Referential communication: Some factors influencing communication efficiency.

Examined differences in message variables and listener response measures as a function of pleasant vs unpleasant content in a referential communication task. The 5 basic components of the referential communication model are speaker, listener, task, message, and listener response. 192 female undergraduates formed 96 pairs (86 pairs were already acquainted), and Ss participated in written and communication sessions. The "speaker" described pleasant or unpleasant pictures that the "listener" identified from among 5 similar alternatives. Measures of message style, listener responses, and speaker and listener traits yielded 40 variables whose factor analysis supported the model. Pleasant content was associated with greater diversity, shorter words, less verbal output, and longer pauses. For pleasant tasks, listener accuracy was related to a message style that included high productivity, more precise words, numerous speech errors, and few pauses; unpleasant task accuracy was related to few errors and pauses. The association of listener traits with message indices suggests that speakers adapt their message to a particular listener. (French abstract) (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's ability to infer utterance veracity from speaker informedness.

Children between the ages of 3 years 7 months and 6 years 5 months experienced a contradiction between what they knew or guessed to be inside a box and what they were told by an adult. The authors investigated whether children believed what they were told by asking them to make a final judgment about the box's content. Children tended to believe utterances from speakers who were better informed than they themselves were and to disbelieve those from less well-informed speakers, with no age-related differences. This behavior implies an understanding of the speaker's knowledge and suggests that children can learn from oral input while being appropriately skeptical of its truth. Children also gave explicit knowledge judgments on trials on which no utterances were given. Performance on knowledge trials was less accurate than, and unrelated to, performance on utterance trials. Research on children's developing explicit theory of mind needs to be broadened to include behavioral indexes of understanding the mind. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative survey of beliefs about "normal" childhood sexual behaviors

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to collect data on what adults believe constitutes normal childhood sexual behaviors, and how variables, such as role, gender, and life experience might contribute to the formation of one's beliefs. METHODS: A survey describing 20 different scenarios of children under the age of 13 interacting with themselves or other children in a sexual manner was administered to four groups of adults: sexual abuse experts; therapists involved in a sexual abuse training program; medical students attending a human sexuality program; and group facilitators of the human sexuality program. RESULTS: Behaviors that involved oral, vaginal, or anal penetration were judged by a majority of adults to be abnormal sexual behaviors in children under 13 years of age. Professionals working with sexually abused children rated certain sexual behaviors as more abnormal than adults participating in a human sexuality course. Both sexual abuse trainees and facilitators of the human sexuality course showed more directional biases than other groups, with trainees always rating behaviors in the direction of abnormal and facilitators always rating behaviors in the direction of normal. Females also judged many of the sexual behaviors to be more abnormal than males. CONCLUSIONS: Role and gender significantly influence what adults believe constitutes normal and abnormal childhood sexual behavior.     

The performance of kibbutz- and city-reared Israeli children on two role-taking tasks.

Two tasks requiring communicative role taking were administered to 96 1st- and 5th-grade Israeli children in 2 kibbutzim or a large city. It was predicted that the greater peer interaction experienced by Ss in the kibbutz would enhance their role-taking abilities. Results confirm this prediction. Ss from the kibbutz were better able to decenter in formulating a novel message to a listener (Task I) and to differentiate better between a child and adult listener in formulating a message (Task 2). 5th graders performed better on both tasks than 1st graders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's understanding of interpretive diversity between different-age listeners.

Tested children's understanding of interpretive diversity by assessing their attributions of knowledge to a mother and a preverbal baby, who both had access to an informative verbal message. In Exp 1, most children between ages 4 and 8 yrs overattributed knowledge to the preverbal baby after an informative message. Exps 1a and 1b demonstrated that overattributions were not due to conflating the speaker's intent to inform with the informativeness of the message, nor were they due to overestimating babies' limited knowledge. In Exp 2, 6- and 8-yr-olds acknowledged interpretive differences between the baby and adult listener if the message was not obviously informative. It is concluded that children do not readily view individual differences as related to interpretive differences, especially in the absence of cues inherent to a message that might suggest that the message has multiple interpretations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Young children's appreciation of the mental impact of their communicative signals

This work addresses whether 30-month-olds appreciate that their communicative signals are being understood (or not) by another person. Infants produce a range of behaviors, such as repairing their failed signals, that have been construed as evidence that they have an implicit theory of mind. Such behavior could be interpreted as attempts to obtain some desired goal rather than as attempts to gain listener understanding. This study was designed to separate listener comprehension from obtaining a material goal. In 4 conditions, children either did or did not get what they wanted and the experimenter understood or misunderstood their request. As predicted, children clarified their signal more when the experimenter misunderstood compared to when she understood. Regardless of whether young children achieved their overt goal, they engaged in behaviors to ensure their communicative act had been understood.     

