Describes a study in which the subjects were interviewed twice: during one interview they told the truth; during the other they lied. Explains that the subjects were told that liars generally decrease their movements while lying but that the subjects nevertheless decreased their movements while lying, even though they thought they were increasing…

Compares three formats for presenting a number of similar procedures in printed instructions: separate lists, an integrated list, and a table. Expects that the integrated list format and the table format will provide overview of the features common to the similar procedures--finds such results did not appear. Finds that none of the formats scored…

Provides a content analysis of the New York "Times," Chicago "Tribune," and Los Angeles "Times" for 1955, 1965, 1975, and 1985. Finds that all three papers emphasized politics and government most in all periods, with economic activity a distant second. (MG)

Identifies and summarizes 16 current articles portraying technical writers--the skills they value, products they produce, roles they play, or industries they serve. (KEH)

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)

Discusses commemoration as a means of closure. Examines the suppression of that impulse through two related events: the establishment of a Tomb of the Unknown for the Vietnam War, and Gerald Ford's abrupt shift of policy concerns as South Vietnam fell. (MS)

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…

Argues that, given the functional relation between typography and language, histories of typography must be informed by those disciplines which bear upon language and its manifestations. Suggests that failing this, chronicles of "natural," untheorized objects will continue to assume the role and claim the status of history-writing. (RS)

Sees new demotic typography as the reinvention of many older punctuation devices in terms of "marginal reuse." Argues that it can represent the fluid fields of type and image that will induce reverie, often a precondition for metaphoric, nonlinear thought, thus helping to fuse widely separated information and aid lateral thinking. (SR)

Finds that when uncertainty is low, low differentiators form proportionally more intraorganizational links than do high differentiators, but when uncertainty is high, high differentiators form proportionally more intraorganizational links than do low differentiators; also, low differentiators generally rely more on vertical links when uncertainty…

Investigates how organizational and communicative factors differ for a technical innovation and a community-based innovation within a large, technically-oriented governmental organization. Finds that complexity, persuasion, interpersonal channel use, and interpersonal channel utility were rated more highly for the technical innovation, and…

Points out that consumer product recalls are a pervasive phenomenon of enormous consequence: (1) product recalls are quantitatively and qualitatively significant; (2) product recalls vary in effectiveness; (3) numerous variables influence recall effectiveness; and (4) despite the great variance in recall outcome, and the plethora of variables, it…

Investigates the role and impact of receiver involvement in product class, comparative message format, and receiver sex on the relative effectiveness of comparative advertising messages. Indicates that females and males respond uniquely to comparative advertising, revealing consistent patterns regarding both circumstances and approaches. (SR)

Finds that subjects with a choice about whether to interact with their partner again (or with one of the persons they observed) remembered less in general than those expecting to interact with the same person or with a different person. Participants remembered significantly more conversational information using cued recall than observers, and…