L'élaboration du contenu du texte : de la mémoire à long terme à l'environnement de la tâche

This paper aims at analysing different theories about text content elaboration. In the literature, the conceptual processing is considered through its relationships with long-term memory and the retrieving process during planning. It has been shown that knowledge availability and organisation influenced the writing progress. The task environment, which contains both the text that is currently written and documentary sources, equally plays an important role during text content elaboration. In this framework, the question concerning the double influence of knowledge from long-term memory and information from environment on the dynamics of writing processing is raised. The working memory, the activation theories and the analysis of the writer's eye movements are studied to answer this crucial question.     

Produire et réviser la morphologie flexionnelle du nombre : de l'accès à une expertise

To understand how children and adults produce written text, you must first be able to describe how they acquire some basic mechanisms. This is the reason to study the acquisition and use of simple orthographic principles. Following this idea, the research of Largy, Fayol et al. concerns nominal and verbal agreement in French. This article proposes a synthesis of the recent development in this domain. Through the study of two competences to be acquired by the writer — (1) to produce the flexional morphology of number in written text and (2) to revise and judge the correctness of this production — this article presents and discusses in which way the learner access to a writing expertise, always relative.     

Le développement de la mémoire de travail : perspectives dans le cadre du modèle de partage temporel des ressources

Working memory has a central role in cognitive development and its capacity is among the best predictors of high-level cognition and school achievement. Within the Time-Based Resource Sharing (TBRS) model, three main factors account for the development of working memory capacity. In this paper, we will review the main empirical evidence sustaining the impact of two of these factors on cognitive development. First, the amount of attention available for cognitive functioning might increase during childhood. Thus, for the same activities, older children would be able to process information faster than younger children. Within working memory span tasks, because the level of activation of memory traces decreases during the processing steps, any reduction of the duration of these steps directly diminishes the time during which the traces decay, and consequently increases the time available for reactivation or refreshing before the next processing step. These two effects jointly induce a stronger activation of the memory traces and a better recall of the to-be-maintained items. Second, because the main hypothesis of the TBRS model is that attention switches to refresh memory traces from processing to maintenance during the processing episodes, the efficiency of the refreshing mechanism should have a direct and strong impact on working memory functioning. An increase in the efficiency of this refreshing during childhood means that older children should take a greater advantage from the short pauses left free between each processing step. The level of activation of the memory traces would be then higher for older than for younger children, resulting in the classically observed increase in span. As a consequence, age-related changes in the efficiency of the refreshing could play a central role in working memory development.     

Modèles et méthodes d'étude de la production écrite

The purpose of the present introduction to this special issue is to provide readers with a general theoretical framework of the cognitive structures and processes involved in writing. The first part of this introduction browses the major lines of the evolution of the writing models, since the first cognitive architecture of the writing processes proposed by Hayes and Flower (1980). In parallel with advance in theoretical conceptions of writing, methods for studying writing also evolved. The second part briefly describes the methods that are most used in writing research. The final part of the introduction presents the different articles that compose this special issue.     

Les marques de cohésion : leur rôle fonctionnel dans l'acquisition de la production écrite de texte

Written text composition is a complex activity improving slowly through acquisition. One of the main difficulty for the novice writer is to translate in the linear textual structure a multidimensional representation (Fayol, 1991). The general issue of this paper concerns the essential role of cohesion devices in the acquisition of this linearization process in writing. Anaphoræ, connectives and punctuation marks are first mentionned, stressing on their common functions in text. Then, stress is put on their acquisition, both as structured systems and as functional tools progressively organizing the written text and ensuring close inter-systems relations.     

La révision du texte : une activité de contrôle et de réflexion

Recent proposals in the field of text revision reveal significant changes in perspective concerning cognitive processes involved in writing. Whereas revision has been considered for a long time as being aimed at enhancing writing, this activity is now seen as a control of the different writing processes. Thus, planning is now added to this control process. Our review shows how results of novel studies strengthen this conception and in which way further researches should be pursued. In particular, we focus on three issues: training of control performed by expert writers, the cognitive cost of the required cognitive treatments and the conditions which permit to increase this control among writers during learning.     

