Laboratoire Adaptations Travail-Individu

The Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT)—more generally, using product creativity judgments—is a central and actively debated method to assess product and individual creativity. Despite a constant interest in strategies to improve its robustness, we argue that most psychometric investigations and scoring strategies for CAT data remain constrained by a flawed psychometrical framework. We first describe how our traditional statistical account of multiple judgments, which largely revolves around Cronbach’s α and sum/average scores, poses conceptual and practical problems—such as misestimating the construct of interest, misestimating reliability and structural validity, underusing latent variable models, and reducing judge characteristics as a source of error—that are largely imputable to the influence of classical test theory. Then, we propose that the item–response theory framework, traditionally used for multi-item situations, be transposed to multiple-judge CAT situations in Judge Response Theory (JRT). After defining JRT, we present its multiple advantages, such as accounting for differences in individual judgment as a psychological process—rather than as random error—giving a more accurate account of the reliability and structural validity of CAT data and allowing the selection of complementary—not redundant—judges. The comparison of models and their availability in statistical packages are notably discussed as further directions. (APA PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

This study examined the relationship between two personal resources, career adaptability and general self-efficacy, and two career outcomes, self-perceived employability and entrepreneurial intentions in a West African context, characterized by a developing economy. A Togolese sample of 334 university students and 216 job seekers completed French versions of the General Self-Efficacy Scale, the Self-Perceived Employability Scale, the Entrepreneurial Intentions Scale and an adapted form of the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale. A multi-group path analysis showed that the results are similar for both groups. Career adaptability and general self-efficacy were positively related to self-perceived employability. The contribution of career adaptability was especially strong for job seekers. Only general self-efficacy was related to entrepreneurial intentions. Furthermore, perceived employability was positively related in some way to entrepreneurial intentions in both groups. Career adaptability seems to be especially important for employability among job seekers (activation of resources), whereas entrepreneurial intentions may be more context-dependent. Finally, perceived employability failed to mediate the relationship between personal resources and entrepreneurial intentions in both samples.

This chapter presents an overview of a recent line of research on how digital self-representations (i.e., avatars) can improve users’ creativity in virtual settings. We will first review research on the Proteus effect and the influence of personal identity cues provided through avatars. Then, we will present results that show the influence of avatars’ appearance on creative performance. These findings will also be discussed in terms of social representations that can guide – in a given population – what a creative avatar should look like. Beyond personal identity, we will also focus on the influence of avatars to embody a shared identity among the members of a virtual team. Thus, in the line of the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects, we will emphasize the importance of social identity and psychosocial processes to foster group cohesiveness, social identification and creative performance in collaborative virtual settings.

In recent decades there have been significant changes in the conceptualization of reading as well as in the perception of how this activity should be assessed. Interest in the analysis of reading processes has led to the emergence of new explanatory models based primarily on the contributions of cognitive psychology. In parallel, there have been notable advances in measurement procedures, especially in models based on Item Response Theory (IRT), as well as in the capacity and performance of specific software programs that allow data to be managed and analyzed. These changes have contributed significantly to the rise of testing procedures such as computerized adaptive tests (CATs), whose fundamental characteristic is that the sequence of items presented in the tests is adapted to the level of competence that the subject manifests. Likewise, the incorporation of elements of dynamic assessment (DA) as the prompts are gradually offered allows for obtaining information about the type and degree of support required to optimize the subject’s performance. In this sense, the confluence of contributions from DA and CATs offers a new possibility for approaching the assessment of learning processes. In this article, we present a longitudinal research developed in two phases, through which a computerized dynamic adaptive assessment battery of reading processes (EDPL-BAI) was configured. The research frame involved 1,831 students (46% girls) from 13 public schools in three regions of Chile. The purpose of this study was to analyze the differential contribution on reading competence of dynamic scores obtained in a subsample composed of 324 (47% girls) students from third to sixth grade after the implementation of a set of adaptive dynamic tests of morpho-syntactic processes. The results achieved in the structural equation modeling indicate a good global fit. Individual relationships show a significant contribution of calibrated score that reflects estimated knowledge level on reading competence, as well as dynamic scores based on the assigned value of graduated prompts required by the students. These results showed significant predictive values on reading competence and incremental validity in relation to predictions made by static criterion tests.

Prospective ergonomics is defined as an emerging mode of ergonomic intervention focused on the anticipation of future user needs and activities for innovation design. This is a fairly new topic of research for ergonomics and implies the development of new methods of intervention, a sustained dialog with other domains such as innovation management, and a better understanding of the activity deployed by design teams at the fuzzy front-end of design projects. In order to address this need, we analyzed verbal communication between members of an ad hoc team whose goal was to structure future projects for the development of systems making use of emerging technologies in the field of bioinformatics, during a KCP workshop for innovation management. Our results show that the activity deployed by this team – composed of software developers, user representatives and an ergonomist - comprises epistemic and argumentative aspects, just as the subsequent design activity does. We discuss these results in terms of research on prospective ergonomics and on design activities.

The aim of this study was to explore (a) whether Multi-User Virtual Environments improve everyone’s creativity whatever their creative potential profile, (b) the combination of internal creative resources that favours fluency and originality in a brainstorming task in virtual and real environments (VE and RE respectively). For this purpose, our study involved brainstorming sessions in two conditions: a real meeting room (RE) and a similar meeting room in virtual environment (VE). Creative potential of 60 participants was assessed via the creative profiler. The results showed that at team level, fluency and originality were significantly improved in VE compared to RE. However, at individual level, the results suggested that VE did not favour everyone. Participants in VE with high risk-taking propensity were significantly more creative (fluency and originality) than the other participants (e.g., those with similar profile in RE as well as participants with low scores in risk taking in VE). Similar profile was observed for divergent thinking and mental flexibility but at a lesser extent. The results are discussed with regards to social and motivational causes, latent inhibition and attentional mechanisms involved in creative behaviour.

Flow is a well-known concept in the fields of positive and applied psychology. Examination of a large body of flow literature suggests there is a need for a conceptual model rooted in a cognitive approach to explain how this psychological phenomenon works. In this paper, we propose the Flow Engine Framework, a theoretical model explaining dynamic interactions between rearranged flow components and fundamental cognitive processes. Using an IPO framework (Inputs – Processes – Outputs) including a feedback process, we organize flow characteristics into three logically related categories: inputs (requirements for flow), mediating and moderating cognitive processes (attentional and motivational mechanisms) and outputs (subjective and objective outcomes), describing the process of the flow. Comparing flow with an engine, inputs are depicted as flow-fuel, core processes cylinder strokes and outputs as power created to provide motion.