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The main goal of this research was to investigate the effects of two factors on the construction of spatial representations : the modality of presentation of spatial information (Spatial configuration versus Text) and the type of organization of this information (Linear versus Non Linear). In a preliminary experiment, we examined the internal structure of subjects' descriptions of features of an imaginary island. The results showed that most subjects organized linearly their descriptions. We used these findings in our experiment investigating which conditions allow the construction of spatial representations. After learning the content of an imaginary island, subjects had to judge the location of the items they had learned previously. Following our hypotheses, the main results showed that the quality of the spatial model elaborated depends on the modality of information, and that the effects of organization on the quality of the spatial model vary according to the modality of information.
