Nadine Bade, Philippe Schlenker & Emmanuel Chemla (2024). Word learning tasks as a window into the triggering problem for presuppositions. Nat Lang Semantics. doi:10.1007/s11050-024-09224-5

Résumé :
In this paper, we show that native speakers spontaneously divide the complex meaning of a new word into a presuppositional component and an assertive component. These results argue for the existence of a productive triggering algorithm for presuppositions, one that is not based on alternative lexical items nor on contextual salience. On a methodological level, the proposed learning paradigm can be used to test further theories concerned with the interaction of lexical properties and conceptual biases.

Victor Chung, Rocco Mennella, Elisabeth Pacherie and Julie Grezes (2024). Social bonding through shared experiences: the role of emotional intensity.R. Soc. Open Sci.11240048

Résumé : Sharing emotions with other individuals is a widespread phenomenon. Previous research proposed that experiencing intense and similar emotions with other individuals reinforces social bonds. However, several aspects of this phenomenon remain unclear, notably whether social bonding requires the convergence and synchronization of emotions in the group, and whether these effects generalize across positively valenced and negatively valenced emotional contexts. To address these questions, we measured subjective emotional experiences, physiological activity (cardiac, respiratory, electrodermal) and social attitudes in dyads of unacquainted individuals who watched videos in the presence of each other. We manipulated the emotional content of the videos and the type of shared attention between participants, to test for the contribution of interpersonal influence. The results revealed that intense emotions indexed by physiological arousal were associated with the emergence of reciprocal prosocial attitudes within dyads, and that this effect depended on joint attention. We did not observe the convergence and synchronization of emotions within dyads, which suggests that experiencing similar emotions was not necessary for social bonding. We discuss implications of this study for research on collective effervescence and the social consequences of shared experiences.

Charles Findling & Valentin Wyart (2024). Computation noise promotes zero-shot adaptation to uncertainty during decision-making in artificial neural networks. Science Advances, 10(44).doi:10.1126/sciadv.adl3931

Résmé :
Random noise in information processing systems is widely seen as detrimental to function. But despite the large trial-to-trial variability of neural activity, humans show a remarkable adaptability to conditions with uncertainty during goal-directed behavior. The origin of this cognitive ability, constitutive of general intelligence, remains elusive. Here, we show that moderate levels of computation noise in artificial neural networks promote zero-shot generalization for decision-making under uncertainty. Unlike networks featuring noise-free computations, but like human participants tested on similar decision problems (ranging from probabilistic reasoning to reversal learning), noisy networks exhibit behavioral hallmarks of optimal inference in uncertain conditions entirely unseen during training. Computation noise enables this cognitive ability jointly through “structural” regularization of network weights during training and “functional” regularization by shaping the stochastic dynamics of network activity after training. Together, these findings indicate that human cognition may ride on neural variability to support adaptive decisions under uncertainty without extensive experience or engineered sophistication.

Neha Joshi, Wing Yiu Ng, Karan Thakkar et al. (2024). Temporal coherence shapes cortical responses to speech mixtures in a ferret cocktail party. Commun Biol 7, 1392.doi:10.1038/s42003-024-07096-3

Résumé :
Perceptual segregation of complex sounds such as speech and music simultaneously emanating from multiple sources is a remarkable ability that is common in humans and other animals alike. Unlike animal physiological experiments with simplified sounds or human investigations with spatially broad imaging techniques, this study combines insights from animal single-unit recordings with segregation of speech-like sound mixtures. Ferrets are trained to attend to a female voice and detect a target word, both in presence and absence of a concurrent equally salient male voice. Recordings are made in primary and secondary auditory cortical fields, and in frontal cortex. During task performance, representation of the female words becomes enhanced relative to the male in all, but especially in higher cortical regions. Analysis of the temporal and spectral response characteristics during task performance reveals how speech segregation gradually emerges in the auditory cortex. A computational model evaluated on the same voice mixtures replicates and extends these results to different attentional targets (attention to female or male voices). These findings underscore the role of the principle of temporal coherence whereby attention to a target voice binds together all neural responses coherently modulated with the target, thus ultimately forming and extracting a common auditory stream.

Elizabeth J. Krumrei-Mancuso, Philip Pärnamets, Mandi Astola, Aleksandra Cichocka, Jeroen de Ridder, Hugo Mercier, Marco Meyer, Cailin O’Connor, Tenelle Porter, Alessandra Tanesini, Mark Alfano, Jay J. Van Bavel (2024). Toward an understanding of collective intellectual humility. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Volume 0, Issue 0.

