Research was conducted to investigate the effects of contextual information on the speed and accuracy with which two general classes of inferences were verified by readers. These types of inferences were based on information in conversations that were or were not topically ambiguous, depending upon the amount of available contextual information.…

Participants in an intercultural encounter bring with them differences in values, beliefs, attitudes, and world views. The communication of these differences often results in threatening and defensive behavior. The facilitating attitudes of open-mindedness and nonevaluation promote understanding and a respect for differing experience and…

A review of the literature on reciprocal self-disclosure indicates that scholars have limited their investigations to one aspect of disclosure--intimacy--while recent research suggests that disclosure is a multidimensional phenomenon. A study was conducted to assess the possibility of reciprocation of intimacy, amount, and valence (positive or…

Proposing that most studies of nonverbal intimacy regulation have inadequately tested the compensation model (changes in any component of intimacy necessitate compensating changes in other components to maintain an equilibrium), this paper examines the nature of methodological problems in such studies and offers three suggestions for improved…

A study was conducted to discover whether jurors perceived a difference between instructions to assign guilt on a "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard as compared with a "to a reasonable degree of certainty" standard. The main study included 88 communication students who read a case summary and one of four versions of jury…

A study involving 59 undergraduate speech communication students investigated relationships between intelligence, understanding of editorial satire, and appreciation of satire. The students were asked to read three satirical essays and then to pick one of five statements that best described the thesis as intended by the author. Then each satire…

This paper explores systems of classification to develop a conceptual model adequate as an organized knowledge base for organizational communication research findings. The paper notes that present classification systems employed in organizational communication textbooks and in reviews of organizational literature are not adequate to the task of…

An investigation of the functions performed by talk radio programs involved in-depth interviews with 184 call-in listeners to one such program over a seven-day period. During the interviews, the callers listened to tape recordings of their conversations with the program host to help them focus on the motivation that prompted their calls, the…

The purpose of this analytical essay is to lay out some conceptual boundaries and distinctions about how children develop and use metacommunication (messages whose primary function is to make reference to or transform themselves or other messages). Two types of metacommunication are discussed: metalinguistic messages, in which there is a temporary…

An investigation into the types of propositions used in criminal trials reveals that the question being adjudicated in criminal trials is a proposition of fact that may or may not be influenced by policy and value considerations. The argument is offered that the proposition of fact identifies the ultimate issue in a legal debate. While value…

John Kenneth Galbraith maintains that advertising is the prime instrument for the management of total consumer demand and results in increased consumption. Galbraith also maintains that television is a more effective advertising tool, in that it reaches people in all spectrums of intelligence. Other economists disagree, holding that it is actually…

The effects of photographic framing on viewer perceptions of men and women was studied across five cultural groups, enabling the comparison of Jung's theory of universal archetypes to a contemporary theory of culture-bound, learned nonverbal cues. Subjects for the study were 140 college students from five cultural groups: Anglo, Chicano, Iranian,…

A study investigated the relationship between male and female employees' perceptions of the androgynous/nonandrogynous communication style of their immediate supervisors and their own job satisfaction. Subjects were 100 males and 100 females employed in business and industrial settings and responsible to male supervisors. The subjects completed…

Antecedents of linguistic nonimmediacy were examined in a four-factor analysis of covariance with repeated measures design. Immediacy refers to the language of a message expressing a close relationship to the referent, while nonimmediacy suggests that the language expresses a more distant relationship. Subjects in the study were 118 college…

A study was conducted to identify the independent and conjoint influence of attitude similarity and initial interactions on interpersonal attraction to relative strangers. The 124 college students who were participants in the study were informed that they would be working on a project with either an attitudinally similar or dissimilar stranger…