This article discusses the relationship between silence and politeness in face-to-face communication, focusing on Brown and Levinson's (1978) theory of politeness that asserts that it is in the mutual self-interest of individuals engaged in conversation not to initiate face threatening acts (FTAs). (29 references) (MDM)

Tapes of job interviews with 6 college students with physical disabilities were rated by 31 employers. Students with good nonverbal skills were rated significantly more employable and considered to have higher personal qualities than those with poor nonverbal communication. (SK)

Assess the expectedness, interpretations, and evaluations of touch and its influence on such communication outcomes as communicator attractiveness and credibility. Finds that brief touches among strangers may have positive consequences, especially when initiated by high-valence communicators, for whom they may qualify as positive violations. (SR)

Explores the challenges of performing children's nonsense poetry with, rather than to, an audience of children. Discusses different nonsense operations and offers a broad-based scheme for making performance decisions about what kind of nonverbal emphasis to use in performance. Includes examples with suggestions for performance. (SR)

Using examples from a conversation between birds, drawn from a story, the importance of nonverbal aspects of conversation is examined. Several kinds of nonverbal cues are discussed, including the common history of the interlocutors, their current relationship, turn taking, and the interplay of these factors. (MSE)

Labels for toys were taught to 64 infants. In follow-in labeling, the experimenter labeled a toy at which infants were looking; in discrepant labeling, one at which they were not looking. Results revealed that infants learned follow-in labels and made no mapping errors after discrepant labeling. (BC)

Investigates bias in interaction processes by looking at how it coexists with beliefs about intentionality. Finds that, within the context of behavioral mirroring, both observational stance and beliefs about intent influence the judgments people made about a person's character and behavior, as well as the relational messages the person sent to…

Finds that naive human lie detectors follow content-related heuristics (like infrequency of reported events or falsifiability) but can flexibly change their strategy as they learn about authentic nonverbal cues that discriminate lies from truthful communications. (SR)

Presents strategies to turn one-sided conversations into meaningful dialogs. Suggests, if a conversation partner is not allowing equal time, trying the following techniques: repeat statement; keep going; match other person's voice; use rejoinder; ask harsh question; simulate anger; alter body position; wag finger; raise eyebrows; take notes; ask…

Examines the association between young children's analogical reasoning ability and their mathematical learning. Records and analyzes children's nonverbal behaviors and their private and social speech. Concludes that analogical reasoning is significantly related to mathematical learning and children's scores on the measure of mathematical learning,…

Investigates how Mandarin speakers negotiate their participatory roles in multiparty conversation by using linguistic and nonlinguistic resources, highlighting two sequential contexts. Examination of recorded conversation reveals that one recurrent linguistic resource in both contexts is a turn-initial discourse-particle plus an additional turn…

Discusses the work of William Stokoe who not only made the claim that American Sign Language is in fact language, but who also questioned the view of linguists of the time and built a unique account of the gestural theory of language. Suggests that semantic phonology is the true legacy of Stokoe's lifelong study of language. (Author/VWL)

Examines children's ability to use their knowledge to guide their behavior in a dimensional change, color-shaped card sort. Subjects were asked to sort cards according to different guidelines. Four experiments were carried out which show a disassociation between knowledge and its use. Findings indicate that knowing rules is sometimes insufficient…

Provides a contrastive test of three immediacy-exchange theories: expectancy violations theory; discrepancy arousal theory; and cognitive valence theory. States findings from opposite-sex friend dyads (one of whom was an undergraduate student) failed to find unequivocal support for a single theory. Suggests existing immediacy-exchange theories…

Argues that undergraduate students' attachment styles combine with that of their partners to create approach and avoidance tendencies and ensuing nonverbal involvement style during interactions with their significant others. Reports findings regarding role-reversed females paired with avoidant partners, females with preoccupied partners,…