French Participants Research Articles

Age-Related Changes in Search Strategies in a Cancellation Task from Childhood to Adolescence

ABSTRACT Children are limited in visual search accuracy and this ability increases from childhood to adolescence. Developmental limitations in visual search could be related to children’s difficulties in efficiently planning and executing their search, often assessed with cancellation tasks. However, few studies have examined age-related changes in visual search strategies. In the present study, 135 French participants between the ages of 7 to 16 years performed a complex cancellation task. Results showed that the participants improved not only in visual search accuracy and speed with age, but they also organized better their visual search as they got older. Moreover, this improvement seemed linear from age 7 to age 16, suggesting that visual search strategies still improve during adolescence. This finding may be linked to the maturation of specific cerebral networks and opens new perspectives for future studies to better understand visual search processes.

Forums for Parents of Young Children: Parents’ Online Conversations in Israel and France

This paper compares discussions in online forums on the parenting of young children in France and Israel through a cross-national perspective. We mapped and coded the activity in four major forums on early-age parenting, two in each country, during two months (N= 3,244 posts). Analysis of the posts revealed that, overall, parents in both countries focused more on children than on parenting issues and were mostly interested in their children’s educational settings. French participants discussed cognitive and developmental issues more than Israelis parents, whereas Israeli parents were more concerned with social-emotional development and parenting issues than the French participants. Results are discussed from a cross-national perspective, and practical implications are suggested, relating to a safe and empowering virtual space where parents and professionals assist parents of young children from different cultural backgrounds to adjust to their particular needs, interests and expectations.

Nightmares, interoceptive sensibility and nociception: An exploratory study in a general population

ObjectiveNightmares are dysphoric dreams present in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Physiological activity underlies their emotional reactivity. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the role of interoceptive processes (interoceptive sensibility and nociception) in nightmares in the general population. Method542 French participants were recruited from the general population to complete an online survey. Interoceptive sensibility, nociception, nightmare frequency and nightmare distress were assessed through online scales and questionnaires. Network analysis, regression and mediation analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between these variables. ResultsThe results showed the existence of associations between certain dimensions of interoceptive sensibility, nociception, nightmare frequency and nightmare distress. The regression analysis highlighted the involvement of interoceptive dimensions in predicting the nightmare distress score. Mediation analysis highlighted that nociception was a mediating variable in the relationship between nightmare frequency and nightmare distress. ConclusionThis study provides initial evidence in favour of the involvement of interoceptive processes in the understanding of nightmares. These results offer a new window of understanding the etiology of nightmares but also present the interest to target interoceptive processes in the management of nightmares.

Eye image effect in the context of pedestrian safety: a French questionnaire study.

Human behavior is influenced by the presence of others, which scientists also call 'the audience effect'. The use of social control to produce more cooperative behaviors may positively influence road use and safety. This study uses an online questionnaire to test how eyes images affect the behavior of pedestrians when crossing a road. Different eyes images of men, women and a child with different facial expressions -neutral, friendly and angry- were presented to participants who were asked what they would feel by looking at these images before crossing a signalized road. Participants completed a questionnaire of 20 questions about pedestrian behaviors (PBQ). The questionnaire was received by 1,447 French participants, 610 of whom answered the entire questionnaire. Seventy-one percent of participants were women, and the mean age was 35 ± 14 years. Eye images give individuals the feeling they are being observed at 33%, feared at 5% and surprised at 26%, and thus seem to indicate mixed results about avoiding crossing at the red light. The expressions shown in the eyes are also an important factor: feelings of being observed increased by about 10-15% whilst feelings of being scared or inhibited increased by about 5% as the expression changed from neutral to friendly to angry. No link was found between the results of our questionnaire and those of the Pedestrian Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ). This study shows that the use of eye images could reduce illegal crossings by pedestrians, and is thus of key interest as a practical road safety tool. However, the effect is limited and how to increase this nudge effect needs further consideration.