Capacité de mémoire de travail et traitement du pronom chez l’enfant

The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between working memory capacity (WMC) and reading comprehension in children by testing the processing of pronouns. Two groups of nine- to ten-year-old children classified as high span and low span were administered a pronoun processing task. In this task, the computation of the antecedent referent for pronouns was varied by manipulating the distance between the pronoun and its antecedent and the availability of a gender cue. The results showed that compared to high-span children, low-span children experienced more difficulties in computing a pronoun's referent. High-span children spent longer reading sentences containing anaphoric pronouns when pronouns could not be resolved on the basis of the gender alone, suggesting that the pronouns were resolved as they were read. Low-span children tended to delay resolution until it was required by the task. In the question-answering times, low-span children were more adversely affected by distance than high-span children. Altogether these findings support the view that working memory capacity constrains resolution of anaphoric pronouns in children.     

Long-term working memory in text production

In reading and other high-level cognitive tasks, Ericsson and Kintsch (1995) proposed that the limited capacity of short-term working memory (STWM) is supplemented by long- term working memory (LTWM) for individuals with a high degree of domain-specific knowledge. In Experiment 1, college students (N = 80) wrote persuasive and narrative texts concerning baseball; domain-specific knowledge about baseball and verbal ability was assessed. The results showed that verbal ability and domain-specific knowledge independently affected writing skill, supporting the view that literacy depends on both knowledge sources and refuting one argument raised in support of the LTWM hypothesis. Experiment 2 (N = 42) replicated this outcome and tested the prediction that a high degree of domain-specific knowledge would lessen interference on a secondary task. The data supported the interference prediction, offering evidence that LTWM plays a role in the production of text.     

Le rôle de l’implication et des systèmes de croyances au sein des représentations sociales

The study presented in this article concerns the functioning of representational mechanisms in social thought. More specifically, its objective is to identify the role of variables covering psychosocial involvement and systems of belief within social representations. At the interface between the individual and the group, these variables are considered here because of their status as explanatory variables of social thought. By analyzing the representation of human rights, we hypothesize that the level of involvement and the type of beliefs developed toward the state (concepts of a democratic state versus a safe state) impact on the expression of this representation and the standpoints it creates. The survey was conducted by questionnaire with a student population (315 participants). The main results, which are consistent with our hypotheses, provide evidence of an influence of the variables tested on the expressiveness of the representation of human rights. On the one hand, they reveal how an involvement developed in this subject and the social beliefs attached to the role of the state come to particularize the meaning of this representation, especially concerning its principles of equality. On the other hand, the results demonstrate the activity of ideological processes – political in content – which intervene in the realization of the representation. Through these processes, the results show a stronger influence of social beliefs than of psychosocial involvement on the representation studied.     

Psychopathologie de la vie quotidienne : validation d’un nouveau questionnaire de défaillances cognitives

In our daily lives, we make a number of errors and blunders for all our activities. These are the cognitive failures of everyday life, which are conventionally measured by the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ). Literature has demonstrated not only that this tool has many limitations especially regarding its factor structure which is not identified by consensus but also that the origin and nature of cognitive failures are not interviewed because they are considered in terms of executive dysfunction. Also, this study will be to describe the various stages of validation structure of a new assessment tool, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire Daily (questionnaire de défaillances cognitives quotidiennes [QDCQ]) and expose the different levels of analysis of our methodological approach that we have allowed to get it. Therefore, it was administered to 237 all comers people of all ages and proposed them to assess the frequency of cognitive failures over the last 6 months. As a result of is a first step in item analysis using indices of normality, of difficulty and discrimination and a second at different scales, we removed twenty-five items out of fifty-two which the statistical power was not sufficient to be kept. We then obtained a new version of QDCQ, which comprises twenty-seven items that apprehend the most cognitive failure's construct. The results of several confirmatory factor analyzes identify a structure with three factors (attention, language and memory) as best fitting our data. That is consistent with the general literature on this construct (0145 and 0240), and it tends us to prefer the hypothesis that the occurrence of cognitive failures would be the result of a momentary disruption of specific cognitive processes (probably executive processes which it remains to be defined) that influenced in different spheres of activities. The questionnaire opens new perspectives both in terms of clinical practice, particularly in that it could participate in early detection of several behaviours involved in various forms of pathological cognitive aging such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's. Moreover, conceptually, it could also lead to clarify the relationship that the construct of cognitive failures has with executive functions.     

