Julien Chanal

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Geneva

This research sought to test whether autonomous and controlled motivations are specific to school subjects or more general to the school context. In two cross-sectional studies, 252 elementary school children (43.7 % male; mean age = 10.7 years, SD = 1.3 years) and 334 junior high school children (49.7 % male, mean age = 14.07 years, SD = 1.01 year...

Objective. Physical education (PE) during school provides an opportunity for children to be physically active. Few empirical studies have investigated developmental trajectories and determinants of objective moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during PE classes. The purpose of this study was to examine the developmental trajectories and d...

The aim of this study was to investigate the level of specificity of the different regulation types described by Self-Determination Theory, and to evaluate its impact on the links with its antecedents and consequences, in an academic context. In line with the school-subject-specificity hypothesis, we postulated that autonomous motivation types (AM...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the indirect effects of cardiorespiratory fitness on scholastic performance through executive functions. More precisely, we examined the contribution of the different domains of executive functions, and whether this relationship was specific to certain school topics. Methods: Children 8-12 years...

The aim of the present study was to examine the implication of the differences in autonomous and controlled motivation specificity in their relationships with student’s grades. The school-subject-specificity hypothesis postulates that the more autonomous the regulation is, the more specific to a school subject it is. 579 junior high school children...

Executive functions (EFs) involve critical top-down cognitive processes underpinning higher-order cognitive abilities, which are fundamental for a variety of life outcomes. Their structure and development during middle childhood remain yet partially understood. This study explores the developmental trajectory of EFs, focusing on inhibition, working...

Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is a theoretical framework that is useful for explaining students' behaviours, motivations, and academic outcomes in educational settings. We highlight the main premises of SDT and clarify how the context-specificity of student motivation can be explained using the Hierarchical Model of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motiva...

Research in children points to aerobic fitness as a source of individual differences in academic achievement. By examining the indirect effects of executive functions (EF) and intelligence on the relationship between aerobic fitness and academic achievement, the present study provides novel insight about the cognitive mechanisms underlying this rel...

The multicomponent nature of executive functions (EF) has long been recognized, pushing for a better understanding of both the commonalities and the diversity between EF components. Despite the advances made, the operationalization of performance in EF tasks remains rather heterogeneous, and the structure of EF as modeled by confirmatory factor ana...

The present study aimed to examine the mediation effect of students’ motivation in the relation between students’ self-concept and achievement, considering the different regulation types described by Self-Determination Theory. The central objective of our study was to determine if autonomous and controlled motivation types in different school-subje...

Research in children points to aerobic fitness as a source of individual differences in academic achievement. By examining the indirect effects of executive functions (EF) and intelligence on the relationship between aerobic fitness and academic achievement, the present study provides novel insight about the cognitive mechanisms underlying this rel...

This research aimed to extend the validation of the factorial structure of the Communal Coping Strategies Inventory for Competitive Team Sports (CCSICTS; Leprince et al., 2019) in its situational form and at the team level. Study 1 tested the factorial structure of a modified version of the CCSICTS with 380 French athletes at the individual and tea...

This experiment investigated how the personal choice of task characteristics influences resource mobilization assessed as effort-related cardiac response during a task of clearly low vs. unclear (but also low) difficulty. We expected that the personal choice of the color of memory task stimuli would justify higher effort during task performance tha...

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries...

This study has two main goals: (a) to compare whether objective and self-reported PA levels, and motivational regulations were similar among European adolescents with different cultural norms, and (b), to analyse whether the associations between those motivational regulations towards objective and self-reported PA levels vary across Spanish and Fre...

The impact of emotion on executive functioning is gaining interest. It has led to the differentiation of “cool” Executive Functioning (EF) processes, such as cognitive flexibility, and “hot” EF processes, such as affective flexibility. But how does affective flexibility, the ability to switch between cognitive and affective information, vary as a f...

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted p...

A partner’s competence should logically favor cooperative learning. However, research in cooperative learning has shown that a partner’s competence may or may not activate a threatening social comparison and yields dual effects: It is beneficial when students work on complementary information while it is detrimental when students work on identical...

Background This study explores the links between measures of motivation based on Self-Determination Theory, and physical activity (PA) indicators assessed with accelerometers during physical education lessons. Methods Questionnaires about motivation and psychological needs on the context of physical education were completed by 319 middle high scho...

Playing action video games (AVG) has been associated with benefits in cognition. Nevertheless, AVG are often violent and concerns exist regarding the affective and social profile of frequent action video game players (AVGPs). This cross-sectional study contrasted individuals who frequently or seldom play AVG on laboratory measures of aggressive and...