Distinguishing lies from jokes: theory of mind deficits and discourse interpretation in right hemisphere brain-damaged patients

Right-hemisphere brain damaged (RHD) patients and a normal control group were tested for their ability to infer first- and second-order mental states and to understand the communicative intentions underlying ironic jokes and lies. Subjects listened to stories involving a character who had either a true or a false belief about another character's knowledge. Stories ended either with an ironic joke or a lie by this character. In the joke stories, the speaker knew that the listener knew the truth (a true second-order belief) and did not expect the listener to believe what was said; in the lie stories, the speaker did not know that the listener actually knew the truth (a false second-order belief) and thus did expect the listener to believe what was said. RHD patients performed significantly worse than control subjects on one of two measures of second-order belief, which suggests that the ability to make second-order mental state attributions is fragile and unreliable following right-hemisphere damage. RHD patients in addition performed worse than controls when asked to distinguish lies from jokes, confirming their known difficulties with discourse interpretation. For both groups, the ability to distinguish lies from jokes was strongly correlated with two measures of the ability to attribute correctly second-order beliefs. These results suggest that the fragility of RHD patients' understanding of second-order mental states underlies a portion of their difficulties in discourse comprehension, but that the underlying impairment is not restricted to right hemisphere dysfunction.     

Acute and chronic single dose effects of LSD-25 on visual discrimination in rats

The concept of "accident proneness" is frequently discussed and rarely documented. We predicted that children who take more risks as judged by their behavior in gym class, or who have more stressful life changes as determined by their score on a Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire (SRRQ), would be more likely to injure themselves. 103 junior high school boys were rated for these factors, and then followed for injuries by weekly telephone calls for five months. Boys having high SRRQ scores had significantly more accidents than those with low scores; risk-taking levels were not predictive. In this study, children undergoing stressful changes in their lives were more susceptible to accidents.     

How feedback from a listener affects children's referential communication skills.

Investigated how feedback from a listener helps young children attend to message quality and how such feedback affects speaking and listening skills. 84 kindergartners watched a speaker doll and a listener doll play a communication game in which the speaker was supposed to verbally distinguish one item from among several for the listener. In fact, however, the speaker always gave ambiguous messages. The listener attempted to select the item described by the speaker and either made a correct selection, made an incorrect selection, or asked for more information. Ss then evaluated the adequacy of the speaker's message. One week later they completed a speaking and a listening task. Results indicate that at this age children learn to assess message adequacy through observing listeners flounder with inadequate messages. Only with explicit feedback detailing the nature of the ambiguity, however, do children improve their own speaking and listening skills. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's use of the common ground in interpreting ambiguous referential utterances.

Common ground is contextual information shared by a listener and speaker that enables the listener to convert an ambiguous utterance to an informative communication. Four experiments examined young children's understanding of the common ground in interpreting ambiguous referential utterances. Kindergarten and 2nd-grade children and college students were read short vignettes containing statement, joint activity, status common ground, and an ambiguous or informative utterance about a display of 4–6 object drawings. The subjects were asked (a) whether the listener knew which object to pick (Experiment 1), (b) to pick an object themselves or choose "none" (Experiment 2), (c) the source of the listener's knowledge in the context or utterance (Experiment 3), and (d) whether a designated object was the "right one," the one the speaker "meant," or the one the speaker "could have meant" (Experiment 4). Even the kindergarten children used statement information effectively in interpreting ambiguous utterances, and all groups had difficulty using status information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The young child's understanding of communication.

