Vocal and object-directed behaviors of parents and infants were examined according to the social-construction view of development. Interactions of 66 infant-parent dyads were observed. Normative changes and stability of individual differences of joint-action variables and the relation of these variables to 30-month cognitive-development status…

Examines the quality of conversation produced by small groups of subjects in fifth, ninth, and twelfth grades and the last year of college. Results supported Piaget's sequence of conversational development. However, topical coherence apparently is not fostered by focused turns but emerges as a generalization of the normative constraints applying…

Criticizes Dorval and Eckerman (included in this issue) for their findings' lack of generality due to the artificial nature of the conversational groups studied. Also both age changes in the ability to plan large conversational units and the functions of particular kinds of turns within these larger units are left unexplored. (CB)

Rhetoricians have shown both that any description of reality is inherently incomplete and that the only way to cope with this incompleteness is to continually search for more encompassing perspectives. What this says to organizational theorists is that critical approaches to the study of organizational communication should take a rightful place…

Discusses the importance of teaching thinking skills in a rapidly changing environment and describes a framework for developing school material that cultivates decision-making skills. An instructional model that describes decision-making strategies, necessary cognitive skills, and the educational objectives for the promotion of each skill is…