Examines whether communication apprehension mediates the effect of nonverbal involvement cues (head nods, eye contact, body orientation, etc.) on state anxiety, interpersonal attraction, and speech duration in information gathering interviews. Finds that nonverbal cues affect loquacity and liking, but that a speaker's communication apprehension…

Reports a study comparing the nonverbal decoding ability (under auditory, visual, and audio-visual conditions) of college age females with elderly females, in order to identify preliminary nonverbal differences which may be related to aging. Finds that the elderly were significantly less skilled in decoding nonverbal behaviors across all…

This study assessed communication initiation and repair behaviors of 28 adults with severe/profound mental retardation in a variety of settings. All subjects communicated through nonsymbolic gestures. All subjects initiated at least one communication act; all but three subjects repaired at least one communication act following a breakdown. Recasts…

Suggests that the central focus of the article by Raver and Leadbeter (PS 521 712) in this issue is the ways individuals know. Examines two ways of knowing, verbal responses to questions and action without verbal response; and outlines a four-level developmental sequence of knowing that develops from one's own knowing to having a perspective on…

Describes two studies that investigated patterns of nonverbal cues. States that in the first study, a game was played and it was found that satisfied couples were more likely to reciprocate their partners' positive affect. Explains that in the second study, couples discussed upcoming plans. Argues that reciprocity should be predicted in intimate…

This study tested the hypothesis that pretreatment level of play would predict the rate of increase in prelinguistic, intentional requesting during prelinguistic communication intervention of 8 children (ages 21 to 30 months) with developmental disabilities. A positive relation was found between amount of transitional or symbolic play at baseline…

Examined nine infants' pretend play with mothers to determine pretend play's impact on children's emerging understanding of emotions so necessary to concepts of self. Found that the combination of talk and enactment characteristic of pretend play may facilitate communication about emotions--particularly fear and anger--that may be considered…

Examines the relationship between social perceptions (social attractiveness and speaker competence and dominance) and compliance with requests for help among college students. Finds that speech rate and other nonverbal behaviors may effect compliance by increasing the speaker's social attractiveness, creating obligations to comply, or exerting…

Examines the predisposition of Aboriginals to use sign language in place of speech and presents observations of the use of signs in everyday interaction along with a discussion on how this tendency to communicate gesturally may relate to the use of other forms of communication. (six references) (GLR)

This study assessed the nonspeech behaviors associated with young stutterers (n=30, mean age 54 months) and normally fluent children's comparable fluent utterances. Findings suggested that children can be classified as stutterers on the basis of their nonspeech behaviors, which may reflect cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and physical events…

Describes the Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT), a videotape of brief scenes for teaching about verbal and nonverbal communication. Reports that the IPT includes all communication channels, several categories of interaction, and an objective criterion of accurate judgment. Discusses communications cues, using the IPT to introduce research…

Eight congenitally blind children (ages 6-11), individually matched with 8 sighted children (ages 4-10), were tested for their ability to identify vocal expressions of emotion and the sounds of a range of nonemotional objects. They had specific difficulty recognizing emotions according to vocal qualities. (Author/DB)

A study examined 11 sociolinguistic interviews for insight into how the informant's verbosity affected the type and quantity of gestures and verbalized signals provided by the interviewer and reflect the listening process. Results suggest that informant loquacity does exert an important influence on production of these cues. (Author/MSE)

Employs time series analysis to model individual and discursive influences on the response latencies of deceivers and truthtellers. Shows that a decay impulse model provides a good description of the data. Finds that message veracity and self-monitoring combined to affect the fit of the decay impulse model. (SR)

Effective principals pay close attention to body language and other subtle actions that are constantly read and interpreted by staff and students. Principals must not only talk the talk of an instructional leader but also walk the walk of a committed instructional leader. Specific suggestions are provided. (MLH)