Investigates the ability of 63 children between five and six years of age to interpret ambiguous messages. Three studies were made into the relationship between children's uncertainty about the correctness of their interpretation of an ambiguous message and their judgment of the quality of that message. (Author/CI)

Three related experiments investigated the impact of happy and sad moods on the processing of persuasive communications. These experiments suggest that subjects in a happy mood are less likely to elaborate the content of a persuasive message than subjects in a sad mood. Sad subjects' attitudes and cognitive responses (in experiment 2, with 87…

Investigates the knowledge about listening strategies among German university students. Shows that the scope of listening skills is rather limited even among experienced listeners and that there is considerable room for modifying listening behavior. Argues that listening represents a set of activities that control and shape the cognitive processes…

Analyzes research based on data drawn from the cultures of Puerto Rico, Finland, Australia, and the United States. Finds a very positive relationship between immediacy and perceived cognitive learning in each culture studied, but the magnitude of the relationships varied substantially. Discusses implications. (PA)

In Australia, an exploratory study was grounded in U. Bronfenbrenner's ecological perspective of human development and his principles of reciprocity, affective tone, and developmental opportunity and developmental risk. It used D. Baumrind's (1979) work on child rearing styles (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) to explore the effect of…

Within Australian contexts, and within a dialogic, constructivist framework, this paper reports the development of an instrument (COMCOMP) designed to measure perceptions of communication competence among others at the interpersonal-organizational interface and the use of COMCOMP to identify personal characteristics and skills associated with…

This study of negotiation processes between users and librarians in typical reference situations describes association patterns and search procedures in the information transfer process in terms of theoretical approaches, design, analysis, and findings. The thinking-aloud technique of cognitive psychology was adopted to the project, which involved…

We addressed the hypothesis that word segmentation based on statistical regularities occurs without the need of attention. Participants were presented with a stream of artificial speech in which the only cue to extract the words was the presence of statistical regularities between syllables. Half of the participants were asked to passively listen…

To test the claim that verbs consistently occur in particular illocutionary contexts and that illocutionary context thus should be included in models of early verb meanings, a Dutch-speaking child participated in a naturalistic case study in his home, as he grew between the ages of two and three years. The researcher taped the child's interactions…

The Health, Science, and the Environment section of these proceedings contains the following seven papers: "Columbus, Mars, and the Changing Images and Ideologies of Exploration: A Critical Examination" (Lin Bin and August T. Horvath); "Prime Time TV Portrayals of Sex, 'Safe Sex' and AIDS: A Longitudinal Analysis" (Dennis T.…

A field study conducted in Israel sought to identify emblematic gestures (body movements that convey specific messages) that are recognized and used by Hebrew speakers. Twenty-six gestures commonly used in classroom interaction were selected for testing, using Schneller's form, "Investigations of Interpersonal Communication in Israel."…

The professional practices concerning children's questions in the welfare clinic, the day care center, the school and the library in Finland are discussed in this paper. Each institution's historical background and the implicit and explicit concepts of children affecting professional behavior are analyzed. The research data include legal and…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 12 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relational nature of humor, (2) pragmatism and transaction, (3) within-channel redundancy versus between-channel redundancy in instructional material and its association with…