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Introduction
Publications
Publications (111)
In this article, we first recall on the one hand that the interpretation of lithic pieces in terms of skill level requires the use of regularities, i.e. recurrent phenomena under certain conditions, and on the other hand that only interdisciplinary studies, combining specifically archaeology, psychology and movement sciences, can lead to the unders...
A novel, interdisciplinary exploration of the relative contributions of rigidity and flexibility in the adoption, maintenance, and evolution of technical traditions.
Techniques can either be used in rigid, stereotypical ways or in flexibly adaptive ways, or in some combination of the two. The Evolution of Techniques, edited by Mathieu Charbonneau,...
Human evolution is defined by a multifaceted interplay of biological and cultural factors, which comprise the focus of a diverse spectrum of scientific fields. This edited volume aims to establish interdisciplinary links through a series of nine studies that critically discuss the current methods, hypotheses frameworks, and future perspectives for...
Twenty years ago, the Journal du CNRS published a short note entitled “La perle de la pluridisciplinarité” (“The pearl of multidisciplinarity”), a Word Game about an experiment carried out with carnelian bead craftsmen working in the town of Khambhat (India, Gujarat state) by a small group of five researchers from different institutions and various...
Tool use has often been viewed as based on schemas or representations involving different areas of the brain. A considerable amount of research regarding the question of tool-use abilities has focused upon cognitive and neural correlates. Adaptive behavior such as tool use entails continuous interaction between the brain (or the nervous system), th...
Comment rendre compte du processus d’apprentissage d’un geste technique ou,
plus généralement, de la maîtrise d’une technique ? Peut-on parallèlement faire
des hypothèses sur les mécanismes sur lesquels s’appuie ce processus ? Par
ailleurs, quelles sont les conditions extérieures à l’apprenant qui vont rendre
possible ou tout du moins faciliter ce...
D'une manière plus générale, existe-il un consensus culturel sur ce qu'est un être
intelligent ? Acquière-t-on la capacité d'un comportement intelligent ? La définition
qu'en donne différents groupes culturels est-elle compatible avec les tests utilisés
dans les pays occidentaux pour évaluer l'intelligence humaine ? Autant de questions
sur lesquell...
Bril, B., Dasen, P. R., Sabatier, C., & Krewer, B. (Eds.). (1999). Propos sur l'enfant et l'adolescent : quels enfants pour quelles cultures ? Paris: L'Harmattan.
En 1934, Marcel Mauss exposait devant la Société Française de Psychologie (SFP), sa réflexion sur les techniques du corps, invitant son auditoire à les appréhender de manière pluridisciplinaire (déjà !) à partir d’un triple point de vue « physio-psycho-sociologique ». Une décennie plus tard, André Leroi-Gourhan (1943) dans un admirable travail de c...
Oficial french curricula grant an educational freedom to teachers providing full lexibility of choosing teaching methods. The present survey conducted in two areas (Grenoble and Lyon) aimed at assessing the teaching of cursive-writing in late kindergarten and irst year of elementary school in France. It was based on a questionnaire surveying the di...
In this article, we question how new technological traits can penetrate cohesive social groups and spread. Based on ethnographic narratives and following studies in sociology, the hypothesis is that not only weak ties are important for linking otherwise unconnected groups and introducing new techniques but also that expertise is required. In order...
What any traveler can definitely notice is the incredible diversity of everyday skills due to the cultural diversity of tools, raw materials, physical environments, or local postural habits that set up the conditions for performing tasks. Do cultural environments influence motor skills? Are there "motor styles" common to members of a given cultural...
In this paper, we address the question of the conditions for persistence of technological boundaries. We use field studies to test the predictions generated by a theoretical model in analytical sociology and examine the micro-processes at stake in the non-diffusion of techniques: to which extent techniques contributes to a sharp disagreement betwee...
Due to cultural exchange between the West and Asia since the beginning of the 20th century, the Korean dance has integrated quite a few aspects of classical dance while transforming its figures. The transformation itself is what we are interested in. We focus on a central figure in classical ballet, la pirouette en dehors, which in the Korean dance...
L'artisan est bien souvent admiré pour sa production, mais peut-être surtout pour son tour de main. Sa gestualité fascine pour sa "justesse" et son "efficacité" qui lui confèrera aussi une dimension esthétique, tant que l'on est tenté parfois d'y voir une forme de "surfait", de théâtralisation qui transforme l'action efficace en un acte signifiant...
