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Inscrite dans le cadre des littéracies avancées, cette contribution présente les choix théoriques et méthodologiques à l’oeuvre dans l’élaboration en cours d’une base de données sur les acquisitions tardives en français écrit. Le corpus est constitué d’extraits d’écrits d’étudiants comportant un dysfonctionnement linguistique (erreur ou maladresse orthographique, lexicale, syntaxique, etc.) identifié comme tel par les enseignants qui les ont déposés en ligne. Ces extraits sont accompagnés de commentaires (émanant de l’enseignant-déposant et de linguistes et didacticiens de notre équipe) visant à décrire ce dysfonctionnement. L’objectif didactique de cette base de données (comportant en l’état 2550 extraits, issus d’écrits d’étudiants de tous niveaux et de toutes disciplines) est de fournir aux enseignants ou formateurs désireux de faire progresser leurs étudiants à l’écrit des supports pédagogiques, sous la forme d’exempliers comportant un ou plusieurs types de dysfonctionnement. Parallèlement, dans une perspective variationniste, l’analyse des commentaires descriptifs du dysfonctionnement est exploitée pour questionner les normes à l’oeuvre dans l’activité des enseignants-correcteurs. Un exemple de traitement des données récoltées, portant sur les pronoms relatifs, est proposé en fin d’article.

Alors que la compétence orthographique des adultes est rarement investiguée dans les enquêtes internationales ayant trait à la littératie, l'enquête d'utilité publique IVQ (Information et vie quotidienne), conduite en France en 2011, a permis de disposer de plus de 2000 dictées réalisées par des adultes repérés en difficulté en réception de l'écrit. Ce corpus de textes, inédit dans les enquêtes de cette envergure, permet de préciser les compétences orthographiques et phonographiques (capacité à transcrire la chaine sonore) des enquêtés considérés en difficulté dans cette enquête. Pour mieux évaluer les compétences spécifiques de cette population, nous avons fait passer la dictée (une liste de courses composée de mots et de pseudo-mots, inventés pour l'exercice) à 87 enquêtés de 2011 qui ne présentaient pas de difficulté particulière avec l'écrit (et qui n'avaient donc pas été évalués en production d'écrit). Cet article présente les résultats de la comparaison d'une partie du corpus recueilli en 2011 (434 textes) et de celui recueilli dans le cadre de l'enquête complémentaire en 2014 (87 textes). Il propose une description des compétences des enquêtés : après avoir présenté la méthodologie utilisée, nous comparons les performances orthographiques et morphographiques des deux populations, puis leurs performances phonographiques. Nous observons enfin les choix graphiques concernant les finales des pseudo-mots et nous dégageons des comportements de scripteurs. Les conclusions s'inscrivent dans une perspective didactique.

Olfaction is characterized by a salient hedonic dimension. Previous studies have shown that these affective responses to odors are modulated by physicochemical, physiological, and cognitive factors. The present study examined expertise influenced processing of pleasant and unpleasant odors on both perceptual and verbal levels. For this, performance on two olfactory tasks was compared between novices, trainee cooks, and experts (perfumers and flavorists): Members of all groups rated the intensity and pleasantness of pleasant and unpleasant odors (perceptual tasks). They were also asked to describe each of the 20 odorants as precisely as possible (verbal description task). On a perceptual level, results revealed that there were no group-related differences in hedonic ratings for unpleasant and pleasant odors. On a verbal level, descriptions of smells were richer (e.g., chemical, olfactory qualities, and olfactory sources terms) and did not refer to pleasantness in experts compared to untrained subjects who used terms referring to odor sources (e.g., candy) accompanied by terms referring to odor hedonics. In conclusion, the present study suggests that as novices, experts are able to perceptually discriminate odors on the basis of their pleasantness. However, on a semantic level, they conceptualize odors differently, being inclined to avoid any reference to odor hedonics.

One important aspect of odor hedonics is its plasticity during human development. The present study set out to probe the modulators of such olfactory change during that period by testing the hypothesis that language and semantic representations of objects are strong organizers of odor liking. To this end, 15 three-year-old children were tested in a longitudinal study. Participants were exposed to exactly the same 12 odorants once a year over a 3-year period. At each experimental session, they were asked to answer 2 questions: 1) "Do you like or dislike this odor?" and 2) "Can you tell me what it is?" The level of language production was assessed on a standardized test. The 3-year-old children were found to categorize the same number of odorants as liked and as disliked. The follow-up study, in contrast, showed that at 5 years of age they categorized more of these odors as liked and that the shift was significant only in the children with higher language production skills. Taken as a whole, these findings suggest that the 3- to 5-year age range, when children begin to master language, is a turning point in the construction of olfactory hedonic categories during childhood.

Background: Odor hedonic perception relies on decoding the physicochemical properties of odorant molecules and can be influenced in humans by semantic knowledge. The effect of semantic knowledge on such prewired hedonic processing over the life span has remained unclear., Methodology/principal Findings: The present study measured hedonic response to odors in different age groups (children, teenagers, young adults, and seniors) and found that children and seniors, two age groups characterized by either low level of (children) or weak access to (seniors) odor semantic knowledge, processed odor hedonics more on the basis of their physicochemical properties. In contrast, in teenagers and young adults, who show better levels of semantic odor representation, the role of physicochemical properties was less marked., Conclusions/significance: These findings demonstrate for the first time that the biological determinants that make an odor pleasant or unpleasant are more powerful at either end of the life span.

The olfactory function in humans is characterized by wide variability between individuals. One of the prominent factors that contribute to this plasticity is early exposure. The present study examined how brain activity is modulated by such olfactory experience. To this end, two groups of people living in France but originating from different cultures ("European-French" (EF, 18 subjects) vs. "Algerian-French" (AF, 19 subjects)) were tested, and their perceptual and physiological responses to the smells of mint (presumed to be experienced earlier in life by "Algerian-French" subjects) and of rose (control odorant) were compared. Neurophysiological responses were obtained in the form of chemosensory event-related potentials (CSERP). The results confirmed that the AF group was exposed to Mint tea earlier than the EF group. On the perceptual level, when asked to associate the smell of mint with objects or events retrieved from memory, the discourse of AF subjects included more "experience-oriented" associations than that of EF subjects. This was associated with longer P2 latency in CSERPs in response to the smell of mint in the AF group. These findings highlight the plasticity of behavioral and neural olfactory processes as a result of differential lifetime exposure., (Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Like odor perception, odor imagery is characterized by wide variability between individuals. The present two-part study sought to assess whether this inter-individual variability is underlain by behavioral differences in actual odor perception. In study 1, subjects judged the intensity, pleasantness, familiarity and edibility of 3 odorants. Participants were split into two olfactory imagery groups ("good" versus "poor" olfactory imagers) according to their scores on an imagery questionnaire. Results showed that good olfactory imagers judged all odors as more familiar and more edible than did poor olfactory imagers. Study 2 sought to determine whether these effects derived from a particular strategy of reenacting olfactomotor responses to smells on the part of good olfactory imagers, by recording their sniffs during odor perception. Results revealed that good olfactory imagers sniffed all odors longer and, again, judged these same odors as more edible and familiar. This supports the hypothesis of more complete odor processing and better access to odor semantics in good olfactory imagers.

Olfactory mental images are defined as short-term memory representations of olfactory events that give rise to the experience of "smelling with the mind's nose." The present paper reviewed converging evidences that support the view that as visual mental images, odor mental images preserve some aspects of olfactory percepts. The role of olfactomotor mechanisms in recalling olfactory mental images from long-term memory to short-term memory is also discussed.