A general-purpose mechanism of visual feature association in visual word identification and beyond

As writing systems are a relatively novel invention (slightly over 5 kya),1 they could not have influenced the evolution of our species. Instead, reading might recycle evolutionary older mechanisms that originally supported other tasks2,3 and preceded the emergence of written language. Accordingly, it has been shown that baboons and pigeons can be trained to distinguish words from nonwords based on orthographic regularities in letter co-occurrence.4,5 This suggests that part of what is usually considered reading-specific processing could be performed by domain-general visual mechanisms. Here, we tested this hypothesis in humans: if the reading system relies on domain-general visual mechanisms, some of the effects that are often found with orthographic material should also be observable with non-orthographic visual stimuli. We performed three experiments using the same exact design but with visual stimuli that progressively departed from orthographic material. Subjects were passively familiarized with a set of composite visual items and tested in an oddball paradigm for their ability to detect novel stimuli. Participants showed robust sensitivity to the co-occurrence of features (\u201cbigram\u201d coding) with strings of letter-like symbols but also with made-up 3D objects and sinusoidal gratings. This suggests that the processing mechanisms involved in the visual recognition of novel words also support the recognition of other novel visual objects. These mechanisms would allow the visual system to capture statistical regularities in the visual environment.6\u20139 We hope that this work will inspire models of reading that, although addressing its unique aspects, place it within the broader context of vision. Vidal et al. show that an effect usually studied in the context of reading\u2014sensitivity to bigram frequencies\u2014is also found when participants are presented with images of objects and circular sinusoidal gratings. This suggests that some mechanisms implied in the processing of novel words are in fact of general purpose

How do speakers coordinate?:Evidence for prediction in a joint word-replacement task

We investigated whether speakers represent their partners' task in a joint naming paradigm. Two participants took turns in naming pictures; occasionally the (initial) picture was replaced by a different picture (target), signaling that they had to stop naming the initial picture. When the same participant had to name the target picture, he or she completed the name of the initial picture more often than when neither participant had to name the target picture. Crucially, when the other participant had to name the target picture, the first participant also completed the name of the initial picture more often than when neither participant named the target picture. However, the tendency to complete the initial name was weaker when the other participant had to name the target than when the same participant went on to name the target. We argue that speakers predict that their partner is about to respond using some, but not all, of the mechanisms they use when they prepare to speak

Serial position effects in the identification of letters, digits, and symbols

In 6 experiments, the authors investigated the form of serial position functions for identification of letters, digits, and symbols presented in strings. The results replicated findings obtained with the target search paradigm, showing an interaction between the effects of serial position and type of stimulus, with symbols generating a distinct serial position function compared with letters and digits. When the task was 2-alternative forced choice, this interaction was driven almost exclusively by performance at the first position in the string, with letters and digits showing much higher levels of accuracy than symbols at this position. A final-position advantage was reinstated in Experiment 6 by placing the two alternative responses below the target string. The end-position (first and last positions) advantage for letters and digits compared with symbol stimuli was further confirmed with the bar-probe technique (postcued partial report) in Experiments 5 and 6. Overall, the results further support the existence of a specialized mechanism designed to optimize processing of strings of letters and digits by modifying the size and shape of retinotopic character detectors’ receptive fields

Etude de faisabilité d'un projet visant à améliorer le bien-être en entreprise à travers une alimentation équilibrée et variée

A travers ce mémoire, nous avons étudié la faisabilité d'un projet de startup. Plus précisément, il s'agit d'un service via lequel nous livrons, de manière hebdomadaire, des paniers d’encas équilibrés et variés aux entreprises. Parmi ces encas, le personnel y trouvera des fruits frais et secs, des crudités, des produits plaisirs et des boissons. De plus, nous travaillons uniquement avec des produits « Made In Belgium ». Belancious a, en plus, pour mission de conscientiser les travailleurs à une meilleure alimentation via des fiches informatives détaillant les apports nutritionnels et les bienfaits sur le corps des encas. Au fur et à mesure du rapport, nous analysons les différents aspects liés à la création tels que l'opportunité, les aspects stratégiques, communicationnels et financiers. Nous détaillons également l'ensemble des bienfaits d'une bonne alimentation. A la suite de cette étude, notre pouvons assurer que notre projet est viable. La prochaine étape est d'aller le tester sur le marché.Master [120] en Ingénieur de gestion, Université catholique de Louvain, 2017Master [120] en communication, Université catholique de Louvain, 2017Master [120] en sciences de la motricité, orientation éducation physique, Université catholique de Louvain, 201

Crowding affects letters and symbols differently

Five experiments examined crowding effects with letter and symbol stimuli. Experiments 1-3 compared two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) identification accuracy for isolated targets presented left and right of fixation with targets flanked either by two other items of the same category or a single item situated to the right or left of targets. Interference from flankers (crowding) was significantly stronger for symbols than letters and was not influenced by visual field. Single flankers generated performance similar to the isolated targets when the stimuli were letters, but closer to the two-flanker condition when the stimuli were symbols. Experiment 4 provided a further confirmation of this general pattern using a partial-report bar probe procedure. Finally, Experiment 5 measured critical spacing for letters and symbols matched on several measures of visual complexity and found that this was greater for symbols than for letters (at a fixed horizontal eccentricity of +/-3°). The results are taken as support for the proposal that processing of strings of letters involves a specialized system developed to limit the spatial extent of crowding for letters in words