When cause familiarity leads to positive attitudes toward brands in a cause–brand alliance: a cross-cultural study during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeBuilding on construal level theory and applying the hypothetical distance dimension, this cross-cultural study (individualistic vs collectivistic culture) aims to explore the effects of cause familiarity on individuals' attitudes toward a brand and how cause–brand fit mediates this relationship. Furthermore, this study explores how perceived betrayal moderates the relationship between cause–brand fit and attitude toward a brand.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative research design was adopted. Data collection was performed through snowball sampling of French and Turkish participants (N = 455). The collected data were then analyzed using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.FindingsThe results reveal a significant effect of cause familiarity on attitude toward the brand, wherein one's attitude toward fit in a cause–brand alliance serves as a mediator in this relationship. The results also indicate that perceived betrayal moderates the relationship between cause–brand fit and attitude toward a brand. However, when it comes to facing a global pandemic, culture has no significant effect on consumers' perceptions and attitudes toward cause–brand alliances.Originality/valueThis research investigates the enhancement of attitudes toward a brand through an alliance with a familiar cause and explains this relationship via attitudes toward fit in such an alliance. Moreover, it provides novel insights into perceived betrayal as a variable that can lead to a more pronounced relationship between attitude toward fit and attitude toward a brand.

Factors affecting the adoption of cryptocurrencies for financial transactions

PurposeThis study contributes to examining the factors that drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies for financial transactions in the tourism and hospitality industries. This is crucial to develop tourism and hospitality and stimulate financial inclusion in developing and developed countries.Design/methodology/approachThis research paper employs the SEM model and bootstrapping method on a sample of 417 French participants involved in tourism and hospitality industries to reveal the causal pathway between a set of independent factors and the willingness to adopt cryptocurrencies for financial transactions.FindingsThe empirical findings reveal that ease of use, perceived usefulness, social influence, and financial literacy increase the willingness to use cryptocurrencies. French hotels need to have a strategic orientation, to deal with customers, competitors and changing technological environment. The study also reveals that social influence and financial literacy reduce the level of perceived financial risk and thus, leads to increase the intention to adopt the new type of decentralized currencies.Originality/valueIn contrast to previous studies that focused on the volatility and risk of cryptocurrencies, this research employs a human-centric approach covering different factors that could lead to the adoption of the new type of currency for financial transactions in tourism and hospitality industries.

The Good Old Days and the Scary Future Ones

Abstract: Building on the social psychology literature on collective memory, we tested if national nostalgia fosters collective angst through greater perceived societal anomie among French participants. Consistent with our predictions, a correlational study ( N = 535) and an experimental study ( N = 370) showed that nostalgia for France’s past predicted greater angst regarding its future through increased perceptions that present French society is more anomic than before. These findings suggest that (1) our representations of the national past shapes how we perceive present and future society and (2) national nostalgia, besides acting as a coping mechanism against existential threats as suggested in previous work, might also feed these threats by fostering perceptions of an anomic present and a frightening future.

Attitudes and beliefs of French consumers towards innovative food products that mix dairy and plant-based components

Reducing consumption of animal-based protein in favor of plant-based protein in Western diets could be a way to mitigate the pressure of our diet on the environment. However, consumers may find it challenging to re-balance their diet. In particular, milk substitution seems difficult to some consumers, for nutritional and sensory reasons. New products that mix dairy- and plant-based components could be an opportunity to gradually familiarize consumers with plant-based products characteristics. In the present study, attitudes and expectations of French participants toward such dairy and plant-based mixed products were studied through the implementation of online Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) questionnaires using images of fictional mixed products. Participants responded to a single-item food choice questionnaire (SI-FCQ) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Three profiles were found according to their criteria of food choice. The attitudes and beliefs of participants toward mixed products depended on both the nature of the plant component of the mixed products, and the profile of participants regarding SI-FCQ answers. Mixed dairy and plant-based products may be considered as more than a combination of both ingredients, and even globally as a new object. This opens new perspectives on eating habit changes.

Beliefs about sleep: links with ruminations, nightmare, and anxiety

ObjectiveDysfunctional cognitions related to sleep play a major role in insomnia but also in nightmares. Moreover, they are closely related to anxiety. To our knowledge, no study has probed the impact of non-constructive ruminations on these dimensions in their harmful interplay with sleep. The aim of this study is to provide new insights into the processes underlying the dysfunctional cognitions-insomnia relationship.MethodFour hundred twenty nine French participants completed an anonymous online survey using Qualtrics® software. For the assessment of variables, we used the Mini Cambridge-Exeter Repetitive Thought Scale, the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Sleep Condition Indicator. The frequency of nightmares was assessed subjectively via an item. Participants were divided into two groups according to their score on the insomnia assessment: good sleepers and poor sleepers.ResultAnxiety was found to be a common mediator of the relationship between dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes toward sleep and insomnia between good (20.8%) and poor sleepers (24.6%). However, for poor sleepers, nightmare frequency (15.2%) and non-constructive ruminations (16.6%) emerged as mediators of this relationship.ConclusionThe results gathered through this study bring interesting perspectives regarding the theoretical and etiological conceptualization of insomnia. We showed a positive association between dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes towards sleep and non-constructive ruminations in their contributory role to insomnia.