Résumé :
The study of intellectual humility (IH), which is gaining increasing interest among cognitive scientists, has been dominated by a focus on individuals. We propose that IH operates at the collective level as the tendency of a collective’s members to attend to each other’s intellectual limitations and the limitations of their collective cognitive efforts. Given people’s propensity to better recognize others’ limitations than their own, IH may be more readily achievable in collectives than individuals. We describe the socio-cognitive dynamics that can interfere with collective IH and offer the solution of building intellectually humbling environments that create a culture of IH that can outlast the given membership of a collective. We conclude with promising research directions.

Dina Lelic, Erin Picou, Valeriy Shafiro & Christian Lorenzi (2024). Sounds of Nature and Hearing Loss: A Call to Action. Ear & Hearing.doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000001601

Résumé :
The ability to monitor surrounding natural sounds and scenes is important for performing many activities in daily life and for overall well-being. Yet, unlike speech, perception of natural sounds and scenes is relatively understudied in relation to hearing loss, despite the documented restorative health effects. We present data from first-time hearing aid users describing "rediscovered" natural sounds they could now perceive with clarity. These data suggest that hearing loss not only diminishes recognition of natural sounds, but also limits people's awareness of the richness of their environment, thus limiting their connection to it. Little is presently known about the extent hearing aids can restore the perception of abundance, clarity, or intensity of natural sounds. Our call to action outlines specific steps to improve the experience of natural sounds and scenes for people with hearing loss-an overlooked aspect of their quality of life.

Shihab Shamma, Jose Contreras-Vidal, Jonathan Fritz et al. (2024). The social and neural bases of creative movement: workshop overview. BMC Neurosci, 25, 68

Résumé :
This editorial provides a background and overview of the interdisciplinary workshop on "The Social and Neural Bases of Creative Movement," bringing together dancers, choreographers, musicians, artists, kinesiologists and neuroscientists to share perspectives and develop a common language to define and explore the relationship between dance and the brain.

Isidora Stojanovic, Julia Zakkou (2024). Disagreement about taste. The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Disagreement. doi:10.4324/9781003154471-10

Résumé :
In matters of taste, it is often thought that there can be no disputes. And yet, people do seem to disagree over whether coffee is better with cream or with sugar, and often (even if not always) such disagreements look perfectly rational. But how can it make sense to disagree over something on which each of us can legitimately hold a proper, personal point of view?
Disagreements about matters of taste are the prime candidate for a special kind of disagreement: faultless disagreement. The aim of this chapter is twofold. First, we provide an overview of the different recent approaches to the phenomenon of faultless disagreement as it arises in the realm of taste. Second, we delve deeper into the language of taste and discuss several aspects of the way people talk about matters of personal taste that shed light on why such matters can give rise to disagreements.

Michael E. W. Varnum, Nicolas Baumard, Mohammad Atari and Kurt Gray (2024). Large Language Models based on historical text could offer informative tools for behavioral science. PNAS, 121 (42) e2407639121.doi:10.1073/pnas.24076391

Haiqin Zhang, Emmanuel Chemla, Calire Pelofi, Laurent Bonnasse-Gahot (2024). Melodic contour supersedes short-term statistical learning in expressive accentuation. PLoS ONE 19(11): e0312883. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312883

Résumé :
Sensory systems are permanently bombarded with complex stimuli. Cognitive processing of such complex stimuli may be facilitated by accentuation of important elements. In the case of music listening, alteration of some surface features –such as volume and duration– may facilitate the cognitive processing of otherwise high-level information, such as melody and harmony. Hence, musical accents are often aligned with intrinsically salient elements in the stimuli, such as highly unexpected notes. We developed a novel listening paradigm based on an artificial Markov-chain melodic grammar to probe the hypothesis that listeners prefer structurally salient events to be consistent with salient surface properties such as musical accents. We manipulated two types of structural saliency: one driven by Gestalt principles (a note at the peak of a melodic contour) and one driven by statistical learning (a note with high surprisal, or information content [IC], as defined by the artificial melodic grammar). Results suggest that for all listeners, the aesthetic preferences in terms of surface properties are well predicted by Gestalt principles of melodic shape. In contrast, despite demonstrating good knowledge of novel statistical properties of the melodies, participants did not demonstrate a preference for accentuation of high-IC notes. This work is a first step in elucidating the interplay between intrinsic, Gestalt-like and acquired, statistical properties of melodies in the development of expressive musical properties, with a focus on the appreciation of dynamic accents (i.e. a transient increase in volume). Our results shed light on the implementation of domain-general and domain-specific principles of information processing during music listening

AGENDA

Prochainement au DEC

Retrouvez les événements organisés par le DEC dans l'agenda du département.

Les séminaires et les conférences sont accessibles sur la chaîne youtube du département, le site des Savoirs de l'ENS, la chaîne youtube de l'école.

Prochainement à l'ENS

https://www.ens.psl.eu

S'abonner
Se désabonner