Investigates possible structural interference of background television with the working memory subsystem. Finds that when participants were instructed in specific memory techniques to use in the visuo-spatial working memory task, background television had a significant negative effect on performance; although when participants chose their own…

Argues that in interpreting interaction, individuals focus on one dimension or another. Hypothesizes that the salience of dominance or affiliation is a function of the goal-defined context; involvement is also essential in studying relational communication. Rates the relevance of a series of word pairs that operationalized dominance, affiliation,…

Examines accounting behavior in predicaments using a triangular accountability model. Finds that subjects made excuses and justifications to weaken the linkages among the three elements of the accountability triangle (identity, prescriptions, and the event); and that subjects showed a consistent preference for accounts related to a weakened link.…

Evaluates the framing concept and its utility for communication research in conflict resolution. Defines frames as communicative, rather than cognitive, constructions. Provides a theoretical framework for explicating the communicative framing process and its potential issues in conflict. Explores the effects of particular framing patterns on…

Presents four forms of syntactic and semantic meanings. Discusses certain types of message distortion--both syntactic and semantic--that can actually enhance communication effectiveness. (JK)

Presents an overview of research on innovations and organizations. Criticizes past research and calls for a focus on process research in future investigations, moving from a stage-by-stage conception of the innovation process to a dynamic, continuous conception in which the variables involved are sequenced and analyzed through time. (SR)

Explores whether response scale ambiguity determines the relative impact of persuasive arguments and social comparison processes. Describes two experiments which demonstrate that response scale ambiguity influences the interpretation of choice shift processes. (MM)

Argues that the assumption of semantic realism is necessary to any intellectual or disciplinary concept of communication. Distinguishes between meaning and significance. Outlines a coherentist epistemology for meaning by addressing issues in intelligibility, order, and verification. Explains how a theory of communication can use various…

Examines compliance-gaining strategies among undergraduate students. Finds that friends comply more with requests than strangers and that their compliance is constant across message types. Notes that among strangers, the pregiving message produced more compliance than the direct request. (SR)

Delimits the pedagogical usefulness of the question "What is communication?" Shows that it leads students to a reductionist or essentialist mode of thinking that impedes rather than fosters appreciation of the complexity and heterogeneity of communicative events. Maintains that communication can be analyzed and improved without reducing it to a…

Investigates differences in comforting behavior that are associated with dimensions of empathy and exposure to film. Finds that fictional involvement and empathic concern were important predictors of comforting behavior and that, after accounting for the influence of these dimensions of empathy, film condition explained further differences in…

Examines a nonverbal indicator of anxiety--use of object adaptors. Examines effects of planning for an anticipated encounter and level of discrepancy individuals report they have in imagined interactions on use of object adaptors. Discusses findings in terms of spontaneous helplessness, plan efficacy, and accretion of plan strategies in response…

Reports two studies of the process by which supportive messages in nonintimate relationships yield positive outcomes. Finds that an offer of assistance to a person working on a stressful cognitive task improves performance and that supportive messages (regardless of form) are perceived by observers as beneficial to a person working on a…

Finds that readers of a news report featuring extreme exemplar distortion considered carjacking a more serious problem than those who read reports featuring minimally, mildly, or substantially distorted exemplars. Finds that subjects overestimated the incidence of extreme outcome but did not differ in evaluations of newsworthiness, importance, or…

Examines divergences of self-reported from observed communication behavior. Finds that perceived relationship to the group explained 59% of the variance of the average size of commission errors, and the collective communication load on members explained 61% of the variance in the number of omission errors. Proposes a model relating situated…