Abstract
Two experiments investigated the strategy of coping with an indeterminate description in adults. The data suggest the existence of an important inter-individual variation in the way people represent such indeterminacies. In the first experiment 53% of the subjects failed to draw more than one diagram after the reading of an indefinite spatial description. The analysis of reading limes nevertheless suggests that these subjects were sensible to the referential problem during reading. In the second experiment, 43% of the subjects recognized only one among several layouts which correspond to a description they had read. In these subjects, a highly modal way to disambiguate the description clearly appears. The possible discrepancy between these results and Mani and Johnson-Laird’s (1982) data is discussed.