Identifies the cognitive skills necessary for children to accurately comprehend projective size on television. Traces the acquisition of these skills and identifies the role of media experience in facilitating comprehension by assessing the extent to which different types of television fare require the use of different cognitive skills. (MS)

Finds that, compared to national norms, students who are academically successful are significantly lower on communication apprehension in dyadic contexts and group contexts, and significantly higher on self-perceived communication competence with strangers. Suggests that key communication variables affecting academic success might be: apprehension…

Provides data showing a relationship between schemata for marital and parent-child communication. Discusses various family types and their interactive characteristics. Identifies a relationship between family types and communication patterns. Presents a new scale for uncovering family communication schemata. (HB)

Examines two views of the relations between a bilingual's language repertoires: the lexical and the conceptual mediation hypotheses. In an experiment using cloze completions that required either simple recall or inferences, the interaction between task and cloze type indicates that different processes mediate interpretation and transliteration.…

Describes a study that examined the communication patterns of teachers who used UNITE (Unified Network for Informatics in Teacher Education), an electronic mail system designed to encourage curricular collaboration and resource sharing. Highlights include computer-mediated communication, use of UNITE by librarians, and recommendations for…

Outlines and analyzes the speech that mothers, fathers, and children spontaneously quote at dinnertime. Shows differences in the use of reported speech between mothers, fathers, and children. Describes the correlation between use of reported speech by mothers and children. (HB)

Focuses on communication via electronic networks as a unique form of discourse that exists on a continuum between context-dependent interaction of oral conversation and the abstracted composition of written text. Reviews research in related fields of psychology, composition theory, computer and information sciences. Suggests directions for further…

States that educators have argued for a kind of teaching that helps students to comprehend complex ideas. Considers that this kind of teaching might be important to low-income, cultural-minority students learning a second language, many of whom are at risk for underachievement in school. Proposes that "instructional conversations" might…

Argues that language and written communication play a critical role in the reacculturation process that enables individuals to make a successful transition from the academic world to a professional environment. Reports results of a mail survey examining the technical communications abilities of aerospace engineering students and the technical…

Examines interpersonal communication in physician-patient interaction and physician-patient research models; suggests application of these models to librarian-patron interaction. Discusses human characteristics that affect interaction, the need for patient and patron satisfaction and compliance with instructions from interactions, and assumptions…

Examined hypothesis that cognitive misers (CM)--individuals low in the need for cognition--forego effortful message scrutiny with a presumably truthful communicator. Results showed that CMs depended more on message scrutiny when a knowledgeable source is of questionable honesty than when the source's honesty is clear. Other factors are discussed.…

Describes the addition of a writing performance assessment to the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), and how development of the Analysis of Argument measure and the Persuasive Adaptiveness measure helps explain the holistic writing score given during grading of the GMAT. Correlates holistic and analytic scores, revealing a positive…

Examines how interaction by means of computer-mediated communication affects the operation of both status differentials and power relations. Claims that power relations are reinforced in computer-mediated communications. Outlines a theoretical framework of the processes of "panoptic power" of such communications. (HB)

Examines the effects of time restriction on social interaction in computer-mediated communication through a meta-analysis of applicable research. Derives hypotheses from Joseph Walther's social information processing perspective. Supports these hypotheses on social communication. (HB)

Explores two models of the effects of sexually explicit materials on college students. Considers the connection between reasons for using sexually explicit materials and beliefs in gender-role stereotypes and acceptance of date-rape myths. Identifies four motives for college students using erotica and connects these reasons to stereotypes. (HB)