Intégrer des informations en escamots dans les textes techniques : quels effets sur les processus cognitifs ?

Though computerized sytems now offer a wide range of options for accessing and displaying text or text-picture information, little is known about their effects on the user's cognitive processes. In this paper, we investigate the effect of a computer-specific display (pop-up window) which consists in displaying some pieces of information in windows that appear only under user's action. Experiments were carried out to compare the pop-up window device with other devices used on paper. The experiments dealt with text only as well as text-picture documents and involved various tasks. Results are discussed from a theoretical and a practical point of view.