Seeks to determine the effect of argumentativeness and verbal aggression on the image of participants in the CBS news interview of George Bush by Dan Rather. Finds that both concepts have a significant relationship to communicator image. Reports that verbal aggressiveness negatively affected Bush's image but positively influenced Rather's. (MG)

Six four-year-olds were subjects in two experiments on correspondence training procedures with toy play behaviors. The experiments found that presence or absence of children's verbalizations exerted no influence on play with target toys, and that children were less likely to engage in target behaviors when no antecedent experimenter verbalization…

Developed behavior observation system for group supervision, designed to measure occurrence of verbal problem-solving behavior during group supervision meetings. Obtained reliability data from four counseling teams' group supervision meetings at residential facility for children with social and emotional problems. Results indicated that system had…

Investigates developmental change in inter- and intrahemispheric transfer of tactile information in two experiments with 74 and 77 subjects aged 4, 6, 10, and 20 years. Results indicate a developmental improvement in inter- and intrahemispheric transfer of tactile information. (RJC)

Examined communicative intents of parents interacting with their children between 14 and 32 months of age. Found that as children's age increased, the set of communicative intents used by parents grew in size and sophistication, parents' use of directive intents declined, and use of child-centered acts increased. Common parental intents were rare…

Addresses issues of verbal communication around the world, explores the power of various linguistic means of expressing politeness, and defines negative and positive politeness. Beneath the surface differences, cultures around the world display amazing similarities in the linguistic means of expressing politeness. (27 references) (Author/CK)

Much emphasis is placed upon social and personal development opportunities available from outdoor education in the residential setting. The vagueness of terms used to describe the outdoors contributes to its marginalization in the activities of outdoor centers. Outdoor educators need to explore ways of giving nature a more central role in the…

Examines two factors (affirming/nonaffirming style and dyad sex) to determine if they influence perceptions of verbal aggression and argumentation behavior in an interpersonal dispute. Finds that fewer mistakes were made in the perception of verbal aggression in the conflict when they communicated with an affirming rather than a nonaffirming…

Presents 14 different ways to say "Achoo" in many languages as a light-hearted classroom exercise. The students are asked to match the sneeze with the language and to follow it up with what North Americans say after a sneeze. (CK)

Discussion of indexing as a problem-solving activity focuses on an experiment that applied theories and methods from cognitive psychology to study interindexer consistency. Eight indexers (four novice and four experts) used two thesauri to index the same four documents. Three kinds of verbal reports were used to assess cognitive processes. (LRW)

Responses of 125 older adults to a life-history interview were rated for frequency and extent of off-target verbosity. Talkativeness was rated by participants, 125 peers, and 10 professionals. Talkativeness did not appear to be age linked, suggesting that irrelevance in discourse may instead reflect longstanding personality traits. (SK)

Surveys of 21 chief executive officers and 1,565 business communication students found strong agreement in both groups' opinions of the importance of verbal and nonverbal communication skills. They disagreed in two areas related to oral communication and social sensitivity. (SK)

This study evaluated the effectiveness of educational brochures in increasing participants' knowledge about the environmental problem of gypsy moth infestations and associated action strategies. Results suggest that brochures rated high in communication effectiveness were most useful in increasing knowledge. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/MDH)

Examines affective facial expression in conversation. Demonstrates that the accuracy of affect-identification for conversational facial expressions generally is no better than chance. Demonstrates that most conversational facial expressions, regardless of true source emotion or the affect signaled in isolation, tend to be interpreted according to…

Explored effects of speech type and esteem level on performance, physiological arousal level, and subsequent esteem in older adults (n=40). Results indicated that older adults performed difficult tasks better with clarified instructions given in attention-getting manner. Findings were contradictory to more intuitive accounts of child-directed…