Cognitive control refers to a set of higher cognitive functions that regulate behavior to ensure goal attainment. Recent studies have revealed that the efficiency of cognitive control can predict individual differences in many domains of cognitive development such as early language ability or theory of mind but also in academic achievement such as mathematics and literacy. Optimizing control is hence critical for efficient learning but, also very likely, for learning to learn. Whereas many studies focus on control training in children with mixed results, DOPCONTROL takes one step back and decides to scrutinize the interplay of specific control processes involved in cognitive control. This will be achieved at a level of precision that is not currently available in developmental research, by using advanced measures and analyses transferred from research in adults. This interdisciplinary project aims to characterize the development of control between the ages of 5 and 14 years, and in young adults, in both typical and atypical populations. More specifically, it aims at qualifying the fine-grained qualitative changes in control processes across childhood that support well known quantitative increases in control efficiency. Indeed, cognitive control undergoes drastic changes during the preschool years but still follows a protracted development throughout childhood and adolescence. Using a set of three conflict tasks, we will assess the developmental patterns of the different control processes, their interaction, and their degree of generality. Going beyond mean accuracy rates and RT analyses, finer-grained measures (RT distributions, oculometry, electromyography, and EEG) in combination with measures of structural white matter connectivity (Diffusion Tensor Imagery) and intrinsic functional connectivity (resting state fMRI) will offer a precise picture of the time course of cognitive control processes, from stimulus perception to response execution. First, a large-scale behavioral study involving 200 typically developing participants (7 age groups from 5 to 14 and young adults) will highlight the development trajectory of control efficacy and provide a first insight on qualitative changes across ages. Based on this first study, we will then select 80 participants in age groups around critical transition points to better characterize qualitative changes. The time courses of stimulus processing and of response effection will be characterized by oculometry and electromyography, respectively. The same markers will be used on children known for difficulties in inhibitory control (ADHD and Tourette syndrome children). The neural substrates of cognitive control will be examined in 60 typically developing participants. These participants will undergo an MRI experiment including diffusion tensor MRI and resting state fMRI that will be correlated with performance and neurophysiological markers of the above described processes. Capitalizing on the previous results, we will contrast different experimental task conditions to test which environment best supports optimal control depending on its level of development; this will involve another sample of more than 100 children of different ages. Finally, two educational workshops will be organized: volunteer teachers will be guided through the design of learning situations that optimize control. The goal here will be to make teachers aware of the key role of this optimization as it lays down the groundwork for developing “learning to learn” skills that are transferable to any learning situation.

While numerous studies have been conducted to understand how humans efficiently search for a single visual target among multiple distractors in the visual environment, studies involving search, or foraging, for multiple targets are far fewer. However, this situation is much more prevalent in everyday life, and gaining insights into the mechanisms of human visual foraging could yield important new findings for basic research in cognitive psychology of attention. Additionally, this could have significant impact for applied research, particularly in the field of education. Critically, understanding the development of visual foraging abilities during childhood is a major concern, especially in educational context where pupils require guidance when foraging in the classroom for relevant information to complete academic tasks. This research project is led by Dr. Jérôme Tagu and aims to 1/ identify the factors leading to efficient visual foraging, 2/ examine how these factors develop during childhood, and 3/ apply this knowledge to the field of education. It involves experiments conducted in laboratory, ecologically-valid and real-world conditions, with adult and school-age child participants. The examination of oculomotor behaviour and individual differences will help identifying efficient foraging strategies and will provide detailed information about the mechanisms of target selection during visual foraging. Altogether, in three work packages, the MULTIFOR project will provide 1/ new and important insights into the mechanisms of human visual foraging and their development during childhood, and 2/ critical practical information about foraging abilities of pupils during learning.

The creation of a research network entitled "Groupe international de recherche Enfants, Familles, Vulnérabilité" (GIREFV) aims to develop exchanges and collaborations between different European and non-European research units on issues relating to child protection in general, the follow-up of children and families in vulnerable situations in particular. This was made concrete following an international symposium held in Besançon in June 2017 (Education, families, children and vulnerabilities) Its ambition is to develop knowledge on the vulnerability of children and families in the field of child protection, to change views (representations) and practices with regard to vulnerable families through the promotion of participatory approaches and their modelling. Families, children, young people on the one hand, and professionals on the other hand can be involved in research projects to feed global knowledge through their knowledge, working in a reflective framework. We observe the emergence in the field of other approaches, other professional practices that go from an expert conception (the professional knows, as the researcher knows) to a participative logic (joint development of the project for the child or, in research, participation of actors in the analysis of processes). Among its objectives, the network wishes to present a project within the framework of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA) actions and more precisely within the framework of the Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) actions, a project focused on the mobility of researchers and non-academic (professional) partners. The different research units concerned have had in common to work for many years on child protection issues such as attention to child development, parenting support, assessment of situations of neglect and abuse, care of children at home and outside the family home, professional practices, and the future of children and families. They are interested in the social and psychological processes at stake for families, professionals and institutions. They aim on understanding current developments in terms of both practices and representations. They place their work within the framework of field research that brings together professionals in order to strengthen the link between research and practice. The network, through a RISE project, wishes to organize exchanges through the organization of the mobility of researchers and professionals as part of a joint project on the place of children and families in child protection systems. The opening up of research to other models, the evolution of professional practices towards a greater attention to the expectations of children and families and their resources provide perspectives: renewal of knowledge, renewal of the understanding of the processes at work in the emergence of family and educational difficulties and in social accompaniment. This is an important issue in favor of children, their health, their future, for the definition of public policies and professional training policy.

