Intercollegiate forensics (speech and debate) programs represent an outgrowth of the communication curriculum. As such, the goal of forensic programs is to encourage students to become responsible advocates in democratic societies through developing appropriate communication skills and attitudes. This paper extends earlier research, providing…

The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between interactive television instructors' perceptions of students' nonverbal responsiveness and the influence of these perceptions on distance teaching. The study yielded three general conclusions. First, interactive television instructors' perceptions of students' nonverbal…

This study presents an empirical investigation of basic processes in the perception of speech sounds. The experimental methods applied have their roots in two different psycholinguistic research paradigms; i.e., "categorical perception" and "dichotic listening." In the categorical perception paradigm, listeners' categorization…

Finds little support for previous research that the use of persuasive strategy is dependent on situational variables, such as intimacy of the interpersonal relationship and duration of the consequences of compliance or noncompliance. Concludes, rather, that the use of a strategy may depend on unanalyzed aspects of the message content. (PD)

This study examined the context within which subjects (students) selected one of the following failure management strategies: silence, concession, excuse, justification, and refusal. Contextual variables included: relationship with the reproacher, the students' communicative goal orientation, moral severity of the failure, character of the…

Reports the results of a survey of broadcast journalism instructors in an effort to find out where college and university broadcast journalism programs stand in state-of-the-art technology for teaching purposes. (HOD)

Compared two theories of logical processing: the Atmosphere Effect and the Logical Ambiguity Hypothesis. Found that the Atmosphere Effect was significantly more successful in predicting the most likely response to premise pairs. Concludes that the Atmosphere Effect remains the best empirical theory of how people respond to deductive reasoning…

Discusses materials in the ERIC system concerning nonverbal communication. Examines nonverbal cues in other cultures and the differences traditional nonverbal cues take on in the classroom. (HTH)

Focuses on empathic ability of peer facilitators in an interpersonal communication course. Indicates that attractiveness and teaching effectiveness are the main determinants of perceived empathy. Also provides support for the notion that if students perceive their facilitators as empathic, students perform more positively in a small group,…

Demonstrated that subjects receiving positive feedback from a highly expert source exhibited greater levels of intrinsic motivation than did receivers in any other condition. Discusses implications for organizational communication research and training. (PD)

A disqualification is a message that says something "without really saying it"--one that is evasive, indirect, or effectively ambiguous in some other way. This article describes the rationale for, and development of, an objective method for measuring the degree of disqualification in brief written messages. (PD)

Discusses broad areas that deserve future scholarly inquiry by communication researchers: (1) the interrelatedness of communicative contexts, (2) the serial nature of symbolic exchanges, and (3) barriers to conducting ecologically valid communication research. (PD)

Discusses the constructs of decentration and reading achievement; summarizes related research findings. Reports a study of the relationship between children's abilities to use decentered spoken language and reading achievement. Found significant correlations between egocentric spoken language and reading achievement scores for children in grades 2…

Surveyed engineers to determine their communication needs. Results showed that interpersonal communication, listening behavior, leadership, and group discussion were considered the most important communication skills, while public speaking, interviewing, and parliamentary procedures were considered the least important. (PD)

Provides support for the theoretical connection between cognitive complexity and receiver apprehension. Suggests that the flexibility afforded by high levels of complexity reduces a communicator's tendency to develop receiver apprehension. (PD)