Développement de la mémoire de travail : relations du centre exécutif avec la boucle phonologique et le calepin visuospatial chez des enfants de CE1 et de CM2

The aim of this study was to examine the development of working memory's components and their relationships. Phonological loop's, visuospatial sketchpad's and central executive's efficiencies were assessed by simple and complex span tasks and executive tasks with verbal and visuospatial material. The analyses were performed on 64 second-grade and 55 fifth-grade children's data. Developmental performances improvement was examined according to tasks and material. Analyses of variance revealed performances improvement according to age and type of material (verbal > non verbal) for the slave system tasks and for a part of central executive's tasks. Correlation analysis and exploratory factorial analysis suggested that slave systems would become progressively more specific and that central executive's efficiency would be dependent on this specialization.     

Fonctions exécutives,vieillissement cognitif et variations stratégiques

Aging is characterized by a decrease of cognitive performance in most of cognitive domains. One of the most fundamental issues is then to know what are the underlying mechanisms of these age-related changes in human cognition. Recent research suggests that in addition to speed of processing and working memory capacities, age-related impairment in executive functioning plays an important role in the cognitive decline associated to aging. Above and beyond performance, current research shows that the mediating role of executive function in age-related changes in cognitive performance occurs via changes in strategies variations (i.e., repertoire, distribution, execution, and selection of the strategies used to accomplish a cognitive task). In this article, we illustrate both strategic variations and underlying executive control mechanisms in two important cognitive domains : episodic memory and problem solving.     

工作记忆与小学生文本产生、书写活动的关系

以小学三、六年级学生为被试,考察工作记忆与小学生文本产生、书写活动之间的关系。结果表明．工作记忆中的储存、加工功能对小学生写作的影响不同,储存功能主要与书写活动有关,加工功能主要与文本产生有关,储存与加工相对独立。随年级增长,小学生工作记忆的加工水平逐步提高。     

Effets de l’âge et de la capacité de mémoire de travail sur l’exécution d’instructions de complexité variable chez des adultes jeunes et âgés

Technical devices are part of elderly people's daily life. Meanwhile, research has not yet systematically explored how old people understand procedural instructions accompanying these devices. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate how age and memory span affect how people follow procedural instructions. To do so, the Reading Span Test of Daneman & Carpenter (1980) and an adaptation of the Kaplan & White's (1980) following directions game were administrated to young and older adults. The Reading Span Test was administrated in order to determine the participants’ memory span size. Then, participants had to follow procedural instructions with a growing complexity displayed on a computer screen. Results show that participants’ age and instructions complexity affect how the instructions are performed. Old adults encounter more difficulty performing the task than young adults. Furthermore, whatever the age, as the complexity of instructions increases, low-span participants have more difficulty performing instructions than high-span participants do.     

Disponibilité à la psychothérapie et à l’engagement dans les soins chez les patientes boulimiques : contribution du Rorschach

The instability of involvement in the care process and psychotherapy is frequent among bulimic women. The preliminary evaluation of the capacity of involvement helps to make the decision to begin specific care with these patients. We thus make the assumption that involvement in the care process can express itself in indexes of Rorschach when this test is part of a prior examination of orientation at the beginning of the care. These indexes concern the relationship dependence and the capacity of development of subjective expression. They appear in several analysis registers of the Rorschach protocol, which are: the scale of oral dependence (ROD); the index of expressive capacity (EX); the recurring object (ORec); contents in connection with the representation of dependence among bulimic women. A group of 34 bulimic women involved in multifocal care process, especially including a psychoanalytical-inspired psychotherapy (ES) is compared with a group of 34 bulimic women who precociously stopped this care or didn’t get involved in it (NES). The subjects of the ES group received care during at least 1 year. The comparison between the two groups shows significant differences in the pretherapeutic indexes (ROD, ORec). The interest and the limits of this type of analysis are debated.     

