A sociolinguistic, semantic analysis of intonation was conducted on a 15-minute natural interaction between an aphasic speaker, his wife, and his neighbor. Findings indicated the neighbor made more use of two dimensions of intonation, specifically pitch movements referring to shared information and marked tones, when addressing the aphasic speaker…

This study examined the role of self-disclosure within protege/mentor dyads in formal mentoring partnerships within a corporate context as a means of learning more about specific relationship processes that may enhance the positive outcomes of mentoring. While both proteges and mentors self-disclosed in their relationships, proteges disclosed at a…

Families were compared at one, three, and nine months to examine the effects of active or passive exposure to the Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment. Either the mother or both parents were the target of the intervention. Assessments of interaction behavior between parents and infants revealed no effects of the experimental intervention.…

Employed contextual analysis to examine the meaning of touches reported in daily interaction. Found 18 categories of meanings of touch such as support, appreciation, inclusion, greeting, departure, attention-getting, etc. Discusses results in terms of the nature of tactile communication, comparing results with past research. (PD)

Considers the phenomenon of a single utterance having different illocutions at the same time, depending on the relationship between the speaker and different hearers and the differing amounts of shared knowledge among the conversation's participants. (MSE)

Demonstrates how rhetorical criticism can be utilized to clarify the rhetorical nature of interpersonal discourse. Synthesizes the following theories to explain the nature and form of selected portions of taped and transcribed interpersonal dialog: Lloyd Bitzer's situational theory, Ernest Bormann's fantasy theme analysis, and Carroll Arnold's…

The study with 18 children with Down Syndrome (DS), their mothers, and a control group replicated previous findings that mothers of DS children are more directive and identified qualitative differences in types of directives (e.g., mothers of DS children were more likely to request actions) suggesting differences in maternal interactive…

This study of 16 dyads of mothers and their children with a language age of 2-5 years found no significant differences between the interactional patterns of normal-hearing mothers and their normal-hearing children and of normal-hearing mothers and their children with mild to moderate hearing impairment. (Author/JDD)

Conversation analysis was used to investigate a conversational partner's strategies when assisting with the word searches of an aphasic person. Analysis of 38 authentic videotaped conversation sequences identified four conversation strategies systematically and collaboratively used: guessing, alternative guessing, completion, and closing…

The study investigated: (1) whether the mothers of young stuttering children differ from the mothers of young normally disfluent children in their verbal interaction patterns during free play with their children; and (2) whether disfluency in young children is related systematically to the type of speech act expressed. Four preschoolers and their…

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…

In an attempt to better understand the quality of interprofessional relationships, research used a confirmation/disconfirmation framework to analyze communication in nurse-physician dyads. Results indicated that nurses and physicians were primarily confirming in their interaction. (SRT)

Compares the interactions of 20 firstborn and 17 lastborn children with their parents and siblings. Children were observed at home for five 45-minute sessions. Oldest children differed from youngest children in emitting more behaviors to parents than to siblings and in receiving more negative responses from parents and siblings. (Author/CB)

This study examined how four adults with aphasia collaborated with routine communication partners. Overall, these pairs completed the referencing task trials with accuracy and displayed referencing processes that conformed to the collaborative referencing model of communication. However, the pairs also used diverse verbal and nonverbal resources,…

Reconceptualizes groupthink symptoms as observable group interaction patterns. Proposes two coding systems for detecting the illusion of unanimity symptom, detecting both degree of unanimity and degree of the illusory versus substantive nature of that unanimity. (SR)