Reviews a search for articles concerning communication skills, teaching, and learning in medicine. Finds that communication skills can be taught in courses and learned, but are easily forgotten if not maintained by practice. (Author/CCM)

Compares three theories examining the role of communication in producing and coping with subjective uncertainty. Notes that uncertainty reduction theory offers axioms and derived theorems that describe communicative and noncommunicative causes and consequences of uncertainty. Compares meanings of "uncertainty" in the three theories as…

Notes that researchers have found that asking probing questions of message source does not enhance deception detection accuracy. Considers how probing does increase recipient and observer perceptions of source honesty, a finding labeled the "probing effect." Examines three potential explanations for the probing effect: behavior adaptation,…

Explores the combined influence of nonverbal immediacy and verbal person centeredness in the emotional support process. Tests three complementary models in an experiment with participants who disclosed an emotionally upsetting event to a confederate trained to display different levels of nonverbal immediacy and person centeredness. Suggests that…

This paper examines the use of gaze as one of a number of connected compensatory adaptations to linguistic impairment by a patient with Broca's aphasia. The examination of the import of gaze withdrawal and return of gaze in the context of self cuing by the patient shows how the patient exploits the complex multifaceted nature of meaning making.…

In this study the authors attempted to unravel the relational, dynamical, and historical nature of mother-infant communication during the first 6 months. Thirteen mothers and their infants were videotaped weekly from 4 to 24 weeks during face-to-face interactions. Three distinct patterns of mother-infant communication were identified: symmetrical,…

We report a study of repairs in communication between workers and visiting outsiders (students, researchers or teachers). We show how cultural models such as metaphors and mathematical models facilitated explanations and repair work in inquiry and pedagogical dialogues. We extend previous theorisations of metaphor by Black; Lakoff and Johnson;…

The Structured Observation System (SOS) is a data collection method developed to document changes in the communication behaviours of children identified with speech and language delays. The system employs a rating scale which reflects the occurrence of communication behaviours as well as the amount of assistance needed for behaviours to occur.…

This study investigated the effect of well- vs. ill-structured problem types on: (a) group interactional activity, (b) evolution of group participation inequities, (c) group discussion quality, and (d) group performance in a synchronous, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Participants were 60 11th-grade science students…

This article describes a new construct for coding the social communicative performance of school-aged children as they interact with peers and teachers in the classroom. The Social Communication Coding System (SCCS) allows clinicians a way of describing how children actually spend their time during the school day by observing ongoing behaviors…

Textual analysis is an umbrella term used to introduce undergraduate students to a variety of methods for describing and interpreting messages contained in texts. A common goal of a number of textual analysis methods, including the analysis of qualitative interviews, social text analysis, discourse analysis, and conversation analysis, is to…

This article identifies a surprising dearth of studies that explicitly link communication and evaluation at substantive, theoretical, and methodological levels. A three-fold typology of evaluation studies referring to communication is proposed and examples given. The importance of organizational communication in program delivery is stressed and…

Purpose: Research into respiratory behavior during singing and speech makes extensive use of standard respiratory and vented pneumotachograph facemasks. This study investigated whether the use of such facemasks would affect respiratory behavior in terms of lung volume (excursion, at initiation and at termination) or duration (of inspiration and of…

This paper describes ethical considerations in the use of strategic ambiguity in organizational communication. Ambiguity is defined as "experienced ambiguity" and is distinct from uncertainty and equivocality which are properties of a stimulus. Strategic ambiguity is the use of "calculated ambiguity" in organizations to achieve…

This paper describes a four-dimensional model for the science of knowledge acquisition and a classification system in terms of these dimensions. A summary of the state of the art in terms of the cells generated in a four-dimensional representation of this classification system is presented. The need for better tools for conducting knowledge…