LÉTÉ Bernard

Mes recherches portent sur les mécanismes cognitifs impliqués dans le traitement de l’écrit, tant en réception (lecture) qu’en production (écriture), par le recueil de mesures chronométriques telles que les temps de réaction, les latences et les mouvements oculaires. Ces travaux sont conduits auprès de populations d’enfants et d’adultes, normotypiques ou atypiques, afin d’explorer les trajectoires normales et déficitaires des apprentissages liés à l’écrit.

En lecture, mes recherches portent principalement sur les processus visuo-attentionnels impliqués dans le codage des lettres à leur position correcte dans le mot, la consistance orthographique et les traitements lexicaux. En écriture, je m’intéresse à la mobilisation des connaissances orthographiques et lexicales lors de la production de textes narratifs. 

Mon cadre théorique privilégié s’appuie sur l’apprentissage statistique de l’écrit, un processus implicite par lequel l’apprenant ajuste ses connaissances aux propriétés statistiques de son environnement linguistique via des mécanismes associatifs élémentaires. Ces propriétés incluent la fréquence d’occurrence des mots, la consistance orthographique des associations graphème-phonème, la discriminabilité lexicale (notamment le voisinage orthographique) et les co-occurrences des unités infra-lexicales (lettres, bigrammes, trigrammes, etc.). Les représentations mentales formées par des expositions répétées à l’écrit (lectures) peuvent être mobilisées de manière adaptée selon les exigences des tâches.

Le développement des bases de données lexicales MANULEX et MANULEX-INFRA, a permis d’objectiver ces propriétés distributionnelles dans les écrits adressés aux enfants (manuels de lecture). Ces ressources sont disponibles sur le site [eManulex] (http://www.manulex.org/fr/home.html).

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My research focuses on the cognitive mechanisms involved in written language processing, both in perception (reading) and production (writing), through the collection of chronometric measures such as reaction times, latencies, and eye movements. These studies are conducted with populations of children and adults, both neurotypical and atypical, to explore typical and impaired trajectories of literacy-related learning.

In reading, my research primarily investigates visuo-attentional processes involved in encoding letters in their correct positions within words, orthographic consistency, and lexical processing. In writing, I focus on the activation of orthographic and lexical knowledge during the production of narrative texts.

My theoretical framework is grounded in statistical learning of written language, an implicit process through which learners adjust their knowledge to the statistical properties of their linguistic environment via elementary associative mechanisms. These properties include word frequency, the orthographic consistency of grapheme-phoneme associations, lexical discriminability (particularly orthographic neighborhood), and the co-occurrence patterns of sublexical units (letters, bigrams, trigrams, etc.). The mental representations formed through repeated exposure to written material (e.g., reading) are organized according to the statistical distributions of these units and can be flexibly deployed based on task demands.

The development of the MANULEX and MANULEX-INFRA lexical databases has facilitated the quantification of these distributional properties in texts designed for children (e.g., reading textbooks). These resources are available on the [eManulex] (https://www.manulex.org/en/home.html) website.

Mes enseignements portent principalement sur la psychologie cognitive expérimentale et la méthodologie de la recherche. Les cours abordent des thématiques telles que la méthode expérimentale, les plans factoriels, l’analyse des données (ANOVA, taille d’effet, puissance des tests), ainsi que l’interprétation des résultats et la rédaction scientifique. En Master, les étudiants doivent réaliser un mémoire de recherche, qu’ils soutiennent oralement à la fin de l’année devant un jury. Ce travail, encadré par des chercheurs et enseignants-chercheurs, suit les normes APA de publication d'un article scientifique, et la soutenance respecte les critères d’une communication scientifique.

La formation a pour objectif de conjuguer rigueur méthodologique et applications pratiques, en s’appuyant sur des exemples tirés de recherches récentes. Pour cela, la formation est enrichie par l’utilisation d’outils numériques (OpenSesame, EXCEL, JASP, …) pour permettre aux étudiants de concevoir, réaliser et analyser des expériences complexes, en respectant les standards scientifiques les plus exigeants. En Master 2, les étudiants doivent obligatoirement assister à des séminaires de recherche.

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Teaching
 

My teaching primarily focuses on experimental cognitive psychology and research methodology. The courses cover topics such as experimental methods, factorial designs, data analysis (ANOVA, effect size, test power), as well as result interpretation and scientific writing.

In the Master's program, students are required to complete a research thesis, which they defend orally at the end of the year before a jury. This work, supervised by researchers and faculty members, follows the APA guidelines for publishing a scientific article, and the defense adheres to the standards of a scientific presentation.

The goal of the program is to combine methodological rigor with practical applications, using examples from recent research. To achieve this, the training is enriched by the use of digital tools (OpenSesame, EXCEL, JASP, etc.), enabling students to design, conduct, and analyze complex experiments while adhering to the highest scientific standards. In the second year of the Master's program, students are required to attend research seminars.

DEPUIS 2020

Ducrot, S., Lété, B., Vernet, M., Massendari, D., & Danna, J. (2025). Improving reading and eye movement control in readers with oculomotor and visuo-attentional deficits. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 18, 25. https://doi.org/10.3390/jemr18040025

Zeghli, H., Cauchi, C., Bouanani, M., & Lété, B. (2025). Open-bigrams as orthographic processing units in Arabic: Evidence from the Flanking-Letters Lexical-Decision Task. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-025-03061-2

Brossette, B., Lefèvre, E., Grainger, J., & Lété, B. (2025). On the relation between single word and multiple word processing during learning to read. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 255, 106223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2025.106223

Brossette, B., & Lété, B. (2024). Exploring the role of visual similarity in parafoveal processing: Insights from the Flanking Letter Lexical Decision Task. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Dec 6:17470218241308376. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218241308376

Massol, S., Acha, J., Rondot, L., Vergara-Martinez, M., Favre, E., & Lété, B. (2024). Transposed-character effects during learning to read: when does letter and non-letter strings processing become different? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 249, 106081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106081

Brossette, B., Lefevre, E., Beyersmann, E., Cavalli, E., Grainger, J., & Lété, B. (2024). Phonological decoding and morpho-orthographic decomposition: Complementary routes during learning to read. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 242, 105877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105877 [Q1]

Cauchi, C., Grainger, J., & Lété, B. (2024). On the learning trajectory of directional biases in reading: Evidence from the flankers task. Applied Psycholinguistics. Published online 2024:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716424000134 [Q1]

Brossette, B., Grainger, J., Lété, B., & Dufau, S. (2022). On letters, words, and sentences: A correlational investigation. Scientific Reports, 12, 17735. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22587-1 [Q1]

Brossette, B., Massol, S., & Lété, B. (2022). Searching beyond the looking glass with sandwich priming. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84, 1178-1192. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02405-y [Q1]

Cauchi, C., Beyersmann, E., Lété, B., & Grainger, J. (2022). A developmental perspective on morphological processing in the flankers task. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 221, 105448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105448 [Q1]

Zeghli, H., Bouanani, M., & Lété, B. (2022). Le traitement orthographique du mot écrit en arabe. Psychologie Française, 67, 129-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psfr.2022.01.002 [Q3]

Snell, J., Cauchi, C., Grainger, J., & Lété, B. (2020). Attention extends beyond single words in beginning readers. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 83, 238–246. [Q1] https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02184-y

Cauchi, C., Lété, B., & Grainger, J. (2020). Orthographic and phonological contributions to flanker effects. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82, 3571–3580. [Q1] https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02023-0