Ifsttar PhD subject

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Detailed form :

Title : Pedestrian navigation, aging and situated-embodied cognition

Main host Laboratory - Referent Advisor COSYS - PICS-L  -  DOMMES Aurélie      tél. : +33 181668587

Director of the main host Laboratory DUMONT Eric  -

PhD Speciality Psychologie Cognitive

Axis of the performance contract 1 - COP2017 - Efficient transport and safe travel

Main location Versailles-Satory

Doctoral affiliation UNIVERSITE PARIS 5

PhD school COGNITION, COMPORTEMENTS, CONDUITES HUMAINES

Planned PhD supervisor DOMMES Aurélie  -  Université Gustave Eiffel  -  AME - LAPEA

Planned PhD co-supervisor GYSELINCK Valérie  -  Université Gustave Eiffel  -  AME - LAPEA

Planned financing Contrat doctoral  - Université Gustave Eiffel

Abstract

In recent years, cognition has no longer been understood as a brain production independent of the world in which the individual lives and acts (e.g. see Brouillet, 2019; Dutriaux & Gyselinck, 2016; Versace, Brouillet, & Vallet, 2018 ). Cognition is now defined as “situated” (situated cognition), because it could not be understood independently of the situations in which it arises. Cognition would also be "embodied" (embodied cognition), because it would be anchored in the body of the individual and would emerge from the interactions of the individual with her/his environment. This new conception of cognition leads research to study behaviors in their context and in the perspective that they arise from the interaction of the sensorimotor actions of the individual with her/his environment. This shift in theoretical perspective is associated with methodological paradigms that anchor the study of human behavior in natural situations and / or realistic tasks, where the mind thinks while the body is involved.
While a lot studies provides empirical evidence that older people suffer from interconnected declines between their cognition, their perception and their body (e.g. Dommes, 2019), in a way that resonates with this theory of situated and embodied cognition, little research has applied this framework to their work in the field of aging. We retain some recent studies in this direction (see Costello and Bloesch, 2017; Versace, Brouillet, & Vallet, 2018) which suggest that older people would be less "embodied" than young adults. They would show a greater use of visual information processing and less dependence on information from the body (kinesthetic, tactile, or proprioceptive).
In this theoretical context, this thesis project proposes to study pedestrian navigation behaviors (street crossing and / or spatial orientation) in young and older adults by varying the methodological paradigm. The idea would be to conduct work that examines the decisions of young and older pedestrians in decision-making tasks that more or less involve the body. For example, the performance of pedestrians in spatial orientation and / or street-crossing tasks could be compared depending on whether the task takes place in a real controlled environment (in a small space where the danger is removed), on a large-scale simulator (the street-crossing simulator of Versailles allows a real walk of about 8 meters in front of screens that display a virtual road scene), or with a virtual reality headset (where the pedestrian is embodied by an avatar), and finally, in a task on a computer, without action, where movement is carried out by means of a joystick. These task comparisons would make it possible to more or less de-correlate the action of cognition, in different age groups. This thesis would allow the emergence of new scientific knowledge that has not yet been explored in the literature on the effects of aging on situated and embodied spatial cognition. This thesis also allows us to work on the question of the validity of our simulation tools, and to develop them with the aim of studying human behavior more or less in interaction with its environment.

References :

Brouillet, D. (2019). Agir pour connaître. Presses Universitaires de Grenoble.

Costello, M. C., & Bloesch, E.K. (2017). Are older adults less embodied? A review of age effects through the lens of embodied cognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 267.

Dommes, A. (2019). Street-crossing workload in young and older pedestrians. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 128, 175-184.

Dutriaux, L. & Gyselinck, V. (2016). Cognition incarnée : un point de vue sur les représentations spatiales. L’Année psychologique, 116(3), 419-465.

Versace, R., Brouillet, D., Vallet, G. (2018). Cognition incarnée: Une cognition située et projetée. Wavre, Belgique: Mardaga.