Doing the ethnography of hand-skills : a methodological proposal for a current challenge. The ethnographic description of human manual skills raises specific and challenging methodological issues. The study of embodied knowledge, the knowledge expressed by body and hands actions, requires being able systematically and effectively to describe the ac...
Various authors have suggested similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzees. This has been particularly evident in studies of nutcracking which is considered to be the most complex skill exhibited by wild apes, and has also been interpreted as a precursor of more complex stoneflaking abilities. It has been argued that there is no...
This study examines the process of learning to walk from a functional perspective. To move forward, one must generate and control propulsive forces. To achieve this, it is necessary to create and tune a distance between the centre of mass (CoM) and the centre of pressure (CoP) along the antero-posterior axis. We hypothesize that learning to walk co...
Tool use can be considered as a privileged entry to understanding the nature of action learning. The aim of our chapter is two fold: examining the process of individual skill learning from a functional point of view, and in the other hand examining how the context (the “field of promoted action”) is organised in such a way to facilitate the learnin...
The earliest direct evidence for tool-use by our ancestors are 2.6 million year old stone tools from Africa. These earliest artifacts show that, already, early hominins had developed the required advanced movement skills and cognitive capacities to manufacture stone tools. Currently, it is not well understood, however, which specific movement skill...
What are the differences between the movements of an expert exhibiting superior performance compared with those of a novice or even an experienced person? Adopting a functional approach to tool use, this study present results from an experimental field study on stone knapping from Indian craftsmen of different levels of skill. The results showed th...
Researchers in cognitive neuroscience have become increasingly interested in how different aspects of tool use are integrated and represented by the brain. Comparatively less attention has been directed toward tool use actions themselves and how effective tool use behaviors are coordinated. In response, we take this opportunity to consider the mech...
Understanding the human aging of postural control and how physical or motor activity improves balance and gait is challenging for both clinicians and researchers. Previous studies have evidenced that physical and sporting activity focusing on cardiovascular and strength conditioning help older adults develop their balance and gait and/or decrease t...
Dexterous behavior exhibits exquisite context sensitivity, implying the efficacy of exploration to detect the task-relevant information. Inspired by the recent finding that fractal scaling of exploratory movements predicts how well the movements sample available perceptual information, we investigate the possibility that dexterity of craftsmen woul...
Stone tool-use and manufacture is seen as an important skill during the evolution of our species and recently there has been increased interest in the understanding of perceptual-motor abilities underlying this skill. This study provides further information with respect to the motor strategies used during stone knapping. Kinematics of the striking...
Objective:
The objective of the present study was to highlight the role of head stabilization and to analyze multisegment head-trunk coordination during gait in children with cerebral palsy (CP).
Material and method:
Postural control was measured and compared in a group of 16 CP subjects and a control group of 16 healthy subjects. The subjects h...
Research has shown that infants begin to walk independently by using one of three whole-body strategies (i.e., stepping, twisting, or falling) 1. The transition to walking was also found to induce a temporary increase in bimanual reaching while seated 2. This research examined the extent to which the observed increase in seated bimanual reaching is...
Tracking for developmental changes is at the heart of developmental psychology. The qualitative features of the variation of the center of mass (CoM) acceleration during a sequence of steps are revealed by first return maps, a tool taken from differential dynamics. The focus is put on the acceleration of the CoM along the antero-posterior and medio...
Various authors have suggested behavioural similarities between tool use in early hominins and chimpanzee nut cracking, where nut cracking might be interpreted as a precursor of more complex stone flaking. In this paper, we bring together and review two separate strands of research on chimpanzee and human tool use and cognitive abilities. Firstly,...
A century ago, N. A. Bernstein performed a biomechanical analysis of chiseling. Today, the studies he performed are mainly forgotten in Russia and very little known abroad, as they have never been translated into foreign languages. These studies, however, not only opened new horizons in biomechanics but offered new challenges for studies of the phy...
As society ages and the frequency of falls increases, counteracting gait and posture decline is a challenging issue for countries of the developed world. Previous studies have shown that exercise and hazard management help to improve balance and/or decrease the risks for falling in normal aging. Motor activity based on motor-skill learning, particu...
Vision contributes fundamentally to the control of the standing posture. The illusion of self motion falsely perceived (vection) increases postural sway while standing. In this paper we examine the effect of vection on both standing and deep squatting with the hypothesis that the squatting posture should not be disturbed by the conflict of sensory...
