A new series of studies on adults' and infants' perception of phonetic "prototypes," exceptionally good instances of phonetic categories, show that prototypes play a unique role in speech perception. Phonetic category prototypes function like "perceptual magnets" for other stimuli in the category. They attract nearby members of…

Explores levels of communication apprehension reported by 5- to 11-year-old children in the United States and Sweden. Suggests significant amounts of apprehension develop and increase in early years and indicates the need for research and educational efforts with children and communication apprehension. (SR)

Examines the means of and correlations between perceptions of willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, communication competence, and introversion of college students in the United States and Sweden. Results indicate that the monocultural research on this topic in the United States has limited generalizability. (SR)