A study investigated the importance of brief contemplation as a factor in the accuracy of judgments about other people, based on their nonverbal appearance. The following questions were addressed: (1) Are observers who are given time to contemplate the significance of nonverbal cues more accurate in their perceptual judgments than observers who…

A sample of 118 U.S. 6th and 7th graders was used to examine early adolescents' views of whether video games negatively influence themselves, others of the same age, and younger others. Six specific games ranging in rating from E for Everyone to M for Mature were listed for the early adolescents to respond to, with questions asked about both…

Contemporary research findings in the fields of perceptual psychology and neurology of the human brain that are directly related to the study of visual communication are reviewed and briefly discussed in this paper. Specifically, the paper identifies those major research findings in visual perception that are relevant to the study of visual…

A study examined the relationship of interpersonal perceptual variables to communication contexts, specifically relationship types. The variables examined were (1) interpersonal solidarity, (2) perceived homophily, (3) uncertainty reduction, (4) feeling good, (5) interpersonal attraction, (6) relational safety, and (7) self-disclosure. The…

Describes heuristic-systematic information-processing model and risk perception--the two major conceptual areas of the analysis. Discusses the proposed model, describing the context of the data collections (public health communication involving cancer epidemiology) and providing the results of a set of three replications using the proposed model.…

A total of 60 infants of 7 weeks of age were tested in a habituation-dishabituation looking procedure to determine if they could discriminate between infant-directed talk (IDT) and adult-directed talk (ADT) uttered by the same speaker. One group of 12 infants was habituated to a female speaker's ADT and dishabituated to the same speaker's IDT,…

Summarizes research in perception dealing with error detection as it pertains to proofreading skills in communication. Focuses on several causes for the lack of perceptual proficiency in error detection, including feature redundancy, context, and phonological encoding. Notes that these causes may interrelate to form a Gestalt response to error…

Extends previous research by examining empirically the relationship of message delivery and content to perceptions of leader charisma. Indicates that, although both delivery and content play a role in the development of perceptions of charisma, the impact of delivery is stronger. Reveals that the attentive, relaxed, friendly, and dominant style…

Finds that (1) some editors chose several individuals from their own department to be on the editorial boards; (2) board members' experiences in publishing varied considerably; (3) some members had not published in the journals they reviewed for; and (4) most editorial boards achieved some sort of gender balance. (SC)

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of research are included in this status report for the January 1 - March 31, 1979 period. The reports deal with the following topics: an articulatory synthesizer for perceptual research; the perception of an oral-nasal continuum…

The effects of photographic framing on viewer perceptions of men and women was studied across five cultural groups, enabling the comparison of Jung's theory of universal archetypes to a contemporary theory of culture-bound, learned nonverbal cues. Subjects for the study were 140 college students from five cultural groups: Anglo, Chicano, Iranian,…

Results suggest that communication competence and empathy reflect or are composed of the same set of skills or behaviors. (PD)

Examines the strategies people employ to deal with the face- and interaction-threatening implications of argumentative behavior. Explores the joint influence of individual differences in perceivers' interpersonal construct systems and message producers' communication strategies on the content and structure of impressions of message producers. (MS)

A study investigated whether receivers who detect senders behaving deceitfully will automatically become more resistent to the message being presented. By developing predictions derived from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the study hypothesized that only noninvolved receivers would respond negatively to deceptive nonverbal cues in a…

Examines the extent to which statements representing eight broad dimensions of communication are associated with words commonly used to identify relationships of varying degrees of intimacy. Dimensions of the interaction included are uniqueness, depth, breadth, efficiency, flexibility, smoothness, spontaneity, and overt evaluations. (JMF)