ABO blood types and SARS-CoV-2 infection assessed using seroprevalence data in a large population-based sample: the SAPRIS-SERO multi-cohort study

ABO blood type has been reported as a potential factor influencing SARS-CoV-2 infection, but so far mostly in studies that involved small samples, selected population and/or used PCR test results. In contrast our study aimed to assess the association between ABO blood types and SARS-CoV-2 infection using seroprevalence data (independent of whether or not individuals had symptoms or sought for testing) in a large population-based sample. Our study included 67,340 French participants to the SAPRIS-SERO multi-cohort project. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were detected using ELISA (targeting the proteins spike (S) and nucleocapsid (NP)) and seroneutralisation (SN) tests on dried blood spots collected in May–November 2020. Non-O individuals (and especially types A and AB) were more likely to bear anti SARS-CoV-2 antibodies (ELISA-S, 2964 positive cases: ORnon-Ovs.O = 1.09[1.01–1.17], ORAvs.O = 1.08[1.00–1.17]; ELISA-S/ELISA-NP/SN, 678 triple positive cases: ORnon-Ovs.O = 1.19 [1.02–1.39], ORAvs.O = 1.19[1.01–1.41], ORABvs.O = 1.43[1.01–2.03]). Hence, our results provided additional insights into the dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 infection, highlighting a higher susceptibility of infection for individuals of blood types A and AB and a lesser risk for blood type O.

Information delivered by a chatbot has a positive impact on COVID-19 vaccines attitudes and intentions.

The Coronavirus disease; COVID-19 vaccines will not end the pandemic if they stay in freezers. In many countries, such as France, COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy is high. It is crucial that governments make it as easy as possible for people who want to be vaccinated to do so, but also that they devise communication strategies to address the concerns of vaccine hesitant individuals. We introduce and test on 701 French participants a novel messaging strategy: A chatbot that answers people's questions about COVID-19 vaccines. We find that interacting with this chatbot for a few minutes significantly increases people's intentions to get vaccinated (ß = 0.12) and has a positive impact on their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination (ß = 0.23). Our results suggest that a properly scripted and regularly updated chatbot could offer a powerful resource to help fight hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

More useful to you: Believing that others find the same objects more useful

People routinely evaluate how useful objects are to themselves and to others. Seventeen experiments (with U.S. American and French participants, total N = 8016) show that people believe others find the same objects more useful than they themselves do. Using both mediation analysis and causal chain designs, the authors show that overestimating usefulness to others is caused by a self-serving bias in perceived materialism and by the belief that others need the same object more. The effect is reduced if participants own the object in question, for target others who are well-known, and for objects considered less indicative of materialistic values. The effect also drives overestimation of others' willingness-to-pay. The authors find evidence against alternative explanations involving perceived sophistication or specifically thinking of object users. The authors discuss theoretical implications for self-other biases and materialism, as well as practical implications for proxy decision-making, gift-giving, and negotiation.

Cross-cultural study of kinship premium and social discounting of generosity.

Social discounting predicts that one's concern for others decreases with increasing social distance. Cultural dimensions may influence this social behavior. Here, we used a dictator game, in which the participants and real members of their social entourage profited from the partition of the endowments determined by the participant, to compare how Chinese and French university students shared endowments with people at different social distances. We tested two hypotheses based on the concepts of kinship premium and cultural collectivism. Stronger ties between close family members were expected among Chinese. This may predict a larger "kinship premium," i.e., increased generosity to family members at close social distances, in Chinese relative to French participants. Similarly, because collectivism is thought to be stronger in Asian than western societies, greater generosity at larger social distances might also be expected among Chinese participants. The results showed that Chinese were more generous than French at close social distances but discounted more as social distance increased. This difference between French and Chinese was confined to family members and no significant difference in generosity was observed between French and Chinese for non-family members at any social distance. Our findings evidence a stronger kinship premium among Chinese than French students, and no significant effect of cultural collectivism.