Conducted 2 experiments with 110 5-8 yr olds to investigate the extent to which the young child understands that messages can be inadequate to determine whether there is a developmental trend in such understanding. Each child played the role of both speaker and listener in a communication game with the E. Failures in communication were made to occur, and the child was asked to judge whose fault these were and why. In Exp I, a significant age-related trend was found: almost all 5.5-6 yr olds located the fault with the listener; the 6.5-7 yr olds most frequently blamed the E (who was a speaker for half of the trials); blaming the speaker alone was most common in the 7.5-8 group. Results suggest that the older children, but not the youngest, understood that communication failure can be occasioned by an inadequate message. The existence of children who always blamed the E and the failure to find any who always blamed themselves were confirmed in Exp II with different materials. These findings cast doubt upon the accuracy of Piaget's (1959) account of the breakdown of egocentrism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication style and effectiveness in homogeneous and heterogeneous dyads of retarded children

The channels, styles, and successfulness of communication used by retarded children when teaching a simple board game to a listener of similar or dissimilar age and ability to themselves were investigated. Forty children, half of high level and half of low level (means MAs=6.6 and 3.7 years, mean CAs-15.5 and 11.2 years, respectively) instructed a naive listener either at their own or at the other level, after they had been taught the game by the experimenter. Both high- and low-level speakers altered their channels and styles of communication to low-level listeners along the dimensions found by Shatz and Gelman (1973) with nonretarded children. However, the communication shifts, particularly those produced by high-level speakers, were ineffective in producing listener understanding. We concluded than communication-skills training for retarded children must be concentrated not only on the linguistic form, but also on the functional appropriateness of the children's utterances.     

Ruse and representations: On children's ability to conceal information.

Reports a marked development between the ages of 3 and 5 yrs in children's ability to conceal information. In a situation of high-affect involvement, 3-yr-olds did not know to misinform or withhold information from a competitor who always chose the object for which they themselves had previously stated a preference. Although only 29% of 3-yr-olds knew to influence the competitor's mental state, 87% knew to physically exclude the competitor. There was no difference between children's performance when trying to obtain the object for themselves or predicting what a story character would do. The success of the older children in concealing information indicated their new representational understanding that to influence another's behavior, one must influence that person's mental state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Would you say you "had sex" if...?

CONTEXT: The current public debate regarding whether oral sex constitutes having "had sex" or sexual relations has reflected a lack of empirical data on how Americans as a population define these terms. OBJECTIVE: To determine which interactions individuals would consider as having "had sex." METHODS: A question was included in a survey conducted in 1991 that explored sexual behaviors and attitudes among a random stratified sample of 599 students representative of the undergraduate population of a state university in the Midwest. PARTICIPANTS: The participants originated from 29 states, including all 4 US Census Bureau geographic regions. Approximately 79% classified themselves as politically moderate to conservative. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Percentage of respondents who believed the interaction described constituted having "had sex." RESULTS: Individual attitudes varied regarding behaviors defined as having "had sex": 59% (95% confidence interval, 54%-63%) of respondents indicated that oral-genital contact did not constitute having "had sex" with a partner. Nineteen percent responded similarly regarding penile-anal intercourse. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the view that Americans hold widely divergent opinions about what behaviors do and do not constitute having "had sex."     

Attributions of responsibility for group tasks: The egocentric bias and the actor–observer difference.

In each of 3 experiments it was demonstrated that under certain conditions individuals who work on a task in a dyad will tend to attribute greater responsibility for a positive outcome to their partners than to themselves. In Exp I 56 college students, who had qualifying scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, working in dyads on a crossword puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for an outcome they were led to believe was quite good, thus contradicting the expected "egocentric bias" effect. This was true across depression categories. In Exp II, 100 college students working in dyads on the puzzle attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves for a positive outcome when asked immediately after the task to make the attribution. However, Ss attributed greater responsibility to themselves than to their partners when asked to make the attribution 3 days later, thus replicating the egocentric bias effect. Half of the 30 dyads in Exp III believed they were being videotaped while working on the puzzle, whereas the other half did not. "Videotaped" Ss attributed more responsibility for the positive outcome to themselves than to their partners, whereas the nonvideotaped Ss attributed more responsibility to their partners than to themselves when both groups were asked to give their attributions immediately after the task. The relationship between the egocentric bias effect and the actor–observer difference phenomenon is discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The times, they are a changing: A review of Raising children in a socially toxic environment.

