Considers how communication audits are typically presented as one-shot events, whose impact is not measured. Employs a follow-up audit to track the effects of an initial audit upon a major health care organization. Illustrates how the audit can play a useful role in an organization's communication strategy. (SG)

Investigates how coder characteristics such as language skills, political knowledge, coding experience, and coding certainty affected inter-coder and coder-training reliability. Shows that language skills influenced both reliability types. Suggests that cross-national researchers should pay more attention to cross-national assessments of…

Extends the growing literature in the field of environmental communication that focuses upon citizen involvement in environmental decision-making. Suggests that there are substantive challenges that constrain citizens from having effects. Notes the importance of research that explores the nature of subsequent negotiations between citizens and…

Investigates the visual attention of children (ages 3.5 to 6.5 years) to short segments of the television program "Sesame Street." Finds an early increase in attention to random segments, suggesting an attempt to deal with difficult but seemingly accessible content. Finds a quick decrease of attention to segments with incomprehensible…

Examines the effectiveness of rhetoritherapy as a treatment for individuals with communication difficulties. Finds that performance-based communication training is effective in decreasing communication apprehension and problems communicating and in increasing other-perceived talkativeness. Reports that rhetoritherapy may be a more effective…

Investigates the relationship between employee performance, new technology, employee communication network variables (activity, size, diversity, and integrativeness), and productivity at two corporate offices. Reports significant positive relationships between three of the network variables and employee productivity with new technology. Discusses…

Investigates the perceptual congruence of superiors and subordinates concerning both upward and downward communication between the two groups. Finds that managers perceived themselves to be much more adequate in communication than did their own subordinates. Suggests that several factors may influence the perceptual incongruence, including…

Presents views on how to define "family" theoretically as well as data from quantitative and qualitative studies. Finds that both researchers and members of the general population differ greatly on the concept of family. Shows that such concepts include not only persons from the immediate "nuclear" family but also kin of…

Explores how individuals' conceptions of their family vary across stages of family development. Compares several hypotheses of how key interpersonal relationships shape individuals' intrapsychic experience of their family. Finds scant support for socialization theory but considerable support for social transaction theory. (SR)

Explores married couples' understanding and recall of conversations to consider how intersubjective understanding in marriage is affected by the ambiguity and coding difficulties associated with particular perceptions. Shows that individual-level perceptions are only partly responsive to direct communication between spouses. (SR)

Examines the formulation of supervisory feedback messages as a function of attributions regarding poor subordinate performance and feedback goals. Finds that supervisors' goals determine the type of feedback generated and that attributions for poor performance have relatively few effects on the generation of feedback messages. (KEH)

Discusses four studies investigating how affective orientation (AO) relates to other communication constructs and behavior: (1) the development of the AO measure; (2) assessment of construct validity; (3) association with communication production; and (4) ways high versus low affectively oriented communicators differ in their recall and…

Examines verbal influence behavior during couples' disagreements. Finds the most frequently used strategies are content validation, self-assertions, and other accusations. Finds less use of content invalidation, self-defense, and other-support. Analyzes male/female differences in persuasive tactics. Finds interaction patterns are predominantly…

Describes the seven main components of QUEST, a cognitive model of question answering that attempts to simulate the answers adults produce when they answer different types of questions, both closed class and open class. Illustrates how the model could be applied to different types of knowledge structures, including causal networks, goal…

Tests the QUEST model of question answering in two experiments. Examines which components of QUEST could predict good answers to why-questions and how-questions in the context of short stories. Supports the validity of arc-search procedures and structural distance for both question categories. Finds only partial support for number of information…