The individual who is a focus of public attention is an active constructor of outcomes. He attempts to anticipate important characteristics of his observers and modifies his reactions in order to control likely consequences. The nature of the task is also of central importance. For socially relevant responses the individual's behavior is closely linked with these predicted consequences. In many situations, especially those that involve socially inhibiting or embarrassing qualities, the presence of one other person will cause the individual to adopt socially desirable responding, and the presence of more others has little or no additional effect. For drive-sensitive behaviors an individual's responses should reflect the drive-inducing characteristics of the situation. As the social facilitation literature shows, perhaps the most important factor is others' evaluative capabilities. In the audience situation this factor is of primary importance, and it is this factor to which the performer most likely attends. Audience size, by itself, provides only information about the possibility that an expert may be present. Thus, a performer's reactions are seen as primarily a function of the most expert or consequential observer. Existing theoretical models which attempt to describe these types of group size phenomena must be modified to incorporate such an inferential process. (Author)