BackgroundSocial cognition and competence are a key part of daily interactions and essential for satisfying relationships and well-being. Pediatric neurological and psychological conditions can affect social cognition and require assessment and remediation of social skills. To adequately approximate the complex and dynamic nature of real-world social interactions, innovative tools are needed. The aim of this study was to document the performance of adolescents on two versions of a serious video game presenting realistic, everyday, socio-moral conflicts, and to explore whether their (...) performance is associated with empathy or sense of presence, factors known to influence social cognition.MethodsParticipants first completed a pre-test measure of socio-moral reasoning based on three dilemmas from a previously validated computer task. Then, they either played an evaluative version or an adaptive version of a video game presenting nine social situations in which they made socio-moral decisions and provided justifications. In the evaluative version, participants’ audio justifications were recorded verbatim and coded manually to obtain a socio-moral reasoning maturity score. In the adaptive version, tailored feedback and social reinforcements were provided based on participant responses. An automatic coding algorithm developed using artificial intelligence was used to determine socio-moral maturity level in real-time and to provide a basis for the feedback and reinforcements in the game. All participants then completed a three-dilemma post-test assessment.ResultsThose who played the adaptive version showed improved SMR across the pre-test, in-game and post-test moral maturity scores, F = 9.81, pHF < 0.001, ϵ2 = 0.21, but those who played the Evaluative version did not. Socio-moral reasoning scores from both versions combined did not correlate with empathy or sense of presence during the game, though results neared significance. The study findings support preliminary validation of the game as a promising method for assessing and remediating social skills during adolescence. (shrink)

Mind wandering refers to a state when attention shifts from the task at hand or current situation toward thoughts, feelings, and imaginations. This state is often accompanied by a decline in mood, and patients suffering from major depression exhibit more perseverative MW. Hence, although the directionality of the relationship between mood and MW is still under investigation, it may be useful to explore possible avenues to reduce MW. In an earlier pilot study, we investigated MW during auditory beat stimulation in (...) healthy subjects using thought-probes during a sustained attention to response task. We found evidence for reduced MW during monaural 5 Hz beats compared to silence, sine tones, and binaural 5 Hz beats. Moreover, the data tentatively suggested that this reduction was particularly pronounced in subjects with high levels of MW during silence. In the current study, we therefore asked whether MW can be reduced by monaural theta beats in subjects with high trait-levels of MW, as indicated by an online MW questionnaire. Preselected subjects performed a SART task with thought-probes assessing the propensity to mind wander, meta-awareness, and the temporal orientation of MW. Stimulation conditions comprised monaural theta beats, as well as silence, and sine tones as control conditions. Our main hypothesis stating that the propensity to mind wander during monaural theta beats is reduced compared to both control conditions was only partly confirmed. Indeed, MW was significantly diminished during exposure to the theta beats compared to sine tones. However, reduced MW during theta beats versus silence was only observed in a subgroup using stricter inclusion criteria. Considering possible reasons for this outcome, our data suggest that the preselection procedure was suboptimal and that beat effects are modulated by the individual responses to auditory stimulation in general. (shrink)

Dans Marx, démocrate, Manuscrit de 1843, Frank Fischbach montre que " la grandeur d'une pensée ne se mesure pas tant à sa capacité d'anticiper sur ce qui devait la suivre, que bien plutôt à sa capacité de rupture à l'égard de ce qui l'a précédé ". Dans cette perspective, j'ai tenté dans ce travail de recherche d'examiner le rapport de Marx avec Feuerbach. Le résultat auquel je suis arrivée à ce stade est que les moments d'influence et de rupture de (...) Marx avec Feuerbach ne sont pas dissociés mais plutôt entremêlés. Si la plupart des lectures antérieures considèrent Feuerbach comme un simple point de passage dans la formation de Marx, ma thèse est de montrer que ce passage n'est pas soumis à une logique linéaire et unilatérale. Bien plus, Marx n'est pas un "héritier direct" de Feuerbach, mais plutôt un adversaire qui n'a jamais cessé de se chamailler avec lui. Le feuerbachisme de Marx n'exprime donc pas sa fidélité à la conception de Feuerbach telle quelle, mais plutôt sa transformation de l'intérieur. Marx est feuerbachien dans la mesure où il a effectivement tenté d'aller au-delà de Feuerbach. il est en quelque sorte son autre ou du moins il a tenté de l'être dans la mesure où le sceptre de Feuerbach a suivi, selon certaines lectures, Marx jusqu'au Capital. Une thèse que je n'ai pas examinée dans le cadre de ce travail dans le sens où je me suis arrêtée, dans l'examen de ce rapport, au niveau de L'Idéologie allemande où je montre que la critique de l'idéologie, chez Marx, trouve sa condition de possibilité dans la critique de Feuerbach. (shrink)