Depuis une trentaine d’années, la théorie de l’autodétermination (Self-Determination theory, SDT, Deci & Ryan, 1985) s’est intéressée à démontrer comment la motivation des individus les poussaient à se comporter et se développer dans différentes sphères de leur vie. Aujourd’hui, ce cadre théorique génère un grand nombre de travaux scientifiques dan...

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to observe the developmental trajectories of motivation types among young children from 8 to 12 years using a more comprehensive scale of physical education motivation. We also tested the relations between these trajectories and objective physical activity during this period. Design: Students in grades...

Visual attention is an important condition for consumer decision-making. However, not much is known on individuals' determinants of this visual attention. Using eye tracking, this study investigated how psychological values (i.e., materialism) modulate visual attention to specific sources of information (i.e., product, brand and additional informat...

Why do individuals fail to exercise regularly despite knowledge of the risks associated with physical inactivity? Automatic processes regulating exercise behaviors may partly explain this paradox. Yet, these processes have only been investigated with behavioral paradigms based on reaction times. Here, using electroencephalography, we investigated t...

The present study investigated the extent to which luxury vs. non-luxury brand labels (i.e., extrinsic cues) randomly assigned to items and preferences for these items impact choice, and how this impact may be moderated by materialistic tendencies (i.e., individual characteristics). The main objective was to investigate the neural correlates of abo...

Luxury goods have been shown to help individuals coping with death-related anxiety. However, the extent to which the symbolic value allocated to possessions (i.e., materialism) moderates this effect is still unclear. Here, we investigated the impact of materialism on impulsive approach tendencies toward luxury clothing brands in a context of mortal...

Consumers use extrinsic and intrinsic cues to set preferences and make purchase decisions. However, the extent to which luxury-related extrinsic cues determine consumer preferences and whether the relative weighting of extrinsic vs. intrinsic cues depends on consumers’ values is still unclear. We investigated how luxury vs. non-luxury brands affect...

Drawing on a hierarchical (job and task level) and multidimensional conceptualisation of work motivation (intrinsic, identified, introjected, and external regulations), this study examines relationships between motivational regulations and burnout. Participants were 806 French-Canadian teachers working in public elementary and high schools. Results...

Introduction. A recent study by Cheval et al. (2016) revealed that individual high in homophobia look significantly less long at sexual-related photographs, regardless of their nature (i.e., homosexual or heterosexual). As viewing time is under some conscious control, this result may indicate that individuals high in homophobia may either have a lo...

Introduction. Some models suggest that homophobia can be explained as a denied attraction toward same-sex individuals. While it has been found that homophobic men have same-sex attraction, these results are not consistent. Aim. This study drew on the dual-process models to test the assumption that sexual interest in homosexual cues among men high i...

This study examined (a) the developmental trajectories of athlete burnout perceptions, (b) the gender differences on these trajectories, and (c) the interactions in the developmental trajectories of the three burnout dimensions. A five-wave longitudinal study was conducted with 895 athletes (47.6% female; Mage=15.67). Results of multilevel growth m...

This study is a 3-year follow-up of 746 adolescents on the evolution of perceived conflicting or instrumental relationships between sports, education, and friendship. School-to-sports conflict increases with age, in particular among males, and is maximal among adolescents self-determined toward sports but not toward school. Sports-to-school instrum...

Background: Despite a consensus emerging that affirms that shorter epochs should be used in youth to correctly register physical activity levels in free-living conditions, little is known about its effect on children's physical activity conducted in structured periods of time. This study analyzed the effect that epoch length (1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30...

The aim of this study was to examine whether sex differences in objective moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) depend on the gender-typing of activities taught during physical education (PE) lessons and children’s age, among elementary school children. Three cohorts (grade 5 to grade 7) of Swiss elementary school children (n = 1’099, 51.2%...

Enhancing students' academic engagement is the key element of the educational process; hence, research in this area has focused on understanding the mechanisms that can lead to increased academic engagement. The present study investigated the relation between motivation and grades in physical education (PE) employing a 3-year longitudinal design. T...

Recently, age-related hippocampal (HP) volume loss could be associated with a decrease in general fluid intelligence (gF). In the present study we investigated whether and how extensive musical training modulates human HP volume and gF performance. Previously, some studies demonstrated positive effects of musical training on higher cognitive functi...

Recently, age-related hippocampal (HP) volume loss could be associated with a decrease in general fluid intelligence (gF). In the present study we investigated whether and how extensive musical training modulates human HP volume and gF performance. Previously, some studies demonstrated positive effects of musical training on higher cognitive functi...

