Perceptions, expectations, and evaluations of intergenerational communication were examined. College students responded to an older adult target portrayed as "perfect grandparent" or "despondent." Their perceptions of conversation with that target were measured. Findings are considered in terms of theoretical models of…

Suggests a "complexity effect" for overall message-production speed (in which undergraduate students exhibited superior performance relative to older adults) and for initial message-production-skills performance and rate of skill acquisition, with these differences not pronounced under complex-task conditions. Finds that older adults' learning…

Outlines why organizations need to learn. Discusses communication embedded in the following: the preconditions for becoming a learning organization, the indicators that a firm is a learning organization, and the disciplines necessary to maintain learning in organizations. Presents an organizational case study of an organization that used…

Examines a series of managerial briefings of staff in nine stores of a major electronics retail chain. Shows that managers were neither trained nor appraised on their briefings skills, prepared themselves indifferently, and made little use of techniques known to affect attentiveness and recall. Finds that the daily communication session appeared…

Contributes to research on child-directed speech by examining the use of two types of utterances (reported speech and prompts) in interactions involving mothers, toddlers, and other adults or siblings in rural Senegal. Shows that mothers attempt to promote exchange in a triadic framework, with the goal of making the child part of a complex set of…

Examines change-related communication in the business services department of a large local-government organization in New Zealand, exploring it from three perspectives: functional, romantic, and critical. Outlines the logic, metaphors, and standards for evaluation of each perspective, and notes how they highlight different change-related…

Describes parallel persuasive processes between social or political activism and personal self-advocacy in a study of AIDS activism and communication patterns between people with HIV or AIDS and health care personnel. Encourages greater patient education about the illness and treatment options. Promotes a more assertive stance toward health care,…

Examines the discourse of a problem-based learning group in medicine. Identifies ethnomethodological conversation analysis to analyze a segment of interaction in a problem-based learning (PBL) meeting. Observes that the presentation of a theory makes relevant a variety of sequential activities through which participants in this instructional…

Examines the discourse of a problem-based learning group in medicine. Uses a conceptual distinction between linguistic (and other semiotic) resources for making typological (or categorical) versus topological (or continuous variation) meanings as part of a multimedia semiotic analysis of the data episode. (SR)

Examines the discourse of a problem-based learning group in medicine. Finds evidence of similarity in the way that medical students and family members converse. Finds a paradox arising when activities of technoscience and ordinary conversation are rendered in ways that make them indistinguishable without extrinsic reference to who people are or to…

States that researchers in technical communication have begun to take advantage of the interactions taking place via computer-mediated communication as a rich source of research. Reviews three forms of technical communication research methods (ethnography, rhetorical analysis, surveys) and raises preliminary issues to consider when using such…

Examines the influence of five communication modalities on voters' perceptions of candidates. Finds that political talk-radio exerted the greatest influence on voters' perceptions of Bob Dole and considerable impact on perceptions of Steve Forbes. Finds also that prospective voters' conversations with other people, television news, and candidate…

Examines the socialization process of newcomers to a residential high school for performing arts. Finds that communication appeared particularly useful in reducing affective uncertainty and providing students with reassurance and support. Analyzes the hidden curriculum of this school, identifying four aspects: control versus freedom, inclusion…

Studies the electronic contributions of academic and practitioner public relations professionals on the listserv called PRForum. Examines 200 messages for dialectic interacts (two or more messages on one topic); analyzes further in terms of the applied model of speech act theory. Assesses the impact of language creation via technology, especially…

Examines effects of a child's age on interpretation of a violent act. Notes subjects were showed clips that depicted identical violent acts in which punishment and provocation were manipulated to create four conditions. Finds that younger children thought that unpunished violence was more right than punished violence, and older children thought…