Two studies assessed changes in attentional engagement as a function of exposure to "teachers" differing in perceived power and the communication style associated with perceived power. Results suggested that adult ambiguity (more characteristic of those with perception of low power) leads to reductions in children's attentional…

Examines whether mothers' verbal input at 3 years of age that specifies relations between objects, actions, and concepts (scaffolding) relates to children's development of verbal and nonverbal cognitive skills from 3 through 6 years of age. For all children scaffolding predicated verbal and nonverbal skills even after controlling for families'…

A study compared two approaches for teaching cooperative play to six children (ages 4-12) with autism. In one approach, children observed cooperative play before participating. In the second approach, participants verbally described the modeled play episode before participating. Participants failed to acquire cooperative play until the verbal…

Tests the effects of patients' culture and cultural orientations on assertiveness and communication apprehension during medical interviews. Suggests that the greater the patient's construal-of-self as interdependent, the more negative her/his beliefs regarding patient participation, which, in turn, leads to a higher degree of communication…

The performance of 32 undergraduates (aged 17-27 years) on a map task show that interactive style influences choices of forms of introduction. Assumptions about shared knowledge and prior task experience also influenced choices. (Contains 30 references.) (JA)

A bird study found that with sufficient time and training after hair cell and hearing loss and hair cell regeneration, the mature avian auditory system can accommodate input from a newly regenerated periphery sufficiently to allow for recognition of previously familiar vocalizations and the learning of new complex acoustic classifications.…

Explores the types of problem-solving strategy knowledge that can be accessed through the complementary use of two forms of verbal reports: concurrent verbal protocols and retrospective debriefings. Data collected from students and professors provides a detailed account of problem-solving strategies used, as well as the conditional knowledge,…

A study examined developmental changes in talker recognition skills by assessing 72 children's (ages 3-5) recognition of 20 cartoon characters' voices. Four- and 5-year-old children recognized more of the voices than did 3-year-olds. All children were more accurate at recognizing more familiar characters than less familiar characters. (Contains…

Examines the relationships among receiver apprehension, teacher clarity, and teacher immediacy in the instructional context. Examines the relationships between state receiver apprehension and student motivation, affect, and cognitive learning. Finds that, although state receiver apprehension is significantly related to negative instructional…

Tower of Hanoi has become a popular tool in cognitive and neuropsychology to assess a set of behaviors collectively referred to as executive functions. Substantial variability in performance on the Tower of Hanoi (TOH) disk-transfer task among normally functioning young adults, and potential contributions to these individual differences, were…

This study was designed to provide a general picture of infant vocal-motor coordination and test predictions generated by Iverson and Thelen's (1999) model of the development of the gesture-speech system. Forty-seven 6- to 9-month-old infants were videotaped with a primary caregiver during rattle and toy play. Results indicated an age-related…

In light of a new "student engagement" benchmark for teaching and institutional effectiveness in higher education, this study focused on the relationships between perceived instructor use of verbal approach and avoidance relational strategies and students' motives for communicating with their instructors. The data suggest that perceived instructor…

A refinement of the verbal process category of MAK Halliday's System of Transitivity makes it possible to distinguish three sub-categories of verbal process: positive, negative and neutral. This in turn makes possible an analysis of negative verbal processes used in a corpus of 50 news texts from the "UK Times" which reveals some of the…

Studies of how children who are blind acquire and use language have focused less on cognitive compensations and more on delays in development. Vision is important in the establishment of early communicative patterns, and sighted children regularly use contextual visual information, such as a speaker's gestures and eye gaze, to make sense of speech…

We examined the role of specific therapist verbal behaviors in predicting successful completion of Parent?Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in 22 families, including 11 families that successfully completed treatment and 11 that discontinued treatment prematurely. The children were 3 to 6 years old and diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder…