récits marqués par l'empire de la fatalité. Celle-ci est la manifestation du destin et/ ou du hasard qui transparaissent à travers la description de paysages réalistes et à travers la mise en avant d'objets clé qui entraînent avec eux la décrépitude des personnages. La technique narrative est également au service de la mise en scène de ce déterminisme, ainsi, l'un et l'autre auteur se permettent d'enchâsser les histoires, de revenir en arrière dans la narration pour mieux faire peser le poids du destin et/ ou du hasard afin de souligner que chacun fonctionne comme un mécanisme à ressort se déroulant tragiquement. Pourtant, même si tout laisse supposer le contraire, ces nouvelles ne sont pas qu'imprégnées de pessimisme. En effet, de cette fatalité empreinte de destin et/ ou de hasard se dégage un élan vital caractéristique de la pensée philosophique et sociale du XIXe siècle. Le destin et/ ou le hasard est en fait l'expression aveugle d'une volonté qui détermine le choix des personnages. Aussi ces nouvelles mettent-elles l'accent sur l'illusion du libre arbitre des personnages qui pensent pouvoir se déterminer eux-mêmes. De là, l'élan créatif issu de l'écriture permet une suspension de ce déterminisme. Ainsi, ce sont ces mécanismes de la fatalité qui sont démontés dans ce travail afin de repérer cet élan vital, salvateur et libérateur propre à la conception philosophique et littéraire du XIXe siècle.A short story is a brief narrative and therefore can represent the tragic of existence : it catches on the spot all the events of life and presents them in a restricted economy. Theodor Storm and Guy de Maupassant obey the rule and offer narratives marked by fatality, which is the demonstration of fate and/ or chance shown through the description of realistic landscapes and through the emphasis of key objects which pull with them the decline of the characters. The narrative technique also serves the fabrication of this determinism. So, both authors allow themselves to intersperse stories, to go back into the narration, so that the weigh of fate and/ or chance is heavier and works as a spring mechanism taking place tragically. Nevertheless, even if everything suggests the opposite, these short stories are not so pessimistic. Indeed, a life force typical of the philosophical and social thinking of the 19th century arises from this fatality marked with fate and/ or chance. Fate and/ or chance is in fact the blind expression of a will which determines the choice of characters. So these short stories emphasize the illusion of characters' free will who think they can decide of their life. From there, the creative impulse stemming from the writing allows a interruption of this determinism. So, it is those mechanisms of fate that are defused in this work to observe this saving and liberatoring life force, inherent to the philosophic and literary concept of the XIXth century

The secondary transfer effect of contact

This thesis aims to investigate the secondary transfer effect of contact, a phenomenon whereby contact with one outgroup leads to improved attitudes towards other, non-contacted outgroups. While evidence mounts for the existence of secondary transfer effects, its underlying mediation processes remain poorly conceptualised and thus, poorly understood. Thus, in this thesis, I aimed to clarify the conditions under and the processes by which the secondary transfer effect works. Chapter 1 introduces intergroup contact theory and traces its development from the contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) to the uncovering of the secondary transfer effect. Based on theory from all aspects of intergroup contact research, Chapter 1 proposes a theoretically reformulated approach to understanding the deprovincialization hypothesis by way of (1) diversity beliefs, (2) the development of a multicultural outlook on intergroup relations, and (3) a more nuanced understanding of when ingroup identity is likely to relate ethnocentrically to outgroup attitudes. Point three more specifically looks at the role of social dominance orientation as a moderator of the relationship between ingroup identification and outgroup attitude. Chapter 1 also provides an extension to the attitude generalization hypothesis by considering the role that similarity gradients play. Chapter 2 discusses methodological considerations important to the analysis strategy used throughout the thesis. Six empirical investigations across three contexts—England (Studies 1 and 2), Northern Ireland (Studies 3 and 4) and South Africa (Studies 5 and 6) set out to test the secondary transfer effect and the hypotheses offered in Chapter 1. Across three cross-sectional studies (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 4), a three-wave longitudinal study (Study 5) and an experimental study (Study 6), I was able to show the following: (a) that attitude generalization is a robust mediator of the secondary transfer effect (Studies 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5); (b) similarity gradients qualify the attitude generalization process such that attitudes generalize more strongly between outgroups that are perceived to be similar (Studies 3, 4, and 5); (c) that diversity beliefs (Study 2) and multiculturalism (Study 4), as alternative interpretations of the deprovincialization effect, mediate the secondary transfer effect; (d) social dominance orientation moderates the relationship between ingroup identification and outgroup attitude (Study 3); (e) that the deprovincialization and attitude generalization hypotheses are not independent, but rather interrelated processes of the secondary transfer effect (Studies 2, 3, and 4); (f) that experimentally manipulated forms of extended contact can lead to the secondary transfer effect because group categories and membership are made salient during the extended contact experience (Study 6); and (g) that it is contact that leads to wider attitude generalization rather than less prejudiced people seeking contact from a wider pool of social groups (Study 5). Furthermore, owing to their three-wave longitudinal (Study 5) and experimental (Study 6) designs, these two studies provide the most convincing evidence of the causal nature—from contact to reduced prejudice—of the secondary transfer effect to date. Taken together, these six studies provide a wealth of critical support for the secondary transfer effect as well as for the reformulated deprovincialization and the extended attitude generalization hypotheses.</p

Note préliminaire sur les traces de charognage affectant les ossements d'ours des cavernes, Ursus spelaeus, de la Balme à Collomb (Entremont-le-Vieux, Savoie) ; en exemple : le cas des fémurs

The Balme à Collomb cave's (Entremont-le-Vieux, Savoy, French) yielded an important quantity of bones (more than 12 000 pieces) belonging to the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus. Some remains only can be attributed to Canis lupus, Vulpes vulpes, Cervus elaphus and Marmota marmota. A taphonomie study of this material was undertaken not long ago and isn't finished. Yet in this article we briefly present the traces of scavenging affecting these cave bear bones and their relative abundance taking the example of a long bone : the femur. The principal traces of scavenging which could be recognized as such are the grooves, the gnawing, the punctures and the pits.La grotte de la Balme à Collomb (Entremont-le-Vieux, Savoie, France) a livré une importante quantité d'ossements (plus de 12 000 éléments) appartenant à l'ours des cavernes, Ursus spelaeus. Seuls, quelques restes sont à rattacher à Canis lupus, à Vulpes vulpes, à Cervus elaphus et à Marmota marmota. Une étude taphonomique de ce matériel a été entreprise mais n'est pas encore achevée. Dans cette note, il s'agit donc de présenter succinctement les différents types de traces de charognage affectant ces ossements d'ours des cavernes et leur abondance relative à travers l'exemple d'un os long : le fémur. Les principaux types de traces de charognage qui ont pu être reconnus comme tels sont : les rainures, le rognage, les punctures et les pits.Lolliot Stéphanie, Philippe Michel. Note préliminaire sur les traces de charognage affectant les ossements d'ours des cavernes, Ursus spelaeus, de la Balme à Collomb (Entremont-le-Vieux, Savoie) ; en exemple : le cas des fémurs. In: Cahiers scientifiques du Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Lyon. Hors-série, tome 2, 2004. Actes du 9e symposium international sur l'ours des cavernes