Resumen de Représentation mentale et procédures de résolution de problèmes arithmétiques: l'effet du placement de la question

Catherine Thevenot, Pierre Barrouillet, Michel Fayol

• Arithmetic word-problem solving requires the construction of a mental representation of the situation described by the text. Dévidai, Fayol and Barrouillet (1997) showed that the number of successful solutions is higher when the question is posed before rather than after the text. According to these authors, the question at the beginning of the text activates the appropriate resolution schema. This schema allows calculations during reading, as soon as the numerical data required for these calculations are presented. The subsequent release of working memory resources would explain the improvement in performance. In the present experiment, we used an original paradigm that allows us to determine precisely when the calculations occur. The results confirm the facilitative effect of the question at the beginning of the text and extend this result to more complex problems than those studied by Dévidai et al. (1997). However, we show that this effect is observable whether the calculations are achieved during reading or not. These results are discussed with regard to schema and mental model theories.