Investigates the communication skills of children in grades kindergarten, two, and four (eight from each grade). Also looks at age differences in reliance on gestural v verbal forms of communication. (Author/SS)

Examines the history of word games, their various forms, and analyzes their comic nature as a breakdown of normal communication processes. (AM)

Advocates the more extended treatment of content analysis in political communication research. Develops a fourfold scheme for classifying verbal and nonverbal communication content and illustrates the use of the scheme in political communication research by analysis of the 1960 and 1976 presidential debates. (JMF)

An experiment was designed to answer the following: (1) can children as young as 2 1/2 to 3 years of age employ contextual cues in order to distinguish request from offers? and (2) do children's discrimination skills for these illocutionary acts improve with age? A model of the comprehension of illocutionary force is proposed. (Author/AM)

The Levels of Verbal Intimacy Technique (LOVIT) is an instrument for the analysis of verbal statements along a continuum from most intimate to least intimate. It enables an observer to place all verbal statements in one of 10 categories along this intimacy continuum. The technique has been used in research. (Author)

Reports three experiments based on the hypothesis that qualitative changes in verbal reasoning emerge, not from the conclusions children draw, but from what they accept as conclusive evidence. Results show a gradual development across 7-13 age range in ability to distinguish logically certain from only suggested or probabilistic conclusions.…

The results of this study indicate that analysis of teachers' verbal behavior according to specific purposes reveals differences that are masked when the purpose is disregarded. (JD)

Generalization of verbal behavior by four autistic-type children (six to seven years old) across physically different settings was assessed. Ss learned responses to common questions in two settings at school and were probed to determine transfer of learning to home. (Author)

Examines the central characteristics of interlanguages that distinguish them from all other natural language systems. It is proposed that, since permeability presupposes an interlanguage norm which is relatively stable, we are forced to gather enough data to establish the overall level of linguistic competence of the learner. (Author/POP)

Discusses Harris's point that evolutionary accounts of writing must ultimately fail to show what writing is because they fail to come to terms with the conceptual prerequisites for writing. According to Harris, the crucial moment of writing was when graphical marking could be envisaged as having broken free from externally imposed semiological…

A computer program has been developed that analyzes data from interview transcripts, field notes, and other sources without a priori frameworks or the tedious categorizing of passages. The program finds repetitive association of words or ideas that characterize a verbal response corpus. An example of the program's use is given. (SLD)

Using a centuries-old tradition of talking circles has helped many school districts teach children how to really listen to other students, appreciating each other's differences, ideas, and thoughts. (GCP)

The hypothesis that describing a visual memory can result in recoding interference was investigated in a series of 6 experiments with 518 college students. Collective results were consistent with the hypothesis; verbalizing memory can produce a verbally biased memory representation that can interfere with the original visual memory. (SLD)