Investigates the role of gesture in instruction giving and receiving during a cooking lesson, focusing on the recipient and his or her orientation to verbal and embodied instruction-giving. Analyzes three relevant next actions that can follow the instruct turn (embodied instruct receipt tokens, embodied repetitions of the embodied instruct, and…

A study investigated the types of gestures used, the frequency of the gestures, and the total time engaged in gestural communication by 11 visually impaired-sighted dyads; 12 sighted dyads; and 8 visually impaired dyads. Adults with visual impairments used more adapters and used gestures, emblems, and illustrators less often. (Contains…

Describes the use of video tutoring for distance education within the context of a post-graduate teacher training course at the University of Exeter. Analysis of the tapes used a protocol based on non-verbal communication research, and findings suggest that the interaction of participants was significantly different from face-to-face…

Language transcripts were obtained from eight male and eight female participants with mental retardation, interacting separately with one male and one female adult partner. Like typical females, female participants using speech discussed people more often than males. Females using nonspeech modes, in contrast, showed a severe reduction in…

Examined differences in acoustic characteristics of cries, both early and late, within a prolonged crying bout. Results indicated that late cries appeared to result from a smaller number of factors than did early cries. Results support notions that crying bouts settle into a regular cry with acoustic features matching a theoretical model of cry…

Investigates the contribution of nonverbal cues to supportive communication in interactions between mothers and young adult children. Uses the concept of interactional sensitivity from attachment theory for direction to propose a number of hypotheses concerning support provision. Provides insight into the role of nonverbal as well as verbal…

Considers how various theories of nonverbal adaptation feature behavioral valence and degree of behavioral change as critical elements affecting whether changes in nonverbal intimacy are met with reciprocity or compensation among 100 undergraduate student romantic dyads. Makes comparisons across five conditions: very low intimacy, low intimacy,…

This study examined the behavioral (arm, facial) and autonomic (heart rate, respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA], and adrenocortical axis) reactivity of 56 4-month-old infants in response to contingency learning and extinction-induced frustration. During learning, infants displayed increases in operant arm response and positive emotional…

The present study, using a multiple baseline across subjects design for two children and a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across subjects design for two additional children, evaluated whether the addition of eye contact and then contingent praise for compliance (CP) would lead to increases in childhood compliance for both statement and question…

This research extends the range of domains within which children's gestures are found to play an important role in learning. The study involves children learning about balance, and the authors locate children's gestures within a relevant model of cognitive development--the representational redescription model (A. Karmiloff-Smith, 1992). The speech…

Event-related potentials (ERPs), in response to 4 facial expressions of fear, angry, happy, and sad, were collected from 72 institutionalized children (IG), ages 7 to 32 months, in Bucharest, Romania, and compared with ERPs from 33 children, ages 8 to 32 months, who had never been institutionalized (NIG). The NIG and IG exhibited different…

Evolution has provided babies with wonderful ways to get the loving attention and care that they need from adults. When a baby is distressed, his cry is the most primitive and powerful tool for bringing help. By the time a baby is 2 or 3 months old, his dazzling smile and crooked grin evokes tenderness, smiles, and nurturance from adults who are…

We indirectly determined how children with mental retardation analyze facial identity and facial expression, and if these analyses of identity and expression were controlled by independent cognitive processes. In a reaction time study, 20 children with mild mental retardation were required to determine if simultaneously presented photographs of…

In the Netherlands, as in most other European countries, closed captions for the deaf summarize texts rather than render them verbatim. Caption editors argue that in this way television viewers have enough time to both read the text and watch the program. They also claim that the meaning of the original message is properly conveyed. However, many…

Immersive collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are simulations in which geographically separated individuals interact in a shared, three-dimensional, digital space using immersive virtual environment technology. Unlike videoconference technology, which transmits direct video streams, immersive CVEs accurately track movements of interactants…