Les modèles mentaux dans la compréhension de textes : le rôle des illustrations

• Auteur / Autrice : Valérie Gyselinck
• Direction : Marie-France Ehrlich
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Psychologie
• Date : Soutenance en 1995
• Etablissement(s) : Paris 5

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Lecture -- Aspect cognitif

Résumé

L'objectif de ce travail est de contribuer a specifier les caracteristiques des representations mentales elaborees au cours de la comprehension de textes en etudiant l'influence des illustrations sur la construction de ces representations. La comprehension de textes implique la construction d'une representation linguistique, proche du texte, et d'un modele mental, representation qui va au-dela de ce que dit explicitement le texte. Les illustrations, representations analogiques externes, peuvent etre considerees comme des expressions de certains aspects du modele mental et en faciliter la construction. Dans une serie d'experiences, conduites pour tester cette hypothese, l'etat de la representation linguistique de textes expositifs a visee didactique et l'etat du modele mental sont evalues par les reponses des sujets a des questions mettant en jeu respectivement des paraphrases et des inferences elaboratives. Les performances des sujets observees en cours de lecture ainsi qu'a l'issue de la lecture revelent que les illustrations qui accompagnent un texte facilitent la comprehension des phenomenes decrits. Le type d'informations figurees dans les illustrations a ete manipule et les resultats montrent que la representation construite a l'aide d'illustrations figurant les entites decrites dans les textes et les relations entre ces entites est plus riche que celle construite a l'aide d'illustrations ne figurant que les entites. De plus, il apparait que l'effet benefique des illustrations se maintient apres une journee et que la memoire du contenu des textes depend de la richesse de la representation construite lors de la lecture. Le role particulier des illustrations. Presentees seules a aussi ete explore. La conclusion de l'ensemble de ces experiences est que les textes et les illustrations constituent deux sources complementaires d'informations qui contribuent de differentes facons a la construction d'une representation extra-linguistique integree, de type modele mental.

In order to specify the characteristics of the mental representations built during text comprehension, the role of text illustrations on the construction of these representations are examined. Text comprehension leads to the construction of both a linguistic representation of the text, and of a mental model, which is a representation that goes beyond what is explicity said in the text. Illustrations are analogical representations which can be viewed as external expressions of some aspects of the mental model and can thus facilitate the building of the mental model. A series of experiments have been conducted to test this hypothesis. The linguistic representation of expository texts and the mental model have been evaluated by responses to questions that involve respectively paraphrases and elaborative inferences. Performances were measured both during reading and after reading. Results show that comprehension is improved by the presentation of illustrations. The type of information depicted was manipulated. It appears that the representation built with illustrations depicting the entities described in the text and the relations between these entities is richer than the representation built with illustrations only depicting entities. Moreover, the beneficial effect of illustrations lasts : it is still observed after a day and the memory of the content of the texts depends on the richness of the representation constructed during reading. The role of illustrations presented in isolation has also been studied. Altogether, these experiments lead to the conclusion that texts and illustrations are two complementary means of conveying information that contribute in a different way to the construction of an integrated non-linguistic representation.