Argues that learning is an invariant process best understood from a dialectical perspective which demands that learning be viewed as an interaction between the organism and the environment. This view is contrasted with traditional operant approaches and with a Piagetian approach. (Author/DB)

This paper formulates a semiotic metatheory (theory of change) of human communication, in six analytical steps: First, semiology indicates that the coding function in communication relies on the nature of the signifier and the signified. Second, the nature of coding (as distinct from its function) is best described by social systems theory. Third,…

Presents an overview of feedback within the cybernetics and social frameworks. These feedback concepts are then compared with the interactive feedback concept evolving within the framework of information seeking and retrieving, based on their conceptualization of the feedback loop and notion of information. (Author/AEF)

Three philosophical perspectives on communication research are identified, described, and compared. First, communication of "action," a one-way approach, is a type of "cybernetic" theory of communication involving observation and experience in developing patterns of communication performance. It is simplistic, has a weak capacity for replication…

In order to devise an aid for the teaching of formal languages and automata theory, a system was developed which allows a student to design, test, and change automata in an interactive manner. This process permits the user to observe the step-by-step operation of a defined automaton and to correct or alter its operation. Thus, the need for lengthy…

While the traditional role of television has been to transmit messages to mass audiences, more recent uses of television which allow face-to-face interaction may lead to new kinds of behavior by the parties involved. In an interactive situation, an individual's two types of tasks are presentational (presenting his own "line" or image)…

Using the coorientational framework developed by McLeod and Chaffee, this study tested Bem's theory that an individual performing a behavior (speaker) and an individual observing the behavior (listener) use the same evidence when evaluating the performer's attitudes. Participants included 96 undergraduate students at the University of…

An examination of geographic theories of social change clarifies how and why Torsten Haagerstrand's ideas have revolutionized geographic thinking, particularly regarding educational change and development, and provides the background for analyzing his models in detail. Haagerstrand developed the first formal geoqraphic model of diffusion…

Simulation, defined as a representational model of a particular theory, has been the subject of some research in the communication field, but there has been little material published on the uses of simulation as a research tool. Simulations are considered helpful in closing gaps between field studies and laboratory research, serving to increase…

Relational communication refers to the control or dominance aspects of message exchange in dyads--distinguishing it from the report or referential aspects of communication. In relational communicational analysis, messages as transactions are emphasized; major theoretical concepts which emerge are symmetry, transitoriness, and complementarity of…

This book ranges widely over the fields of communication theory, Freudian and Lacanian psychology, and Levi-Straussian anthropology. The primary goal of the book is an examination of the structural and analogic patterns within human communication and exchange. This examination involves discourses upon the computer compared to the human nervous…

Certain definitions and theoretical structures, accompanied by Venn diagrams, are used to distinguish several dimensions of international and interracial communication. International communication occurs on a political level between representatives of nations. Intercultural communication is communication between individuals of different cultures…

The use of the systems approach in educational inquiry is not new, and the models of input/output, input/process/product, and cybernetic systems have been widely used. The general systems model is an extension of all these, adding the dimension of environmental influence on the system as well as system influence on the environment. However, if the…