Magicians often trick spectators’ mind by relying on cognitive limitations. Recently, research in psychology has studied the processes at play in magic. The goal of these studies is not only to gain new insight on known cognitive processes but also to uncover those yet unexplored. Although the range of psychological biases associated with magic is vast, most of them rely on a certain exploitation of participants’ prior expectation in order to manipulate their low-level (perceptual) and high-level (problem solving) reasoning processes. The aim of the present project is to investigate the mechanisms at play in three cognitive biases commonly manipulated by magicians and relying on participants’ prior expectations: the mind-fixing effect, motion extrapolation and attribute substitution. Studying the cognitive processes manipulated by magicians should lead to major advances in the fields of low-level and high-level reasoning. The aim of this first work package of our project is to better understand the mechanisms at play in the mind-fixing effect by studying the influence of two main factors closely linked to participants’ expectations: the credibility of the source and the level of insight linked with the activation of a false/wrong solution. The aim of the second work package is to understand the specificity of the motion extrapolation involved in a famous perceptual illusion: the Vanishing Ball Illusion (VBI). Although a considerable number of studies have investigated how individual and contextual factors (e.g., participants’ expectations, participant’s age, allocated attention…) affect participants’ motion extrapolation in the widely studied representational momentum (RM), none have yet investigated the specific influence of these factors on the VBI. However, the VBI seems to rely on mechanisms that are independent from those involved in RM tasks. The aim of the third work package is to better understand the mechanisms at play in perceptual attribute substitution error. More specifically, we aim to evaluate its degree of cognitive impenetrability, to better understand the generic aspect of this perceptual attribute substitution and to investigate the role of individual differences such as ambiguity tolerance. Improving our understanding of these low-level and high-level reasoning biases, and notably the influence of prior expectations, could be beneficial in many areas where intuitive errors can have major consequences, such as road safety or aeronautics. Moreover, this could shed theoretical new lights on these yet poorly studied biases.

Context Mental health practices are evolving towards the paradigm of recovery, focused on the values and needs of persons living with mental health difficulties, in a partnership approach. Peer support is now recognized as a relevant tool to develop recovery-oriented practices in mental health by national and international incentives. Despite its expansion in practice, peer-support is not yet considered as an evidence-based practice (Evans et al., 2021). In France, data are even rarer, limiting the comprehension of how peer support may be optimally developed. Yet, numerous questions are emerging from the community of peer-support stakeholders: beyond the efficacy of peer-support, the question of its power to transform mental health practices towards recovery, as well as facilitators or barriers for its implementation, or its value for mental health training remains to be further studied. Aim The aim of the MRC (Mixed Research Community) is to develop, structure and lead a collaborative network including researchers and various stakeholders to: - Raise research questions about the development of mental health peer-support in France, based on the concerns of various stakeholders, - Produce reliable data that can be used directly by actors on the ground and institutional decision makers, - Spread knowledge widely across the community to make it available to people interested in the field, - Build a resource and documentation base on peer-support. Method The MRC follows principles of i) participatory research, ii) evidence-based practice, iii) multidisciplinary research. The MRC includes two research teams (Laboratoire de Psychologie, University of Bordeaux, and the WHO Collaborating Centre, Lille), and representatives of various stakeholders: peer-helpers (in practice or in training), users (ClubHouse Bordeaux), families (UNAFAM), mental health professionals (CH Jonzac), associations and policy makers (ARS Nouvelle Aquitaine). The MRC will be developed in two levels: 1) a plenary MRC, which will supervise 2) several working groups focused of themes co-build among the plenary MRC. The MRC will use several collaborative tools, and will be jointly coordinated by a researcher and a peer-helper. Perspectives Even if the scope of certain results is at an international scientific level, the goal of the MRC is primarily to provide useful information for the development of peer-support in the specificities of the French cultural context. Information will be largely disseminated through synthesis documents or videos, or any other forms accessible to a wide audience.