Background: Some of the major complications of sickle cell disease (SCD) occur in the brain and apart from overt stroke, patients also present with cognitive impairments. We sought to evaluate the prevalence of cognitive deficits as well as their biological predicting factors in young SCD patients in Cameroon. Methods: The cognitive performances...

Aims: This article aims to validate the schizotypal personality questionnaire in a sample of French speaking adolescents. Because early schizotypal manifestations are predictive of psychosis-proneness, reliable self-report measures are crucial for early detection of vulnerability to schizophrenia during adolescence. Unlike most existing self-repor...

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are video games in which a large number of players interact with one another in a persistent virtual world. MMORPGs can become problematic and result in negative outcomes in daily living (e.g. loss of control on gaming behaviors, compromised social and individual quality of life). The aim of...

Identifier dans quelle mesure un apport de mouvement au niveau de l’école enfantine peut avoir un impact sur la créativité des jeunes enfants.Patients et méthodesQuatre-vingt-six enfants issus de 11 classes enfantines dont la pratique hebdomadaire de mouvement est différente ont participé à l’étude. Les enfants ont porté des accéléromètres (GT1 M)...

There are two approaches to the differential examination of school motivation. The first is to examine motivation towards specific school subjects (between school subject differentiation). The second is to examine school motivation as a multidimensional concept that varies in terms of not only intensity but also quality (within school subject diffe...

Several individual differences affecting four dimensions of self-defining memories (SDMs)--structure, content, affect, and autobiographical reasoning (Blagov & Singer, 2004; McLean & Fournier, 2008; Singer & Salovey, 1993)--have been observed in young adults (principally in North America). In this study we aimed to investigate the relationships bet...

Very few normative data on psychometric tests are available in sub-Saharan African countries, in spite of the obvious needs and potential benefits from psychological and neuropsychological examination in these contexts. The goal of the ongoing overall project is to assess the cognitive functioning of Cameroonian school-aged children suffering from...

Objective: The Internal/External Frame of Reference Model (I/E model; e.g., Marsh, 1986) posits that verbal achievement (Ach) produces a lower mathematics self-concept (SC) and that, conversely, mathematics Ach fosters a lower verbal SC after controlling for prior Ach in each domain. The present study extended this model by adding another school su...

This literature review provides an overview of education studies that have been guided by self-determination theory (SDT). First, the authors examine studies that have assessed motivation based on SDT. Second, the authors detail research that has focussed on the linkages between motivation types and students' behavioural, affective, and cognitive o...

Previous studies in educational settings have examined the relations between students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and relevant outcomes. In most of those studies a global indicator of self-determined motivation as defined by Self-Determination Theory was created to examine the relations between motivation as a global construct, its antecede...

Studies investigating social comparison in the classroom have lead to contradictory results concerning upward comparison effects. Research demonstrates that they can lead either to enhancing student's academic performance without influencing his/her self-concept or to decreasing student's academic self-concept through Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (i...

A large body of research in support of the reciprocal effects model of causal ordering demonstrates that prior academic self-concept predicts subsequent academic achievement beyond what can be explained in terms of prior achievement. Here we evaluate the generalizability of this support for the reciprocal effects model to a physical activity contex...

Previous studies in both educational and sport settings have examined the relationship between teachers' and coaches' expectations and behaviors towards students and athletes. The purpose of the present study was to extend this line of research by examining the effects of teachers' expectations about students' motivation on the frequency of control...

This study investigated the contribution of the reflected appraisal process to the ontogeny of children's self-perceptions of physical competence. Emanating from symbolic interactionist thought, reflected appraisals refer to individuals' perceptions of others' evaluations of their abilities. The influence of parents' appraisals of their child's com...

This thesis investigated the construction of the Self-Concept (SC) in situations of teaching Physical Education (PE). The objective of this dissertation was to highlight various antecedents of SC but also to consider the role played by SC in its own formation and evolution. Indeed, Self-Verification Theory (Swann, 1990) insists on the active role o...

Le rôle des attentes du superviseur (e.g., enseignant d'EPS, entraîneur) sur les comportements qu'il manifeste à l'égard des supervisés (e.g., élèves, athlètes), est un thème qui a été largement appréhendé en contexte éducatif et sportif. L'objectif de cette étude est d'étendre cette ligne de recherche en analysant les conséquences d'une attente pr...

In sport/exercise contexts, individuals use the performances of others to evaluate their own competence. In big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) in educational settings, academic self-concept is positively predicted by one's own academic achievement but negatively predicted by the average achievement of others in one's school or class. Participation...