Vocal activity in spontaneous speech appears to alternate between regular periods of high and low activity. These cycles may be properties of social systems, internal cognitive rhythms, or physiological rhythms that affect readiness to initiate activity. (Author/RL)

Results indicate that individuals with relatively less developed (less differentiated) interpersonal construct systems can be expected to exhibit greater consistency between their attitudes about a person and their behavioral intentions toward that person than those with more developed interpersonal construct systems. (PD)

A study replicated Robert Sommer's classic work of library table seat choices, showing that people given defensive instructions chose end seats while people given offensive instructions chose middle seats. In a followup study, defensiveness was measured in college students who were asked where they typically sat at library tables. This study found…

Demonstrates that there are important conceptual distinctions among the constructs of reticence, shyness, communication apprehension, and unwillingness to communicate. Argues that the failure to recognize the distinctions impedes research and precludes improved methods of identifying the problems and improving treatment. (PD)

A study was conducted to investigate the practical management of interactions sustaining close friendships. Ten pairs of close friends were interviewed individually on two occasions and together on a third occasion. An interpretive analysis of subjects' remarks identified a dialectical principle governing the communicative organization of…

K. Burke's (1945) pentad identifies five contributing factors in any communication event: agent, purpose, act, scene, and agency. Using the pentad as an organizational schema, this paper summarizes problems in methods used by behavioral researchers to study the deceptive communication event. The paper argues that fragmenting the communication act…

A study was conducted to examine how different kinds of children's nonverbal behavior developed across grade levels. The six kinds of behavior studied were (1) proxemic, or observance of personal space; (2) haptic, or touching behavior; (3) oculesic, or gazing; (4) kinesic, or interpreting emotions from facial expressions; (5) vocalic, or…

Concludes that subjects with considerable prior exposure to common, nonviolent pornography preferred to watch uncommon pornography. Male nonstudents preferred it almost exclusively, as did male students to a lesser extent. Females also exhibited this consumption preference, though it was far less pronounced, especially in female students. (JD)

Noting that recent research and theory from the expanding field of psychobiology have not been integrated into the study of human communication, this paper offers a synthesis of principles from several leading psychobiological scientists as a step toward a possible unifying approach to communication philosophy, theory, and research. The paper…

A literature review of communications, psychological, physiological and other sociobehavioral research literature reveals a number of paradoxes regarding the emphasis by information gatekeepers, media, and audiences on messages that are negative, critical, pessimistic, conflict-and-tension-producing, skeptical, punitive, threatening,…

An exploratory study was conducted to define and differentiate interruptions structurally and tactically. The participants were 60 college students assigned to female-female, female-male, and male-male conversational dyads. The dyadic conversations were recorded for 14 minutes, during a period of "getting to know each other" and during a…

Based on the assumptions that relational messages are multidimensional and that they are largely communicated by nonverbal cues, this experiment manipulated five nonverbal cues--eye contact, proximity, body lean, smiling, and touch--to determine what meanings they convey along four relational message dimensions: emotionality/arousal/composure,…

A study examined the behavior patterns of patrons arriving at theatres that showed both "X" rated and "PG" rated movies. The study was undertaken to update the findings of the President's Commission on Pornography and Obscenity, which conducted similar research in 1970 and 1971. Patrons entering the theatre's X and PG rated…

Presents a conceptualization that there is a strong relationship between the personality characteristic of communication apprehension and a set of theoretically relevant behaviors. Predicts an empirical distinction between apprehension and attitude, and compares three self-report measures of apprehension. (JMF)

Found that teachers perceive that their students (1) have developed many behavioral conversational skills prior to contact with school and (2) reveal very little development in their emotional expression abilities. (PD)