Based on self-determination theory, this study examined the relationship between leisure activities, motivation, and adjustment to institutional living by older adults who live in nursing homes. We hypothesized that motivational profiles with higher levels of self-determined motivation represent the optimal profiles regarding participation in leisure activities, adaptation to nursing home living, and satisfaction with life. Participants completed questionnaires assessing motivation, leisure activity participation, life satisfaction, and adaptation to the nursing home. Results showed a relationship between the latter three factors. A latent profile analysis based on the different forms of motivation indicated four distinct profiles. Although no differences were found between the high self-determined profile (high self-determined motivation and low non-self-determined motivation) and the additive profile (high self-determined motivation and non-self-determined motivation), participants with a moderate profile and a low self-determined profile reported the lowest levels in leisure activity participation, adaptation to the nursing home, and satisfaction with life.

Differences in difficulty between isomorphs of the Tower of Hanoi, are generally explained in terms of differences in processing loads required by the different versions (Kotovsky and Fallside, 1989). Our claim is that the general knowledge about an action, activated by the context, is what guides the elaboration of problem representation. To test this hypothesis, we manipulated the context using 4 isomorphs. The results support the hypothesis: the selection of the adequate point of view on the action depends on the context, and is a crucial step in the elaboration of problem representation. The more difficult versions are those which require abandoning the first point of view and selecting a new one.

We describe the desire for a black box approach to pattern classification: a generic Autonomous Pattern Recognizer, which is capable of self-adapting to specific alphabets without human intervention. The CellNet software system is introduced, an evolutionary system that optimizes a set of pattern-recognizing agents relative to a provided set of features and a given pattern database. CellNet utilizes a new genetic operator designed to facilitate a canalization of development: Merger. CellNet utilizes our own set of arbitrarily chosen features, and is applied to the CEDAR Database of handwritten Latin characters, as well as to a database of handwritten Indian digits provided by CENPARMI. CellNet's cooperative co-evolutionary approach shows significant improvement over a more standard Genetic Algorithm, both in terms of efficiency and in nearly eliminating over-fitting (to the training set). Additionally, the binary classifiers autonomously evolved by CellNet return validation accuracies approaching 98% for both Latin and Indian digits, with no global changes to the system between the two trials.

In the present study, we tested the assumption that structural similarity overcomes surface similarity in the retrieval of past events, by observing whether structural similarity alone is a better cue than surface similarity alone. To do so, in three story-recall experiments, we provided the participants with multiple source stories and then with a target cue story. This target cue only shared surface similarity with one source story, and structural similarity with another source story. In Experiment 1A, a Superficially Similar Disanalog source story (SSD) and a Superficially Dissimilar Analog source story (SDA) were presented among Superficially Dissimilar Disanalog source stories (SDDs). A soundness rating task was used in Experiment 1B to control the absence of structural similarity among the SSDs presented in Experiment 1A. In Experiment 2, the number of SSDs was increased in the aim to reproduce more ecological conditions. In Experiment 3, a filler task was introduced and supplementary source stories were presented in order to make the study more similar to previous story-recall paradigms. The results of the three story-recall experiments support the dominance of structural over surface similarities in analogical retrieval. The role of a structurally-based access regarding the retrieval of Superficially Similar Analogs (SSAs) and SDAs is discussed, as well as the factors underlying the rare occurrence of SDAs retrievals in previous experiments.

Cet article propose une relecture de la notion de flexibilité cognitive. Après être revenu sur les liens entre flexibilité, rigidité et persévération, on propose une approche de la flexibilité dans la problématique de la résolution de problème qui permet de rendre compte des différentes formes de flexibilité et des conduites de persévération. Cette approche est illustrée dans les problèmes de jarres de Luchins. On montre comment dans un même cadre conceptuel, il est possible d'interpréter les phénomènes de fixation décrits par les gestaltistes et les conduites de persévération rapportées en neuropsychologie. Remerciements. Je tiens à remercier Jean-François Richard pour sa lecture attentive et ses remarques d'une première version du texte ainsi que Michel Piolat pour l'échange sur la perspective gestaltiste. Flexibility and problem solving: A contributionABSTRACT This paper is a contribution to the definition of a complex behavioral process: the cognitive flexibility. By examining the literature, the different definitions lead to conclude that this notion is highly influenced by the tests used to measure a flexible behavior. We attempt to unify this notion and present an approach of the cognitive flexibility in the framework of the problem solving situations. These situations allow to identify two forms of flexibility, reactive and spontaneous flexibility, and the expression of perseverative behavior. We show how the well-known "water-jug volume-measuring problems" (Luchins, 1942) are well-suited to observe both these kind of flexibility. In those situations, spontaneous flexibility is interpreted as the capacity of adopting spontaneously different points of view on a same situation, even when reactive flexibility occurs in impasse situations and may lead either to the change of the procedure or to the elaboration of a new representation. In conclusion, we discuss how this approach permits to reinterpret in the same framework the phenomena of the fixation described by the Gestalt psychology and the perseverative behavior related in the more recent neuropsychological literature.