M2
Language represents possible alternatives. Modal information, information about what could be or must be the case as opposed to what the state of the world really is, is lexicalized in natural languages, using words such as “could”, “should”, “might”, “possible”, etc. Do modal concepts exist in the absence of language? Recent research suggest that preschoolers and great apes struggle with these concepts (cf Leahy and Carey). The goal of the internship will be 1) to do a thorough literature review that aim to disentangle different properties of modals and/or task demands that may have interfered with preschoolers and apes' capacity to represent possibilities 2) use a task with an implicit measure to prompt these concepts in infants and baboons (this is actually for two different M2 internship). The student working with infants will need to have a good command of French to communicate with the families. Both internships will take place in Marseille. They can be conducted remotely for most parts (except testing)