Mémoire adaptative et effet animé : notre mémoire fonctionne-t'elle encore comme à l'âge de pierre ?

According to the adaptive memory view, human memory was shaped in the distant past to remember fitness relevant information (e.g., finding food, protecting ourselves from predators). An increasing number of studies favor this view, by showing that information related to to survival is memorized better than information not related to survival (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Recently, a new type of findings further supports this functional approach of memory: animacy effects, that is to say the observation that animates (living things able of independent movements; e.g., baby, grasshopper) are remembered better than inanimates (non-living things e.g., teakettle, rope). One account of this memory effect has been that animates are of greater importance for survival and/or reproduction. In effect, knowing how to interact with animates was crucial for the survival of our ancestors, and thus, for the evolution of our species. In this work, our main purposes were to identify some proximate mechanisms underpinning animacy effects in episodic memory as well as the contexts in which these effects are observed. Taken overall, our findings accord with the claim that animacy effects in memory are: (1) linked to recollection (conscious recall of contextual details); (2) independent of cognitive resources; (3) partially underpinned by mental imagery and (4) to some extent modulated by encoding context.La conception de la mémoire adaptative défend l’idée selon laquelle la mémoire humaine a évolué, pendant toute l’histoire de l’Homme, de sorte à résoudre des problèmes adaptatifs spécifiques (e.g., trouver de la nourriture, se protéger des prédateurs). De nombreuses recherches soutiennent cette conception en montrant, par exemple, que nous mémorisons mieux les informations quand nous les traitons relativement à notre propre survie (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Récemment, un nouvel effet mnésique est venu renforcer cette approche fonctionnelle de la mémoire : l’effet animé. Il correspond à une meilleure mémorisation des entités animées (entités vivantes, capables de se déplacer de façon autonome, e.g., bébé, sauterelle) comparativement aux entités inanimées (entités non vivantes, e.g., bouilloire, corde). Cet effet serait dû à la plus grande importance des entités animées que de celle inanimées pour la survie et/ou la reproduction. Traiter ces entités de façon privilégiée a été primordiale pour la survie de nos ancêtres, et en conséquence, pour l’évolution de l’espèce humaine. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous nous sommes focalisés sur l'effet animé en mémoire épisodique afin de mieux comprendre les mécanismes proximaux qui le sous-tendent et ses conditions d’apparition. Ainsi nos principaux résultats ont-ils permis d’établir que l’effet animé en mémoire est : (1) lié au processus de remémoration (rappel conscient de détails contextuels) ; (2) indépendant des ressources cognitives disponibles ; (3) en partie sous tendu par de l’imagerie mentale et (4) modérément modulé par le contexte d’encodage

Adaptative memory and animacy effect

La conception de la mémoire adaptative défend l’idée selon laquelle la mémoire humaine a évolué, pendant toute l’histoire de l’Homme, de sorte à résoudre des problèmes adaptatifs spécifiques (e.g., trouver de la nourriture, se protéger des prédateurs). De nombreuses recherches soutiennent cette conception en montrant, par exemple, que nous mémorisons mieux les informations quand nous les traitons relativement à notre propre survie (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Récemment, un nouvel effet mnésique est venu renforcer cette approche fonctionnelle de la mémoire : l’effet animé. Il correspond à une meilleure mémorisation des entités animées (entités vivantes, capables de se déplacer de façon autonome, e.g., bébé, sauterelle) comparativement aux entités inanimées (entités non vivantes, e.g., bouilloire, corde). Cet effet serait dû à la plus grande importance des entités animées que de celle inanimées pour la survie et/ou la reproduction. Traiter ces entités de façon privilégiée a été primordiale pour la survie de nos ancêtres, et en conséquence, pour l’évolution de l’espèce humaine. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous nous sommes focalisés sur l'effet animé en mémoire épisodique afin de mieux comprendre les mécanismes proximaux qui le sous-tendent et ses conditions d’apparition. Ainsi nos principaux résultats ont-ils permis d’établir que l’effet animé en mémoire est : (1) lié au processus de remémoration (rappel conscient de détails contextuels) ; (2) indépendant des ressources cognitives disponibles ; (3) en partie sous tendu par de l’imagerie mentale et (4) modérément modulé par le contexte d’encodage.According to the adaptive memory view, human memory was shaped in the distant past to remember fitness relevant information (e.g., finding food, protecting ourselves from predators). An increasing number of studies favor this view, by showing that information related to to survival is memorized better than information not related to survival (Nairne, Thompson, & Pandeirada, 2007). Recently, a new type of findings further supports this functional approach of memory: animacy effects, that is to say the observation that animates (living things able of independent movements; e.g., baby, grasshopper) are remembered better than inanimates (non-living things e.g., teakettle, rope). One account of this memory effect has been that animates are of greater importance for survival and/or reproduction. In effect, knowing how to interact with animates was crucial for the survival of our ancestors, and thus, for the evolution of our species. In this work, our main purposes were to identify some proximate mechanisms underpinning animacy effects in episodic memory as well as the contexts in which these effects are observed. Taken overall, our findings accord with the claim that animacy effects in memory are: (1) linked to recollection (conscious recall of contextual details); (2) independent of cognitive resources; (3) partially underpinned by mental imagery and (4) to some extent modulated by encoding context