Cognitive Profiles of French Individuals with Williams Syndrome and Down Syndrome: What’s Up? What’s Next?

The aim of our study was to characterize the face recognition skills, theory of mind skills, and language skills of a single group of French participants with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to a group of participants with Down syndrome (DS). Twelve French-speaking participants with WS and 12 French-speaking participants with DS took part in this study. The two groups were matched for nonverbal and verbal levels. We used the Benton Facial Recognition test to study the groups’ ability to recognize faces, the Theory of Mind Test Revised, and the morphosyntactic production and morphosyntactic comprehension subtests from the French test battery “Instruments pour le Screening et l’Approfondissement de l’examen des DYsfonctionnements du Langage chez l’Enfant (ISADYLE)”. The results of the participants with WS were systematically better than those of the participants with DS. Nevertheless, although they outperformed the participants with DS, the participants with WS were far from performing at ceiling level. Most importantly, we found no significant correlations between performances on the various standardized tests for either group of participants. The evaluation of cognitive skills in a single group of French participants with WS confirmed that they present a complex profile. Because these competences are strongly influenced by social and cultural aspects, it is therefore essential to develop studies for specific languages, including when one is examining a rare developmental disability.

The Delegation-Level Choice of an Automated Vehicle: An Analysis by Structural Equation Modeling

Automated vehicles (AVs) are a form of emerging technology that includes several possible automation levels. These levels are so different that it is possible to speak of different automated subsystems in which the individual switches between an active operator and a passive user. The first aim of this study was to predict the delegation level of acceptance that people are willing to hand to an AV. The second aim was to test the specific influence of trust on each delegation level of an AV. We then constructed a predictive model based on the theory of planned behavior by adding some specific modifications. For instance, we included the measured variable delegation-level acceptance, replaced specific attitudes with trust, and added technophilia (enthusiasm about new technologies) to reinforce the predictive power. The results, based on responses provided by 2,708 French participants to a two-part questionnaire, showed a parsimonious and well-established predictive model of delegation-level acceptance and highlighted that trust is significantly different according to delegation level.

Is prior knowledge essential? Additional training opportunities restore sleep-associated memory benefits under conditions of low prior knowledge.

Sleep-mediated memory benefits are modulated by several factors. Prior knowledge is assumed critical for consolidation during sleep, despite inconclusive empirical findings. Additionally, prior knowledge facilitates encoding, leading to differences in memory strength already before the retention filled with sleep. We tested whether increasing memory strength of unfamiliar learning material pre-sleep can restore sleep-mediated memory benefits in cases of low prior knowledge. One-hundred and fifty-four healthy young students learned translations of Dutch words. One group was German-speaking, the other French-speaking. As French is less similar to Dutch than German, we expected a lower prior knowledge in French participants. We manipulated memory strength during pre-sleep encoding by varying the number of learning possibilities (one and two rounds for German-speaking, two and three rounds for French-speaking participants). When using the same learning paradigm for both groups (two rounds), lower prior knowledge modulated sleep-mediated memory benefits: French-speaking participants showed no advantage in memory after nighttime sleep compared with daytime wakefulness. In contrast, German-speaking participants showed robust sleep-mediated memory benefits. However, increasing memory strength before sleep restored sleep-mediated memory benefits in French subjects to a level of German-speaking participants. Conversely, reducing the training in German-speaking participants reduced sleep-mediated memory benefits. Our results show that prior knowledge and memory strength strongly modulate sleep-associated memory benefits. However, in cases of low prior knowledge, sleep-mediated memory benefits can be successfully restored by additional training. While prior knowledge might modulate encoding and consolidation processes more generally, its effect on sleep-specific processes of memory retention might be less important than previously assumed.

