The purpose of this study was to use a systems approach to examine informal communications, meaning those occurring outside of scheduled meetings, among stakeholders in a preschool early intervention program. This investigation expands the discussion of how occupational therapy treatment decisions are made in educational settings by using a…

Second grade children were pretested for the ability to conserve, after which conservers were paired with nonconservers. Pairs were then instructed to resolve their opposing answers on the conservation tasks. (JMB)

A review of the literature on reciprocal self-disclosure indicates that scholars have limited their investigations to one aspect of disclosure--intimacy--while recent research suggests that disclosure is a multidimensional phenomenon. A study was conducted to assess the possibility of reciprocation of intimacy, amount, and valence (positive or…

A model that depicts communication as a dynamic ongoing phenomenon is presented in this paper. The key elements of the described model are: environmental factors, actor/auditor, image, perception, messages, channels, intrapersonal feedback, and consensus of meaning. An axiomatic basis is provided for each variable to serve as rules of…

This paper proposes a general principle of topic resources as a key principle of conversation. The first section of the paper offers a discussion of the notion of cohesion as a condition in which interactants perceive that their utterances are related to one another and presents the "given-new" strategy (in which the interactants…

A study was conducted to identify the independent and conjoint influence of attitude similarity and initial interactions on interpersonal attraction to relative strangers. The 124 college students who were participants in the study were informed that they would be working on a project with either an attitudinally similar or dissimilar stranger…

This study observed the communication behavior within ad hoc and established groups and compared the two types of groups on several indexes of interaction patterns. Ad hoc groups were individuals who had no in-group activity with each other prior to the experiment. Established groups were individuals who had nine 50-minute sessions of ingroup…

A competence paradigm may provide communication scholars with a theoretical framework for the study of interpersonal communication. The study of ritualistic behavior is a study of competence in its most basic form. Turn-taking in conversations--an example of ritualistic behavior--not only helps us apportion the floor, but also serves a symbolic…

This paper reports the results of an empirical examination of the effects of personal experience and social interaction on individual knowledge and performance in a specific decision making task context. The study revealed a differential effect of increased experience on the quality of participants decisions. In particular, increased experience…

Stability in the student supervisor relationship was reached after a period of intensive interaction, and positive dyadic feelings increased as interaction increased. (Author)

Investigates whether a variation in task content (focusing on instrumental/external family issues v emotional expressive/internal issues) influences family interaction when task structure is held constant. The responses of 64 well-adjusted family triads were scored for differences in conflict, dominance, and affect. (Author/SS)

Although the nursing profession has traditionally been associated with compassionate, patient, and caring behaviors, living in this advanced technological environment where patient related skills and tasks are often rushed caring behaviors are sometimes not seen. In order to improve high school nursing assistant student caring behaviors as well…

Given the increasing import of asynchronous discussions to achieving learning objectives, this analysis proposes an exploratory assessment model that involves three levels of analysis, i.e., argument structure, disagreement, and interaction. The model promotes objective, systematic assessment; streamlines the assessment process; and clearly…

This report presents an analysis of an expert performing a highly interactive computer task. The analysis uses GOMS models, specifying the Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules used by the expert; the GOMS models are implemented within a unified theory of cognition called Soar. Two models are presented, one with function-level operators,…

Three studies investigated the purposes of teasing and the reaction to it. The first study asked 26 college students to describe one instance when they were teased and one when they teased someone else. In addition, they were asked to explain why the teasing had occurred and why they categorized it as teasing. The second study, involving 24…