Creation and validation of the first french scale for measuring bore-out in the workplace

The aim of this study was to create and validate a scale of bore-out at work: a measure for bore-out that could be used in French-speaking workplaces. Bore-out is a recently defined phenomenon, and few studies have been conducted to evaluate it- particularly in a French context. We investigated the dimensional structure of bore-out in a sample of French-speaking workers by distributing an online survey. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated four dimensions with high internal consistency. Through a measurement invariance analysis, a factorial structure was confirmed for men and women as well as for Gen-X and Gen-Y workers. Criterion validity was verified in regard to the relation between the scores on the WBOS dimensions and those obtained for self-esteem, depression, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived helplessness. The overall results of the analysis performed in this study show satisfactory psychometric qualities for the Work Bore-Out Scale (WBOS)

Mental imagery as a proximate explanation of the better remembering of living things over nonliving things

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Animacy effects in episodic memory : evidence for a stone-age memory

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Do animacy effects persist in memory for context?

International audienceThe adaptive view of human memory (Nairne, 2010) assumes that animates (e.g., rabbit) are remembered better than inanimates (e.g., glass) because animates are ultimately more important for fitness than inanimates. Previous studies provided evidence for this view by showing that animates were recalled or recognized better than inanimates (e.g., Nairne, VanArsdall, Pandeirada, Cogdill, & LeBreton, 2013), but they did not assess memory for contextual details (e.g., where animates vs. inanimates occurred). In this study, we tested recollection of spatial information (Study 1) and temporal information (Study 2) associated with animate versus inanimate words. The findings showed that the two types of contextual information were remembered better when they were related to animates than to inanimates. These findings provide further evidence for an ultimate explanation of animacy effects

“Survival Processing of the Selfish Gene?”: Adaptive Memory and Inclusive Fitness

International audienceThe survival processing advantage in memory is the finding that items encoded in survival scenarios are remembered better than words encoded in survival-irrelevant scenarios or in deep encoding situations (e.g., pleasantness). Whether this mnemonic advantage, which is generally found in scenarios involving personal survival, can also be observed in scenarios involving the survival of other people, and in particular, genetically related others, has received little attention. In the present study, we asked nulliparous women to imagine being stranded in the grasslands of a foreign land without any basic survival items and to consider either their personal survival, the survival of their biological child, or the survival of an orphan. Compared to a pleasantness (control) condition, a survival processing advantage was found for the child survival group, which did not differ reliably from personal survival. Both the child and the personal survival conditions yielded better recall than the orphan condition, which did not reliably differ from the pleasantness condition. These findings provide further evidence for the view that memory has been sculpted by evolutionary processes such as inclusive fitness

“It is alive!” Evidence for animacy effects in semantic categorization and lexical decision