Learning to walk is viewed here from a functional point of view. To move forward it is necessary to produce propulsive forces that necessitate creating and tuning a distance between the center of mass (CoM) and the center of pressure (CoP) along the anteroposterior axis .We hypothesize that learning to walk consists in learning to produce these pro...
In human manual activities, the two hands are often engaged in differentiated roles while cooperating with each other to produce an integrated outcome. Using recurrence methods, we studied the asymmetric bimanual action involved in stone bead production by craftsmen of different skill levels, and examined (a) how the control of unilateral movement...
Nut-cracking may be described as the action of choosing a stone with one hand, positioning the nut on an anvil with the other
hand, and hitting the nut with a ballistic movement. A functional description of the nut-cracking action will consider the
mechanical properties that must be satisfied to succeed in the task at hand, that is, the mechanical...
This paper presents the results of a new approach to investigation of the relationships between stone knapping kinematics (covering motion, speed and kinetic energy of the percussive act), knapping expertise and characteristics of resulting debitage. It introduces wholly new methods of lithic analysis, leading to empirical recognition of knapping s...
The aim of the current study was to provide detailed data on the skill at controlling conchoidal fracture, data that may be used to help infer the processes responsible for generating the technological diversity observed in Early Stone Age sites. We conducted an experiment with modern stone knappers with different skill levels and systematically an...
Tool use can be considered a particularly useful model to understand the nature of functional actions. In 3 experiments, tool-use actions typified by stone knapping were investigated. Participants had to detach stone flakes from a flint core through a conchoidal fracture. Successful flake detachment requires controlling various functional parameter...
Résumé : Par leur richesse méthodologique et la diversité des activités qu'ils abordent, les travaux de E.J. Marey auraient pu être le point de départ de recherches conjuguant les exigences de contrôle expérimental reconnues aux sciences de la vie et la pertinence à l'égard des situations de terrain qu'offrent les sciences humaines. Cependant l'étu...
Tool use in apes has been considered a landmark in cognition. However, while most studies concentrate on mental operations, there are very few studies of apes' cognition as expressed in manual skills. This paper proposes theoretical and methodological considerations on movement analysis as a way of assessing primate cognition. We argue that a privi...
We analyzed the relationship between goal achievement and execution variability in craftsmen who have acquired the highest "ultimate" skills of stone knapping. The goal of a knapping movement is defined as the vector of the final velocity of a hammer, crucial for detaching a flake and, consequently, for the shape of the final product. The execution...
This study aims to determine whether the arm coordination observed at different stroke rates (SR, number of arm stroke cycles per minute) differs according to the level of expertise. Thirteen non-expert (G(NE)) and 14 expert (G(E)) swimmers swam crawl five 25-m lengths at five stroke rate values: 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55 cycles.min(-1). Results show...
Nut cracking in chimpanzees is sometimes compared with stone knapping and presented
as the starting point of human stone technology. Drawing such a parallel between these
two technical skills implies that most constituents of the skills involved in stone knapping
are present in nut cracking or vice versa. Is it so simple? The parallel between these...
Ce texte est un rapport de fin de recherche issu de l'ACI cognitique.
Actes du workshop de Pont-à-Mousson, 21-24 novembre 2001
Cambay is one of the very rare places in the world where the stone-knapping technique still
responds to the principles of the conchoidal fracture. The technique practised is an indirect
percussion by counter-blow and is used for making stone beads. This technique is a recent
one in the history of techniques. It can provide, however, an appropriate...
« Pourquoi s'intéresser à un geste technique ? » Cette question a été largement débattue par les grands anthropologues français, en particulier, Mauss et Leroi-Gourhan. Néanmoins, bientôt un siècle plus tard, les études anthropologiques sur le geste n'ont donné lieu qu'à très peu de travaux. Il faut se tourner vers les sciences du mouvement ou l'er...
« Pourquoi s'intéresser à un geste technique ? » Cette question a été largement débattue par les grands anthropologues français, en particulier, Mauss et Leroi-Gourhan. Néanmoins, bientôt un siècle plus tard, les études anthropologiques sur le geste n'ont donné lieu qu'à très peu de travaux. Il faut se tourner vers les sciences du mouvement ou l'er...
Learning and context.
Generally speaking we may consider that action refers to a goal and to the means necessary to reach the goal. It is then necessary to distinguish the intentional aspect of action -the goal -and the functional aspect of it -the means used to reach the goal. Consequently a skill may be defined as the capacity of a person to reac...
This study examines the development of head and trunk movements in toddlers as they begin to walk independently. The data are from a longitudinal study of 7 infants observed from the onset of walking over a period of 46-80 weeks. Head and trunk rotations were measured in the frontal and sagittal planes together with global gait parameters (progress...