Keywords : navigation, pedestrian, street crossing, spatial orientation, aging, situated cognition, embodied cognition, virtual reality

Main host Laboratory - Referent Advisor	COSYS - PICS-L - DOMMES Aurélie tél. : +33 181668587
Director of the main host Laboratory	DUMONT Eric -
PhD Speciality	Psychologie Cognitive
Axis of the performance contract	1 - COP2017 - Efficient transport and safe travel
Main location	Versailles-Satory
Doctoral affiliation	UNIVERSITE PARIS 5
PhD school	COGNITION, COMPORTEMENTS, CONDUITES HUMAINES
Planned PhD supervisor	DOMMES Aurélie - Université Gustave Eiffel - AME - LAPEA
Planned PhD co-supervisor	GYSELINCK Valérie - Université Gustave Eiffel - AME - LAPEA
Planned financing	Contrat doctoral - Université Gustave Eiffel
Abstract In recent years, cognition has no longer been understood as a brain production independent of the world in which the individual lives and acts (e.g. see Brouillet, 2019; Dutriaux & Gyselinck, 2016; Versace, Brouillet, & Vallet, 2018 ). Cognition is now defined as “situated” (situated cognition), because it could not be understood independently of the situations in which it arises. Cognition would also be "embodied" (embodied cognition), because it would be anchored in the body of the individual and would emerge from the interactions of the individual with her/his environment. This new conception of cognition leads research to study behaviors in their context and in the perspective that they arise from the interaction of the sensorimotor actions of the individual with her/his environment. This shift in theoretical perspective is associated with methodological paradigms that anchor the study of human behavior in natural situations and / or realistic tasks, where the mind thinks while the body is involved. While a lot studies provides empirical evidence that older people suffer from interconnected declines between their cognition, their perception and their body (e.g. Dommes, 2019), in a way that resonates with this theory of situated and embodied cognition, little research has applied this framework to their work in the field of aging. We retain some recent studies in this direction (see Costello and Bloesch, 2017; Versace, Brouillet, & Vallet, 2018) which suggest that older people would be less "embodied" than young adults. They would show a greater use of visual information processing and less dependence on information from the body (kinesthetic, tactile, or proprioceptive). In this theoretical context, this thesis project proposes to study pedestrian navigation behaviors (street crossing and / or spatial orientation) in young and older adults by varying the methodological paradigm. The idea would be to conduct work that examines the decisions of young and older pedestrians in decision-making tasks that more or less involve the body. For example, the performance of pedestrians in spatial orientation and / or street-crossing tasks could be compared depending on whether the task takes place in a real controlled environment (in a small space where the danger is removed), on a large-scale simulator (the street-crossing simulator of Versailles allows a real walk of about 8 meters in front of screens that display a virtual road scene), or with a virtual reality headset (where the pedestrian is embodied by an avatar), and finally, in a task on a computer, without action, where movement is carried out by means of a joystick. These task comparisons would make it possible to more or less de-correlate the action of cognition, in different age groups. This thesis would allow the emergence of new scientific knowledge that has not yet been explored in the literature on the effects of aging on situated and embodied spatial cognition. This thesis also allows us to work on the question of the validity of our simulation tools, and to develop them with the aim of studying human behavior more or less in interaction with its environment. References : Brouillet, D. (2019). Agir pour connaître. Presses Universitaires de Grenoble. Costello, M. C., & Bloesch, E.K. (2017). Are older adults less embodied? A review of age effects through the lens of embodied cognition. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 267. Dommes, A. (2019). Street-crossing workload in young and older pedestrians. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 128, 175-184. Dutriaux, L. & Gyselinck, V. (2016). Cognition incarnée : un point de vue sur les représentations spatiales. L’Année psychologique, 116(3), 419-465. Versace, R., Brouillet, D., Vallet, G. (2018). Cognition incarnée: Une cognition située et projetée. Wavre, Belgique: Mardaga.
Keywords :	navigation, pedestrian, street crossing, spatial orientation, aging, situated cognition, embodied cognition, virtual reality

List of topics

Applications closed