International audienceAnimacy is one of the basic semantic features of word meaning and influences perceptual and episodic memory processes. However, evidence that this variable also influences lexicosemantic processing is mixed. As animacy is a semantic variable thought to have evolutionary roots, we first examined its influence in a semantic categorization task that did not make the animacy dimension salient, namely, concrete-abstract categorization. Animates were categorized faster (and more accurately) than inanimates. We then assessed the influence of animacy in two lexical decision experiments. In Experiment 2, we mostly used legal nonwords, whereas in Experiment 3, we varied the context of the nonwords across participants in such a way that the discriminability between words and nonwords was either high or low. Animates yielded faster decision times than inanimates when legal nonwords were used (Experiment 2) and when the discriminability between words and nonwords was low (i.e., “difficult nonwords” in Experiment 3), but the difference between the two types of words was not reliable when discriminability was high (e.g., illegal strings of letters, i.e., “easy nonwords” in Experiment 3). The findings suggest that animacy is a core meaning-related dimension that influences a large number of processes involved in perception, episodic memory, and semantic memory

Are animacy effects in episodic memory independent of encoding instructions?

International audienceThe adaptive view of human memory [Nairne, J. S. 2010. Adaptive memory: Evolutionary constraints on remembering. In B. H. Ross (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 53 pp. 1-32). Burlington: Academic Press; Nairne, J. S., & Pandeirada, J. N. S. 2010a. Adaptive memory: Ancestral priorities and the mnemonic value of survival processing. Cognitive Psychology, 61, 1-22, 2010b; Memory functions. In The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science, (Vol 3, 4th ed. pp. 977-979). Hokoben, NJ: John Wiley & Sons] assumes that animates (e.g., baby, rabbit presented as words or pictures) are better remembered than inanimates (e.g., bottle, mountain) because animates are more important for fitness than inanimates. In four studies, we investigated whether the animacy effect in episodic memory (i.e., the better remembering of animates over inanimates) is independent of encoding instructions. Using both a factorial (Studies 1 and 3) and a multiple regression approach (Study 2), three studies tested whether certain contexts drive people to attend to inanimate more than to animate things (or the reverse), and therefore lead to differential animacy effects. The findings showed that animacy effects on recall performance were observed in the grassland-survival scenario used by Nairne, Thompson, and Pandeirada (2007. Adaptive memory: Survival processing enhances retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 33, 263-273) (Studies 1-3), when words were rated for their pleasantness (Study 2), and in explicit learning (Study 3). In the non-survival scenario of moving to a foreign land (Studies 1-2), animacy effects on recall rates were not reliable in Study 1, but were significant in Study 2, whereas these effects were reliable in the non-survival scenario of planning a trip as a tour guide (Study 3). A final (control) study (Study 4) was conducted to test specifically whether animacy effects are related to the more organised nature of animates than inanimates. Overall, the findings suggest that animacy effects are robust since they do not vary across different sets of encoding instructions (e.g., encoding for survival, preparing a trip and pleasantness)

Animacy effects in episodic memory: do imagery processes really play a role?

International audienceAnimates are remembered better than inanimates because the former are ultimately more important for fitness than the latter. What, however, are the proximate mechanisms underpinning this effect? We focused on imagery processes as one proximate explanation. We tested whether animacy effects are related to the vividness of mental images (Study 1), or to the dynamic/motoric nature of mental images corresponding to animate words (Study 2). The findings showed that: (1) Animates are not estimated to be more vivid than inanimates; (2) The potentially more dynamic nature of the representations of animates does not seem to be a factor making animates more memorable than inanimates. We compared (Study 3) a condition in which participants had to categorise animate and inanimate words with a condition in which they had to form mental images from them. The animacy effect was significant after categorising but not after forming mental imagery. In Study 4, we compared the recall rates of animates and inanimates after these words had been encoded with or without a concurrent visual-spatial memory load. Again, animates were better remembered than inanimates. Taken overall, the findings do not fit well with the hypothesis that imagery processes support animacy effects in memory