Les journalistes, les enseignants, les psychologues, les parents tiennent des discours sur l'enfant et sur son développement, témoins d'une réalité qui varie selon les lieux et les époques. Ces discours varient aussi en fonction de leurs buts : selon que l’on parle de son enfant ou de l'enfant en général, selon que l'interlocuteur est un parent, un...
The aim of this work was to propose developmental indexes relative to the control of balance and gravity forces, using force-plate data, for children in their first 5 years of independent walking. The first part of this paper is devoted to the definition of an index to quantify postural capacity during walking. Based on the assumption that the vert...
After a brief presentation of the development of free walking interpreted as learning dynamical equilibrium, the problem of sensory integration in the process of walking development is discussed. A critical review of the role of vision in the development of posturo-locomotor task is presented, along with recent test results on the development of th...
This study analyses the anticipatory postural adjustments during the gait initiation process in children aged 2.5, 4, 6 and 8 years. In adults, anticipation during gait initiation includes a shift in the centre of foot pressure (CP) both backwards and towards the stepping foot. Backward displacement and the duration of the anticipation phase covary...
Si l'on en croit les échelles de développement moteur couramment utilisées, l'enfant acquiert la posture assise stable vers 7–8 mois, la marche vers 12–14 mois. Il commence à babiller vers 3–5 mois, dit ses premiers mots vers 12–14 mois, commence à maîtriser une pince fine vers 8–9 mois, acquiert la propreté vers 24 mois… Cependant, si lors d'un vo...
This study measured the rate of acquisition of head and trunk postural control during the two early developmental periods of independent walking, as defined by global gait parameters. Gait parameters were observed longitudinally in four children. The maximum angular deviations of the trunk and head oscillations were computed in the frontal and sagi...
Skills involved in the knapping of Harappan long carnelian beads are studied in order to assess their value as well as knappers’ socio‐economic status. Skills are studied by reference to present‐day bead knapping in Khambhat, India. They are examined from the way actors are able to handle the complexity of the task and achieve it. They are analyzed...
This study analyses the incidence of anatomical (mass, height, inertia) and mechanical (gravity) parameters on the duration of gait initiation, from a standing posture, in children. Twenty-one children, aged 4, 6 and 8 years, participated in the study. Experimental and theoretical values of the duration of gait initiation are compared. The experime...
L'acquisition de la marche est souvent présentée comme l'étape ultime d'un développement posturo-moteur céphalocaudal s'appuyant sur un accroissement du contrôle du tonus musculaire et de la coordination des mouvements, déterminant la séquence bien connue d'étapes de développement — maintien de la tête, position assise, position debout pour ne cite...
Infant early experience depends on the organisation of his/her environment. This environment may be termed 'Developmental niche'. We present here a comparative study of posturo-motor experiences of French and African (Bambara) babies within their first year of life. This study is based on an analysis of what mothers think about the development of t...
In this paper we suggest that early gait characteristics may be interpreted as stemming from a lack of postural control. In a review of the literature on early gait development we focus on the parameters which have been considered as indexing postural or balance control. In a second part of the paper we present a longitudinal study of early indepen...
This article describes developmental changes in gait velocity and relates these changes to gait parameters that index postural stability (step width and lateral acceleration) and two components of velocity (cadence and step length). Five children were observed longitudinally over a 2-year period after onset of independent walking. Their range of sp...
Gait control was studied in eight children (age: 3-48 months) with cerebral palsy. A force-measuring platform was used to assess accelerations at the center of gravity and ground contact sites. As compared with normal children, progression speed was similar or higher; the duration of the stance phase was shorter on the hemiplegic side and the downw...
question and discuss the possible significance of some temporal characteristics of gait as they are observed at a peripheral level (issued from the displacement of the foot pressure and the acceleration of the center of gravity) during the first two years of independent walking / focus will be on the absolute and relative invariances of gait moveme...
Our results clearly suggest that during the 18 months following onset of independent walking, toddlers undergo a two-stage development process. Firstly, up to the sixth month of independent walking, there is a striking evolution of all the gait parameters analysed here. The correlation between velocity and length of steps is highly significant. Tho...
Cultures differ according to the type of competences adults encourage in infants, the age at which these competences should be acquired and the level of expertise that should be reached (Hess & al., 1980). Consequently, three main criteria are involved in the shaping of the infant’s environment: the age at which some particular behavior are expecte...