Tarek Bellaj
Qatar University, Social Sciences, Faculty Member
- Tarek Bellaj, PhD, is a Professor at Qatar University and Tunis University where he teaches neuropsychology and socia... moreTarek Bellaj, PhD, is a Professor at Qatar University and Tunis University where he teaches neuropsychology and social neuroscience. His research interests are in cultural and clinical neuropsychology. His work incorporates multiple facets of these axes as applied to memory, executive functions, and emotional dysfunctions in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders in Arabic culture. Dr. Bellaj has been the President of the Tunisian Psychological Society from 2007 to 2015.edit
The influence of Facebook in social life keeps constantly growing. Recently, the communication of information has been vital to the success of the Tunisian revolution, and Facebook was its main “catalyst”. This study examines the key... more
The influence of Facebook in social life keeps constantly growing. Recently, the communication of information has been vital to the success of the Tunisian revolution, and Facebook was its main “catalyst”. This study examines the key reasons that explain Facebook’s contribution to this historical event, as perceived by Tunisian Internet users. To do so, we launched this study five days after the fall of the regime using an online questionnaire in which participants (N = 333) first rated the importance of Facebook in the Tunisian revolution and then explained the reasons for their ratings. A cluster analysis based on the Euclidean distance between the most frequent words in the participants’ text corpus (6640 words), revealed three main clusters that we interpret as follows: 1: Facebook political function, 2: Facebook informational function, and 3: Facebook media platform function. It is likely that these factors reflect the dynamic of Tunisian cyberspace and the Tunisian Internet users’ collective consciousness during the revolution.
Research Interests: Social Sciences, Cyberpsychology, Social Networking, Virtual Communities, Computer-Mediated Communication, and 12 morePolitical communication, Social Media, Political Identity, Online Media, Egyptian Revolution, New Media, Social Network Analysis, e-research, Link analysis, Social Network Sites, Twitter, Facebook, Political Communication, Arab Spring (Arab Revolts), Tunisian Revolution-Arab Spring, Facebook & the Tunisian Revolution, Media theory and Research, Word Clouds, and Mobile and Location-Based Media
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Research regarding executive functioning (EF) in children rarely focuses on populations in African or Middle-Eastern Arabic-speaking countries. The current study used a cross-sectional design to examine the developmental trajectories of... more
Research regarding executive functioning (EF) in children rarely focuses on populations in African or Middle-Eastern Arabic-speaking countries. The current study used a cross-sectional design to examine the developmental trajectories of school-age Tunisian children in three domains of executive control (inhibition of prepotent responses, cognitive flexibility, and working memory) as well as their mutual interactions and the effects of gender and parents' education level. Inhibitory processes, cognitive flexibility, and working memory were assessed using the Stroop test, a version of the Hayling test adapted for children, simple and alternating tasks of verbal fluency, and verbal and visuospatial span tasks (forward and backward spans). The study population included 120 7- to 12-year-old Tunisian children (60 girls, 60 boys) who were grouped and matched for age, gender, and parents' education level. The results revealed an overall effect of age on executive performance, whereas gender and parents' education level showed non-significant effects. In addition, executive indices were significantly associated with fluid intelligence level. Partial correlation analyses (controlled for age) found significant links between indices that assessed the same executive process, except for inhibitory processes; the temporal indices for inhibitory processes showed relative independence. The correlations between indices that assessed distinct executive processes were weaker (but significant). Overall, the results suggest that executive components in school-age Tunisian children operate according to relatively homogeneous developmental trajectories, marked by peaks of maturity that differ according to the assessed index. A transcultural approach to EF is discussed in terms of the unity and diversity of its components.
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Après un rappel de l'historique du Test de Gestion des Ressources Attentionnelles et une présentation des résultats obtenus avec la version papier-crayon, les auteurs présentent l'épreuve dans sa version informatisée.
La psychométrie classique utilise des indices de liaisons entre variables qui sont symétriques. Par exemple, la corrélation entre a et b sera la même que celle entre b et a. Ou bien, dans une analyse de régression multiple, chacune des... more
La psychométrie classique utilise des indices de liaisons entre variables qui sont symétriques. Par exemple, la corrélation entre a et b sera la même que celle entre b et a. Ou bien, dans une analyse de régression multiple, chacune des variables peut prendre indifféremment le statut de variable expliquée ou de variable explicative. Il en résulte l’impossibilité de déterminer si c’est a qui implique b ou l’inverse : un lien symétrique ne peut pas être un lien de causalité. Il est impossible d’ordonner des corrélations entre variables en séquence implicative. Pour atteindre cet objectif il convient de faire appel à des indices de liaisons qui ne soient pas symétriques. L’analyse implicative des données offre une possibilité d’atteindre cet objectif d’ordonnancement séquentiel des variables. Dans ce chapitre, nous présenterons un exemple de recours à ce type d’analyse pour comparer des groupes contrastés.