Tests a complex model of how audience members assess source credibility. Hypothesizes that (1) message quality has direct effects and mediates partially the effects of initial credibility assessments on subsequent source credibility assessments and on belief change; and (2) subsequent credibility assessments mediate effects of initial credibility…

Extends the recent work on the veracity effect in deception detection. Explains the probabilistic nature of a receiver's accuracy in detecting deception and analyzes a receiver's detection of deception in terms of set theory and conditional probability. Finds that accuracy is shown to be a function of the relevant conditional probability and the…

Uses meta-analysis to test three models of the "sleeper" effect (a theory proposing that in the long term low credible sources may actually attain greater attitude change in message recipients than high credible sources). Concludes that the sleeper effect does exist, and offers suggestions for practitioners and theorists. (SR)

The goal of this paper is to describe how one classroom teacher uses the Sender-Receiver Communications Model to illustrate for students in a lively and memorable way the process of "targeting your audience" with medium and message. Students are used as examples of Receivers, or target audience, illustrating the potential range of…

Tests a model of resistance to persuasion based upon variables not considered by earlier congruity and inoculation models. Supports the prediction that the kind of critical response set induced and the target of the criticism are mediators of resistance to persuasion. (JMF)

A study tested several different cognitive models of the way people use supporting arguments to arrive at belief in a claim. The models tested were (1) the model based on the assumption that human information processing is essentially logical; (2) R. S. Wyer's model; (3) the message-plus-context model; and (4) the weighted average model. One…

Examines mock jurors processing testimony under impression-set and memory-set conditions to determine under which condition they rate a witness to be more deceptive. Finds that under impression-set objectives subjects formed stronger judgments of the witness's deceptiveness, while the pattern was reversed under memory-set conditions. (MS)

Communication research long has noted how pretreatment strategies ("inoculations") induce resistance to persuasion, but a new model proposes that resistance is an integral part of the persuasion process. Using the inoculation framework, researchers showed the importance of threats to an individual's attitudes in developing resistance to…

Examines the relative importance of verbal, nonverbal, and social normative information in judgments of honesty and deceit. Finds strong support for the nonverbal cue primacy model and no support for the social-normative model. Suggests additional research is warranted on the relative strength of these sources and the manner of combination to form…

A study examined the power of communication apprehension, person perception, network connectedness, and course satisfaction to predict learning outcomes in a college communication course. Subjects, 81 students from a multisection course, completed a variety of self-report instruments measuring their communication apprehension levels; perceptions…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the credibility of the sources of public information during the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant crisis; (2) the anticorporation rhetoric of New York reformer Samuel Seabury; (3)…

A model of the generation of initial trusting attitudes toward groups by individuals who were not members of those groups was developed from the literature on interpersonal trust. The model proposed that perceptions of situational threat would be preconditions to the saliency of trust as a concept. Given that trust was a salient concept, the model…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 19 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: an informal communication process with implications for information retrieval; a rhetorical approach to the nonsexist language controversy; a validation study of…