Focuses on the relationship of three student predispositions to their expectations for instructor communication behavior. Examines students' communication apprehension, grade and learning orientation, and humor orientation in relation to students' expectations for teachers' use of verbal and nonverbal immediacy behaviors, clarity behaviors, and…

Storybook reading in child care classrooms typically occurs in one large group, a context that does not provide opportunities for each child to talk about the book. Two-year-old children, in particular, need individual support to facilitate their language participation, and they want to touch the book and be close to the teacher. The purpose of…

Using the Add Health data (N = 9,530 dyads), this study explores sexual socialization in the family using the theory of reasoned action by assessing how mothers' opinions are associated with their childrens' sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the more sexually liberal teens think their mothers are, the more likely the teens are to have higher…

The present study examined left (LH) and right (RH) hemisphere involvement in discourse processing by testing the ability of each hemisphere to use world knowledge in the form of script contexts for word recognition. Participants made lexical decisions to laterally presented target words preceded by centrally presented script primes (four…

In the present study, an investment model framework was applied to identify associations between partner verbal sexual coercion and dating relationship outcomes, including relationship commitment and maintenance. Undergraduate women (N=180) provided self-report data on investment model variables and verbal sexual coercion within their current…

Many child language studies emphasize the value of verbal and social support, of 'scaffolding' processes and mutual adjustments that naturally occur in adult-child interactions in everyday contexts. Based on such theories, this study attempted to improve the language and communication skills in children with special educational needs through…

Previous research has demonstrated that people's movements can become unintentionally coordinated during interpersonal interaction. The current study sought to uncover the degree to which visual and verbal (conversation) interaction constrains and organizes the rhythmic limb movements of coactors. Two experiments were conducted in which pairs of…

Neuroscience researchers identify a cerebral cortex with two functioning hemispheres: a left hemisphere associated with language and speech and a right hemisphere associated with visual-motor activities. Additionally, neuroscientists argue that contemporary lifestyles favor the verbal, logical left brain and often ignore the truths that present in…

In this article, the author highlights her choice of the 10 most important recent findings from the intimate partner violence research literature, which include (a) the creation of the Conflict Tactics Scale; (b) the finding that violent acts are most often perpetrated by intimates; (c) a series of findings that indicate that women also engage in…

Studies have shown that perception of distance, orientation and size can be dissociated from action tasks. The action system seems to possess more veridical, unbiased information than the perceptual/verbal system. The current study examines the nature of the distinction between action and verbal responses in a spatial reasoning task. Participants…

Children with autism not only display social impairments but also significant individual differences in social development. Understanding the source of these differences, as well as the nature of social impairments, is important for improved diagnosis and treatments for these children. Current theory and research suggests that individual…

Conversational speech is the most socially valid context for evaluating speech intelligibility, but it is not routinely examined. This may be because it is difficult to reliably count the number of words in the unintelligible portions of the sample. In this study four different approaches to dealing with this problem are examined. Each is based on…

Background: This retrospective study examined the efficacy of in-home father training on the communicative outcomes of children with autism. The in-home training consisted of two components: (1) expectant waiting; and (2) imitation with animation. Methods: Efficacy of parent training was examined by measuring the ratio of utterances produced by…

Many children with autism do not imitate adult vocalizations, an important skill in learning to talk. Pairing adult vocalizations with preferred stimuli has been shown to increase free-operant vocalizations but effects are temporary; thus, direct reinforcement may be necessary to establish durable vocal behaviors. In Experiment 1, directly…

According to Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, the mand and the tact are functionally independent verbal operants, each of which is acquired through a unique history of reinforcement. The present study attempted to replicate the findings of Lamarre and Holland (1985), who empirically demonstrated functional independence of mands and…