Message interpretation, the notion that individuals assign meaning to stimuli, is related to listening presage, listening process, and listening product. As a central notion of communication, meaning includes (a) denotation and connotation, and (b) content and relational meanings, which can vary in ambiguity and vagueness. Past research on message…

Restates A. D. Baddeley's hypothesis about the limited capacity for information processing: an individual's limited capacity to handle information (including production and storage), although presumably never reached in actual performance, exercises a definable constraint on performance. (RL)

Concepts basic to designing and implementing change (including instructional change) are defined. A model for analyzing these concepts is presented which involves four variables: (1) configurational relationships between innovator and adopter systems; (2) linkages between them; (3) environment of the change situation; and (4) resources available…

Presents the Targowski/Bowman model of the communication process, which introduces a new paradigm that isolates the various components for individual measurement and analysis, places these components into a unified whole, and places communication and its business component into a larger cultural context. (MM)

Expressing the need for a description of communication that is equally applicable to all the social sciences, this report develops a general model of the communication process based upon the principle of convergence as derived from basic information theory and cybernetics. It criticizes the linear, one-way models of communication that have…

Explores gender politics in information technology theory and research. Maintains that an absence of critical consciousness about gender reproduces old patterns of power and privilege in the social distribution of knowledge. Identifies ways in which displays of the perspectivity of knowledge can secure new models of systematic,…

Tests a model of resistance to persuasion based upon variables not considered by earlier congruity and inoculation models. Supports the prediction that the kind of critical response set induced and the target of the criticism are mediators of resistance to persuasion. (JMF)

Surveys communications theory and discusses its application to educational organizations. Topics examined include definitions of communication, the evolution of communication models, concepts of language and semantics, interpersonal communication, and organizational communication. Finally, analytic techniques and conceptual frameworks are…

This paper discusses communication and physical-setting variables as a subset of organizational climate variables and attempts to provide a theoretical and methodological framework for organizational communication research. Attention is focused on the effects of immediate physical surroundings, the physical settings in which people work, and how…

Explores the rationale for the creation of the rumor control center and identifies the few valuable models found in the literature. Examines the usefulness of the center as an additional channel of communication and considers the desirability of using such a mechanism. Suggests an approach to teaching rumor control. (JMF)

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 13 titles deal with the following topics: confessional rhetoric in the poetry of Anne Sexton, rhetorical criticism, the Hippocratic oath, messages communicated through team sports as a medium of social interaction, the silent…