Focuses on lawyer-nonlawyer patterns of response to incongruity and suggests that communicators be aware of the necessity for adopting different message strategies for lawyer and nonlawyer recipients. (MH)

This investigation emerged out of the generally accepted propositions that understanding is a fundamental for building, or maintaining, positive human relationships and that meaningful interaction in any interpersonal relationship is dependent upon the communication of understanding. An instrument was developed containing a list of behaviors that…

The ability of naive listener-judges to recognize the affective state of a speaker on the basis of nonlinguistic auditory cues independent of the verbal content of an utterance has been well established by a large number of studies. This study used artificial stimuli produced by a Moog synthesizer to vary pitch level and variation, amplitude level…

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…

The contribution of a structured procedure designed to facilitate the generalization of assertive behavior was examined. Subjects solicited from the community (N=48) were assigned to an assertion training plus generalization instructions (AT Plus), an assertion training only (AT Only), or an attention-placebo control condition. Both behavioral…

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…

Discusses a study designed to specify the interpersonal communication related determinants of anomia within a close friendship context. (MH)

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)

A within-subject multiple baseline design was used to teach a young girl with severe disabilities six target signs that were functionally equivalent to existing behaviors (e.g., leading, reaching). Teaching occurred only in the presence of behavioral indication by the subject. Results showed successful acquisition and discriminating use of the six…

Guided by the belief that impressions of communication competence are based on observations of behavior appropriate to a particular context and on inferences about others' capabilities and motivations, a study was undertaken to (1) examine the relationship between self perceptions and other perceptions, (2) discover the role of motivation in…

A study was conducted to examine speech interruption patterns as an index of communication dominance and gender differences in language behavior. Six graduate student groups involving a total of 35 subjects were videotaped. The data extracted for study were 255 transcribed interruption sequences. A category system was developed and used to code…

To determine if an interviewer's orientation toward satisfaction and commitment actually produced different interviewee reactions in these two areas, 20 interviewers conducted an informative and persuasive interview with two different sets of five interviewees (physical education majors). The Conversation Self-Report Inventory (CSRI) was used to…

This paper reviews evidence of the success of behavior intervention approaches which teach students with challenging behaviors alternative functional communication behaviors. Research supporting the view that challenging behavior is a form of nonverbal communication is reviewed, noting the importance of identifying what such individuals are…

To determine the effects of videorecording experience on the communication process in community college sophomore nursing students, 20 students were randomly assigned to two groups. One group received 90-minute sessions of videorecording/feedback experience twice weekly for five weeks. The control group was not exposed to the experimental…