Understanding youths’ concerns about climate change: a binational qualitative study of ecological burden and resilience

BackgroundClimate change has been shown to have long-term effects on mental health, yet, to date, there have been few studies on how children and adolescents experience and respond to ecological changes and how and why they engage in climate action. We explored empirically young people’s views about climate change and how distinct cultural contexts influence individual climate action.MethodsWe invited children and adolescents (ages 7 to 18) and their caregivers from the general population in the United States and France to participate in semi-structured focus groups. We recruited 74 participants, 39 in the U.S. (33 children and adolescents, 6 parents) and 35 in France (32 children and adolescents, 3 parents). Focus groups with participants centered on their emotions, beliefs, and actions around climate change. We analyzed the focus group data and developed themes via grounded theory and symbolic interactionist approaches.ResultsMany participants described experiencing anger, hopelessness, guilt, and sadness in response to climate change, and a smaller number endorsed significant anxiety symptoms; many described frustration about needing to fix the mistakes of earlier generations. Younger participants frequently misunderstood the purpose of their parents’ eco-conscious behaviors unless they were provided with age-appropriate explanations. Participants described a spectrum of experiences when trying to discuss climate change with peers and family, ranging from genuine support to apathy to hostility. Between the two samples, U.S. participants experienced more conflict with adults about climate change than French participants, but French participants described a greater lack of political agency compared to U.S. participants. Participants in both samples expressed a relatively balanced view of climate action, recognizing the significance of individual actions while acknowledging the limits of their power in the face of systemic issues. Some found hope and empowerment through climate action and building communities around it.ConclusionDiscussing with children and adolescents what adults are doing to mitigate climate change can provide reassurance, model prosocial behaviors, and inspire their own investment in climate action. Adults seeking to support the psychological well-being of young people should both support their concerns and actions around climate change and create avenues for young people to meaningfully engage in climate action.

Intercultural Experiences Comparison between France and Singapore—Introducing the Proximal Zone of Intercultural Development (PZID)

This article presents results from a comparative analysis of intercultural experiences between French and Singaporean participants. France and Singapore were chosen as research fields because of their singularities in terms of cultural difference management: a universalist cultural model for France and a pluralist cultural model for Singapore. Based on an online questionnaire addressing the intercultural experiences, a quantitative analysis allows us to identify differences between the French and Singaporean participants. A particularity of the Singaporean context leads us to think about the proximal zone of intercultural development concept (PZID) that we will develop in this article.

Mozambican adults’ perspectives on human rights: Comparison with French and Venezuelan adults

The present study assessed conceptualisations of human rights in Mozambique, a developing country with a history of Portuguese colonisation. Participants were 102 Mozambicans adults (female = 48%; mean age = 29.25 years; SD = 9.04 years). They responded to four kinds of information from realistic human rights scenarios: (i) the level of social protection citizens in the country enjoyed; (ii) the level of freedom of expression they enjoyed; (iii) the objective level of equality between citizens in the country; and (iv) the extent to which private life was respected. The Mozambican participants endorsed the indivisibility model of human rights, considering that only regimes that guarantee the full experience of all four kinds of basic rights can be considered as fully respectful of human rights. This perspective is similar of the one sustained by French and Venezuelan participants in a previous study. These findings suggest that the widespread “belle policy” (economic and social rights should take precedence over political and civil rights) defended by many sub-Saharan African policymakers must be challenged in favour of policies that promote the simultaneous fulfilment of all the citizens’ human rights.

Accounting for Individual Trajectories in L2 Learning: A One‑Year Pilot Case Study with Adult Professionals

This paper seeks to explore the links between individual trajectories followed over time by adult professionals and the way these trajectories shape their L2 learning routes. Embracing the theoretical framework of Individual Differences and complex dynamic systems, we sought to study these links via an appraisal of the contribution of non‑classroom integrated telecollaboration as an opportunity for L2 learning which embraces the inherent variability of individual learning pathways. A case study approach was adopted given the size of our sample (10 adult learners from Cnam Paris; 10 students from Cardiff University), the qualitative nature of the collected data, and the reliability of individual longitudinal case studies in determining factors structuring L2 learning. A three-phase protocol (introductory tutorial, telecollaboration sessions, final feedback) was designed for this one‑year project. Data gathered from the semi-structured interviews of the two most successful French participants were analyzed and cross-checked with data from reflective logbooks and feedback reports focusing on factors shaping L2 development over time and perceptions of learning benefits. Our findings further confirm the intrinsic relationship between individual trajectories and language learning, thus calling for the necessity of learner-centeredness in the design process of (time‑limited) institutional L2 courses particularly for adult professionals.