Suppressing visual feedback in written composition: Effects on processing demands and coordination of the writing processes

The goal of this experiment was to investigate the role of visual feedback during written composition. Effects of suppression of visual feedback were analysed both on processing demands and on on-line coordination of low-level execution processes and of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. Writers composed a text and copied it either with or without visual feedback. Processing demands of the writing processes were evaluated with reaction times to secondary auditory probes that were analysed according to whether participants were handwriting (in a composing and a copying tasks) or engaged in high level processes (when pausing in a composing task). Suppression of visual feedback increased reaction times interference (secondary reaction time minus baseline reaction time) during handwriting in the copying task and not during pauses in the composing task. This suggests that suppression of visual feedback affected processing demands of only execution processes and not those of high-level conceptual and linguistic processes. This is confirmed by analysis of quality of the texts produced by participants that were little, if any, affected by the suppression of visual feedback. Results also indicate that the increase in processing demands of execution related to suppression of visual feedback affected on-line coordination of the writing processes. Indeed, when visual feedback was suppressed, reaction time interferences associated to handwriting were not reliable different in the copying task and in the composing task but were significantly different in the composition task, RT interference associated to handwriting being lower in the copying task than in the composition task. When visual feedback was suppressed, writers activated step-by-step execution processes and high-level writing processes, whereas they concurrently activated these writing processes when composing with visual feedback

Oral and written reference to new and given information by 9 and 11 year-olds and adults.

International audienceMonolingual, native French-speaking subjects (9- and 11-year-old children and adults) were requested either to talk or write about nine triplets of pictures whose components varied along the pragmatic dimension. In the first picture in each series, all components were new. In the second and third pictures, one component was replaced each time by a new component, the other components becoming given. The oral execution of the task made the experimenter (the addressee) into a co-producer of the situational discourse produced, whereas the written production situation placed a certain distance between the producer and the addressee. The expression of the contrast between old versus new elements to be described in each situation was studied by examining the use of articles (definite and indefinite) and pronouns. The expression of oldness and newness by means of articles was more common in speaking than in writing. In the oral medium, the given/new contrast was marked more and more often as age increased, although this was not true in the writing situation where the subjects generally used definite articles, even when referring to a new element. Pronouns were used infrequently orally, particularly by 9-year-olds, to express the increasing of the elements The written use of pronouns was extremely rare. Although it was already present orally in older subjects, the tendency to give autonomy to the production associated with each picture (decreasing use of pronouns in favor of nouns) was predominant in the written medium. Maximum explicitness was favored in writing (due to the deferred reception of the production by the addressee), and the marking of elements as new or given was therefore not given priority. The way in which the written and oral production media modulated the choices of the subjects is discussed

Approche cognitive de l’activité rédactionnelle et de son acquisition. Le rôle de la mémoire de travail

L’étude de l’architecture cognitive en jeu dans les activités complexes de production écrite de textes fait actuellement la part belle à la mémoire de travail. Sans cette interface, le rédacteur ne disposerait pas des ressources attentionnelles qui lui sont indispensables pour activer les processus rédactionnels, utiliser et transformer les informations récupérées en mémoire à long terme. En psychologie cognitive, la difficulté (ou l’impossibilité) de rédiger un texte n’est plus comprise comme une charge (ou une surcharge) mais comme une régulation de l’effort cognitif via les instances de la mémoire de travail. Aussi, ce n’est pas tant le niveau qualitatif du texte produit qui est l’indicateur essentiel de l’activité rédactionnelle étudiée mais la mesure des ressources attentionnelles engagées par le rédacteur. Afin de mettre en évidence la souplesse de cette économie cognitive chez le rédacteur adulte, l’auteur compare l’effort cognitif associé aux processus de rédaction d’un texte inédit et celui impliqué par les processus de prise de notes d’un texte entendu ou lu

Hypertexte et réseau : une expérience sur la rédaction interactive de textes

Sommaire du numéro :http://archive-edutice.ccsd.cnrs.fr/edutice-00000860Le but de cet article est de présenter les intérêts pédagogiques de l'utilisation d'un réseau comme aide à la rédaction de texte. Nous présentons ici un environnement interactif de production de texte qui a fait l'objet d'une expérimentation menée avec des étudiants sur la rédaction en « temps réel » d'un texte commun sur des postes différents. L'objectif d'un tel environnement est d'orienter la co-régulation des élèves sur l'actualisation des processus rédactionnels nécessaires à adoption de stratégies d'écriture plus performantes

Note-taking in second language: Language procedures and self evaluation of the difficulties

Cette étude vise à comparer les procédés utilisés par 22 étudiants espagnols et anglais lors d’une prise de note à partir d’un cours en français langue seconde (L2) et d’un cours dans leur langue native respective (L1). Trois types de variables ont été utilisées pour analyser (1) le sentiment de difficulté relatif aux tâches à réaliser (compréhension et prise de notes) ; (2) le volume des notes et leur fidélité aux discours sources; (3) les procédés d’abréviation au niveau lexical et discursif. Selon les résultats, les étudiants ne procèdent pas différemment en L1. Par contre, des différences sont observées en ce qui concerne leur capacité d’ajustement et leurs stratégies développées durant la prise de notes en français langue seconde.This study compared the techniques used by 22 Spanish and English students to take notes from a lecture in French as a second language (L2) and in their first language (L1). Three kinds of variables have been analysed: (1) perceived difficulty of the comprehension and production tasks involved in note-taking; (2) volume of the notes and their fidelity to the source texts; (3) abbreviating procedures at lexical and discourse levels. Results indicate that participants do not take notes differently in L1. They however differ in the way they adjust their note-taking strategies in French as a second language

Réponse à J. F. Le Ny

Piolat Annie. Réponse à J. F. Le Ny. In: Bulletin de psychologie, tome 39 n°375, 1986. Jugement et langage. Hommage à Georges Noizet. p. 424