Abstracts
Résumé
Le présent article étudie le rôle de la cognition dans l’adaptation humaine aux changements climatiques et la place que la psychologie cognitive peut jouer dans ce domaine. Nous partons du postulat que la cognition humaine, médiatisée par la culture, joue un rôle central dans les processus d’adaptation à l’environnement climatique et à ses modifications. L’accélération actuelle des changements climatiques globaux met à l’épreuve les modes de traitement des informations climatiques. En effet, la nature imprévisible et complexe des phénomènes climatiques actuels ne permet pas à la culture de fournir les connaissances et les outils cognitifs nécessaires pour traiter ce problème. De ce fait, l’individu peut se retrouver en situation de vulnérabilité cognitive. Prenant en considération les contraintes environnementales et les caractéristiques culturelles, nous présenterons dans un premier temps, quelques résultats d’études préliminaires, menées auprès d’adultes de Nouvelle-Calédonie et de Paris, sur la représentation du climat, des changements climatiques et sur la capacité humaine à s’adapter à ces changements. Dans un second temps, nous fournirons une comparaison intra-culturelle portant sur la représentation du climat dans différentes conditions géographiques et climatiques, en France. Nos résultats suggèrent que la culture, mais aussi l’expérience climatique et environnementale, ont des répercussions sur l’adaptation cognitive. Les adultes parisiens présentent une plus grande vulnérabilité cognitive, donc une adaptation cognitive moins performante. Nous considérons que ces résultats peuvent être expliqués par la pensée analytique dominante chez les populations urbaines occidentales, et l’absence de représentations bi-métriques.
Mots-clés :
- changements climatiques,
- cognition,
- environnement,
- psychologie cognitive,
- culture,
- France métropolitaine,
- Nouvelle-Calédonie
Abstract
This article examines both the role of cognition in human adaptation to climate change and the role that cognitive psychology can play in this field. We start from the assumption that human cognition, mediated by culture, plays a central role in the adaptation to climatic and environmental changes. However, the current acceleration of global climate change perturbs the cognitive treatment of climate information. The character unpredictable and highly complex of climate in addition to the fact that culture does not provide knowledge as well as cognitive tools necessary to understand it might produce cognitive vulnerability. Taking into account the environmental constraints and cultural characteristics, firstly we present some preliminary results of our fundamental research conducted among adults in New Caledonia and Paris on the representation of climate, climate change and the representation of the human capacity to adapt to global climatic changes. Secondly, we will provide a comparison of intra-cultural representation of the climate in different geographical and climatic conditions in France. Our results suggest that both culture and climatic experience affect cognitive adaptation. Parisian adults exhibit the highest cognitive vulnerability, therefore a less adaptive cognition. We believe these results can be explained by the persistence and inadaptability of analytical thinking dominant in western urban populations along with the lack of bi-metric representations.
Keywords:
- climate change,
- cognition,
- cognitive psychology,
- culture,
- environment,
- France,
- New Caledonia
Appendices
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