Discusses key issues that will influence the future of graduate education in communication: the way a program defines communication; the type and extent of the roles played by professionals and scholars within the educational process; the extent to which the academy will continue to isolate itself from the outside world; and the oversupply of…

Explored the effects of two variables in the picture-word interference paradigm: semantic relatedness and the level of categorization of distracts relative to pictures' names. Results suggest that the effect of semantically related distractors depends on the level of categorization at which the response has to be given. Semantically unrelated…

Evaluates a brief educational program designed to increase staff awareness of intergenerational speech modifications, such as elderspeak and strategies to enhance communication. After the training, Certified Nursing Assistants reduced their use of elderspeak including terms of endearment, inappropriate collective pronouns, and shortened sentence…

The commentary to EC 232 373 and EC 232 374 discusses whether stuttering is really what the listener perceives, the stutterer senses, or the dictionary states. It concludes that stuttering can probably be defined in appropriate contexts as any or all of these three things. (JDD)

Approaches the issue of whether rhetoric and science are incompatible through a historical narrative of the speech tradition. Draws morals and applies them to the ever-emerging communication discipline. (RS)

Explores the impact that the discovery of deception has upon emotional intensity, negativity of emotional reaction, and relational stability for individuals involved in relationships. Finds that the importance of the information that was lied about emerged as the strongest predictor of relational termination. (MG)

Argues that communication ethics and free speech are the foundation for understanding the field of speech communication and its proper positioning in the larger array of academic disciplines. Argues that speech communication as a discipline can be traced back to a "practical philosophical" foundation detailed by Aristotle. (KEH)

Compares communication apprehension (CA) levels of people exposed or not exposed to visualization (a desensitization technique to assist people in coping with CA) after four months and after eight months. Finds that those exposed to visualization reported significantly lower CA levels at the end of both time periods than those not exposed to…

The study examined adult-child interactions during conversation with respect to the effects of adult paralinguistic speech variations on the speech production of four four-year-old children. Analysis indicated that each child's response time latency (RTL) was significantly longer when the experimenter's RTL was longer. (Author/DB)

A study involving 3 autistic children, aged 9 to 12, found that the frequency of spontaneous verbal requests was higher when they were presented with preferred materials as compared to non-preferred materials. (Author/JDD)

Many Down Syndrome children have some disruption in the oral communicative processes, including an unusual voice quality which may have negative social effects. Factors to be considered include fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency range, frequency perturbations, amplitude perturbations, spectral noise, formant amplitude, and oral and nasal…

Examines linguistic features of help-seeking messages constructed to overcome obstacles to the achievement of interpersonal objectives associated with: (1) the type of request (borrowing or favors); and (2) relational intimacy. (SR)

Investigates (1) whether subjects consult their memory or relevant implicit theories when making verbal reports, and (2) the effect of recognition criterion on verbal report performance. Finds that subjects occasionally employ implicit theories to develop their verbal reports, but that memory is much more important in determining the reports. (MM)

Conversational style often overrides what is said, affecting who gets heard and what gets done. Women's linguistic styles often make them seem less competent and self-assured than they are. Better understanding of speech styles will make managers better listeners and communicators. (SK)

Argues that identifying Gorgias's "Helen" as an epideictic speech is misleading; the speech is not veiled defense of the "Art of Rhetoric"; Gorgias may have inaugurated the prose genre of encomia; and "Helen"'s most significant theoretical contribution is to offer a secular account of the workings of the logos that…