Argues that excommunication was the principal strategy of antimasonic rhetoric during the late 1820s and early 1830s, seeking to remove Freemasonry from the community and to relieve Masons of their political power. Notes the transition of antimasonic rhetoric from that of moral crusade to mainstream political issues. (KEH)

Examines the types of comprehension problems that students experience in classrooms and the tactics they use to resolve those problems. Reports meaningful distinctions among classroom comprehension problems, and finds that the tactics used vary systematically in relation to the situation (class size and instructional format) and the type of…

Discusses the distinction between cognitive effects with computers, whereby an individual's performance is redefined and upgraded during intellectual partnership with the computer, and effects of computers, whereby such partnership leaves durable and generalizable cognitive residues. Suggests two mechanisms for affecting cognition: skill…

Examines the process of disseminating scientific information to the public. Explores the particular steps and strategies that scientists use in taking research findings to a popular audience. Examines the popularization of cold-fusion research. (RS)

Investigates the "third-person effect" (people believing that there are important effects of mass media on others but not on themselves) in terms of the ABC-TV miniseries "Amerika." Finds evidence for the third-person effect among those who perceive themselves to be political experts. (RS)

Examines stories about organizations to view how conversants define their organizations' character and their own roles within the organizations. Finds that stories exhibit two kinds of conversational markers (action and constraint markers), and that their sequential juxtaposition is an effective thematic device for analyzing conversational…

Examines the electronic polling process (telephone polling that uses synthesized or digitized voice). Compares the process with two similar telephone polls and provides a basic cost efficiency comparison between the polls. Finds that digitized systems place more calls but get lower response rates than regular phone surveys. (MM)

Three primary strands of pragmatic theory and research are applied to interpersonal communication research and education of hearing-impaired individuals: communication/speech act theory, conversational organization theory, and text/discourse-building theory. It is concluded that neither current research nor educational practice suggests widespread…

Shows why truthfulness, because of its link to spirituality, was the foremost standard for speech in ancient India, and how its practice was defined, emphasizing the consequences of truthfulness and deceit for speakers themselves. Considers possible contributions to current rhetorical and ethical studies. (SR)

Extent of resemblance in the communicative behavior between dyads that share common members was examined by means of linguistic and conversational measures. Findings indicated that although there was considerable consistency in the linguistic output of dyads within a 15-minute interaction, there was no consistency across dyads that shared a common…

Investigates whether self-confidence--expressed both as willingness to communicate and lack of anxiety--is an indicator of overall listening competence. Finds communication confidence and listening comprehension positively related, but notes that students' ability to decipher emotional content tends to be inversely related to their expressed…

Uses Third World development campaigns to examine how current interpretations of the interactive model in communication have confounded two dimensions of communications--information processing and social relationship. Suggests an analytic framework for feedback using a revised interpretation of the interactive model. (MM)

Examines the relationship of construct differentiation and conceptual level to four features of argument design: number of arguments produced, coordinated conception of the problem, coordinated defense of the proposal, and diversity of stock issue covered. Finds that construct differentiation was positively associated with all four measures of…

Analyzes the frequency of cliches used by television sports announcers in order to understand better how the mind processes information under stressful situations. Finds some support for capacity theory and asserts that, under pressure, sports announcers may divert some of their attention away from communication and toward processing information.…

Considers two ways of conducting the search for generalizations about messages: (1) single-message research designs used with meta-analytic summaries; and (2) multiple-message designs treating messages as a random factor in the statistical analysis. Contends that the treatment of messages as a random factor is statistically appropriate. (MS)