Reviews the book, Raising children in a socially toxic environment by J. Gabarino (1995). In this book, Garbarino sets out to offer his views on what childhood ought to be, how children map their own worlds (thus define, themselves), what their basic needs are, the levels in which those needs are being met, as well as offer suggestions for ways in which readers can change the "toxic environment" to aid in the healthy development of children and youth. The book is challenging to read because it is true. Although the pages are not replete with "hard data," they are filled with factual accounts that paint a discouraging, in fact depressing picture of the life of children in our communities. The book is powerful because, if successful, we are forced to accept the fact that this is American society today. There is no question that the issues articulated by Garbarino in this book, such as teenage homicide, gang warfare, domestic violence, and child abuse, are real. The influences of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977) and ecological systems theory provide the conceptual framework for this book. Accordingly, development is the result of complex interactions among child and family systems and the social environment in which they function. Related to the ecological orientation is the notion that "it takes a village" to effect change. In other words, there is an implicit message that successful, healthy childrearing is the shared responsibility of individuals, groups, communities, external forces, and broad-based sanctions and regulations. As such, readers who take this book seriously will be forced to look at it not only as a professional resource with "good information," but as a call to accept a role for working within their individual and community contexts to influence change. Although the book falls short in providing concrete directives for change, it sends a strong message that we are all responsible, and a more subtle message that change is possible. If each and every reader could make one or two changes in their own behaviors and priorities as an outcome of reading this book, it will have served an invaluable service. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What kind of information does the health services give to children with asthma and their parents?

Good information to families who have children with bronchial asthma is essential for treatment and in helping the family to cope. The aim of this study was to find out what kind of information the parents meant they had received, their knowledge about asthma, and what sanitary measures had been taken at home. A questionnaire was sent to all children (N = 431) who, during a five year period, were entered into the records of the Department of Paediatrics, Innherred Hospital, Norway, with the diagnosis bronchial obstruction. A selected group of 55 children and their parents were also interviewed. The results showed that the parents were not satisfied with the information they had received about the illness and about effects and side effects of the medication. Furthermore, their knowledge about these matters was not satisfactory, judged both by themselves and by the interviewer. It was more difficult to quit smoking or to stop keeping animals than to do extra cleaning at home. Few parents were informed about their possibilities of receiving financial support and about patient organisations. Only in a few cases did the health service provide the school with information on the child's disease.     

Pretherapy information: An investigation of client responses.

36 female undergraduates who had expressed profeminist attitudes as operationally defined by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Each group received differing amounts of pretherapy information about the therapist's values and therapy orientation. Results indicate that Ss did not perceive themselves as similar to the "explicit feminist" therapist, did not believe that she would be as helpful as either the "traditional" or "feminist label" therapists, and were not as willing to see the explicit feminist therapist. Implications for therapist disclosure of explicit value orientations are considered. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conversational repair in schizophrenic and normal children

OBJECTIVE: Children acquire the skills to monitor the adequacy of their spoken message and to self-initiate repair strategies that modify the message during early, middle, and late childhood. To characterize further the communication deficits of childhood-onset schizophrenia, this study compared self-initiated repair strategies in schizophrenic and normal children and their relationship with formal thought disorder, discourse deficits, and distractibility. METHOD: Measures of self-initiated repair, formal thought disorder, and cohesion were coded in 32 schizophrenic and 47 normal children, aged 5.6 to 12.4 years, from speech samples elicited with the Story Game. RESULTS: The schizophrenic children used some repair strategies (false starts, fillers, referential revision) more infrequently than the normal children. Within the schizophrenic group, the children who were receiving neuroleptic medication underutilized repair and had more discourse deficits than the unmedicated patients. Loose associations and distractibility were associated with increased use of false starts but not fillers. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to formal thought disorder and discourse deficits, schizophrenic children underutilize self-initiated repair when presenting their thoughts to the listener, particularly if they are being treated with neuroleptics, a potential sign of increased clinical morbidity. Impoverished communication skills might reflect negative signs in childhood-onset schizophrenia.