Effets de l’expression écrite d’un événement positif et négatif sur le niveau d’anxiété d’étudiants de différentes disciplines

This study concerns the field of writing and its influence on the emotional state of writers (Pennebaker, 2002). In this field of research, participants are usually requested to express their feelings and emotions following the occurrence of negative events. It is thus important to collect data concerning the influence of positive experiences. By contrast, our study aimed at exploring the impact of expressive writing in two opposite contexts. One context concerns a negative experience (exam's failure) and the other context refers to a positive experience (exam's success). Expressive writing is usually studied in relation to mental (mostly depression) and physical health of the participants. The impact of expressive writing affect on the writers’ anxiety has more rarely been investigated. This is the reason why we have examined the effect of writing on the levels of anxiety of writers. Writing expertise has also been shown to depend on academic disciplines. To fulfill these different goals, undergraduate students (n = 119) belonging to three different university discipliones (arts, sciences and psychology students) responded to the S-Anxiety scale and when then required to write about their feeling concerning the positive or negative topics. The level of anxiety was again measured afterwards. The main question under investigation is to know if emotion regulation (in the sense of Lepore et al., 2002) would vary as a function of the nature of the described event. We hypothesize that variations in anxiety would depend on these events and that impact of emotional regulation would also differ according to the students’ curses. The results show that sciences students are not as verbose (measures in terms of verbal volume) than arts and psychology students. Moreover, emotional content of writing has been analyzed with Emotaix-Tropes (Piolat and Bannour, 2009a). Whatever the course, students produced both positive and negative lexicon for the two topics. However, positive lexicon was proportionally more important in the Success and an inverse result was observed in the Failure situation. The anxiety level was higher following the use of negative valence lexicon and was lower following the use of lexicon of positive valence. The short term beneficial effect of disclosure is thus not observed in case of a negative event. In addition, students with a scientific curse showed more variations in their emotional state.     

Les comportements de protection face au risque naturel : de la résistance à l’engagement

An adequate risk management requires taking into account all the categories of stakeholders, including the exposed populations. Nowadays, one difficulty is to involve these populations and consequently to understand their reactions face to the eventuality of a disaster's occurrence. Several issues must be addressed: how is the representation of risk built up ? How do people develop adaptive strategies towards risk ? And above all, how is it possible to ensure an increase in behaviours suited for prevention and protection ? After drawing up a report on the research in this area, we will discuss the limitations of a persuasive communication, in order to better understand the interest of a binding communication for the management of natural hazards.     

La construction sociale de la ressource en eau

This study deals with the way in which users represent water, how they perceive it, how they evaluate it (in terms of problem, in the space, and in the individuals–water relationship) and how they consume it according to the place where they live (Brittany vs. Paris Region; France), their attachment to this place and their level of personal involvement in relation to this resource. One hundred and ten semi-directive questionnaires, from both regions, were analyzed. The results show a social representation of the water based on two conceptions: the water is thought as vital natural resource or of consumption good. The study tends then to show the way in which these conceptions influence the evaluation of water quality and concerned practices.     

Pragmatique et langage non littéral : la compréhension des demandes sarcastiques par les enfants

This study was aimed at examining the role of context and intonation in sarcastic-request understanding by French-speaking children 3- to 7-year-olds. An individual completion of stories task is given to the children. Stories vary according to two factors: intonation (sarcastic or neutral) and context (sarcastic or neutral). The results showed that the children were able to understand sarcastic requests before the age of 6 or 7. Intonation seems to be an earlier cue than context in sarcastic-request understanding. At the ages of 3 and 5, children appear to primarily base their interpretation on intonation; it is not until they are 7 that they are also able to take context into account.