Explanations for visual cue primacy in judgments of honesty and deceit.

Examined the validity of the distraction hypothesis (Maier & Thurber, 1968). Ss were undergraduate students who watched a videotaped interview and rated the veracity of an actress who played the role of a college student. Study 1 disconfirmed the distraction hypothesis. Ss relied on nonverbal cues to make judgments of veracity, but the presence of nonverbal cues did not distract Ss from processing verbal content. Study 2 tested an alternate explanation, the situational familiarity hypothesis. Study 2 found that judgments in familiar situations were influenced primarily by verbal content cues, whereas those in unfamiliar situations were influenced by both verbal and nonverbal cues. Findings indicate that situational factors influence information processing and affect the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal cues in judgments of veracity. Generalizability of prior deception research is questioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Body position, facial expression, and verbal behavior during interviews.

The communicative value of body position and facial expression was evaluated by measuring an O's ability to detect a relationship between nonverbal and verbal behavior which had been simultaneously emitted. The verbal and nonverbal stimuli were collected during 2 different standardized stress interviews. Judges (Js) were shown pairs of photographs together with short written speech samples and required on each trial to pick the photograph which matched the verbal behavior. In 4 separate experiments with different groups of Js, accurate judgments were obtained. Evidence for a relationship between nonverbal and verbal behavior simultaneously emitted was replicated across 2 different samples of interview behavior and under 3 cue conditions—seeing the head, body, or whole person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal and nonverbal communication of facilitative conditions.

Studied 1 verbal and 5 nonverbal cues in a multichannel communication paradigm to assess their effect on the communication of the facilitative conditions of empathy, respect, and genuineness. 15 trained counselors and 15 clients rated 32 videotaped interactions between counselor and client, each interaction portraying a different combination of verbal message, trunk lean, eye contact, vocal intonation, and facial expression. Results of empathy, respect, and genuineness ratings reveal that (a) nonverbal cues in the paradigm accounted for significantly greater message variance than did the verbal message; (b) counselors and clients differed significantly in their perceptions of the cues, and these differences (reflected in interactions) depended heavily upon the presence or absence of the remaining cues; (c) previously unstudied cues of vocal intonation and facial expression with these dependent variables proved to be significant contributors to the final judgments of facilitative conditions; and (d) the process of decoding the level of facilitative conditions is a factorially complex process which cannot be understood by factorially simple studies. Results are further discussed with respect to the role of nonverbal communication in the counseling process. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interviewer perceptions of applicant qualifications: A multivariate field study of demographic characteristics and nonverbal cues.

Eight interviewers' perceptions of 517 applicants (mean age 16.7 yrs) for seasonal employment at a large amusement park were studied by obtaining their ratings of personal style variables, body movements, speech characteristics, and a final judgment on overall qualifications. Analysis of nonverbal clues showed the relative importance of speech characteristics (articulation, proper pauses) and unimportance of personal appearance variables (cleanliness, clothing) when these variables were simultaneously considered. MANOVA and MANCOVA showed a relationship between the race and sex of the applicant, sex of the interviewer, and nonverbal cues. A unique variance for these demographic variables was demonstrated even after education background data and nonverbal cues were controlled. It is concluded that communication skills are primary influences on judgment of qualifications when considered simultaneously with other nonverbal cues and that demographic differences are systematically related to these nonverbal cues and judgments of qualifications. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Listening, not watching: Situational familiarity and the ability to detect deception.

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated the influence of situational familiarity with the judgmental context on the process of lie detection. They predicted that high familiarity with a situation leads to a more pronounced use of content cues when making judgments of veracity. Therefore, they expected higher classification accuracy of truths and lies under high familiarity. Under low situational familiarity, they expected that people achieve lower accuracy rates because they use more nonverbal cues for their veracity judgments. In all 4 experiments, participants with high situational familiarity achieved higher accuracy rates in classifying both truthful and deceptive messages than participants with low situational familiarity. Moreover, mediational analyses demonstrated that higher classification accuracy in the high-familiarity condition was associated with more use of verbal content cues and less use of nonverbal cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power of nonverbal cues in counseling interactions: Availability, vividness, or salience?

Tested 3 explanations for the differential impact of verbal and nonverbal cues on perceptions of counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. These explanations involved cue availability (abundance of nonverbal over verbal cues), vividness (concreteness and imagery-provoking nature of nonverbal cues), and salience—vividness (an interaction between the vividness of the cues and the level of arousal of the perceiver). 45 male and 45 female undergraduates were divided into 6 experimental groups to view tapes of counseling interactions. The tapes included 3 expertness tapes representing 3 levels of verbal/nonverbal cues and 3 attractiveness tapes representing the same 3 levels. The independent variables studied were arousal and number of verbal and nonverbal cues. After viewing both an expertness tape and an attractiveness tape, Ss completed an adjective checklist and an instrument designed to measure dimensions of perceived expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Findings suggest that cue availability is not a compelling explanation for the power of nonverbal communications, that vividness accounts for differential cue effectiveness with certain dependent variables, and that salience is not a prerequisite for the vividness effect to occur. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teacher accuracy in assessing cognitive visual feedback from students.

The relative value of verbal and nonverbal cues in teacher accuracy in making judgments of student comprehension was tested. 67 new interns (not yet teachers), 59 inexperienced teachers, and 46 experienced teachers were each shown 20 short sound-film recordings of 10 students being taught. They rated student comprehension. 57 Ss heard both picture and sound, 60 heard sound only, and 55 saw only the picture. When sound is absent, all groups of teachers are inaccurate in judging student comprehension (about ? correct with ? the chance base). When sound is present, whether or not the picture is seen, all groups exceed chance (about ? correct), but do not differ significantly from each other. The need for research on teacher training in the observation and interpretation of nonverbal feedback from students is indicated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Face and tone of voice in the communication of deception.

An experiment with 60 senders and 9 judges (undergraduates) examined the contributions of face and tone of voice (TOV; filtered speech) to the communication of honest and deceptive messages. TOV was a better source of deception and leakage than the face. Judgments of the combined audiovisual channel (AVC) was better predicted from their TOV judgments when the message was deceptive and from their judgments of the face when the message was honest. When verbal content was available, the face became less important. Judges obtained more information from facial cues that were added to filtered speech than from those added to full voice. Judgments of the AVC without content were better predicted from judgments of filtered speech. The relative importance of face and TOV was also determined by the affect that was communicated. TOV was a better source of information about dominance and submission; the face revealed more information and was more highly correlated with the combined AVC for communication of liking and disliking. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power displays between women and men in discussions of gender-linked tasks: A multichannel study.

Conducted a multichannel investigation of how gender-based familiarity moderates verbal and nonverbal behaviors between men and women. Undergraduates in 24 mixed-sex dyads discussed masculine, feminine, and non-gender-linked topics. The primary dependent variables were verbal and nonverbal behaviors related to social power. The verbal behaviors examined were speech initiations and total amount of speech; the nonverbal behaviors studied were visual behavior (while speaking and while listening), gesturing, chin thrusts, and smiling. Systematic differences in the behaviors of men and women emerged on the gender-linked tasks. On the masculine task men displayed more verbal and nonverbal power-related behavior than did women. On the feminine task women exhibited more power than men on most of the verbal and nonverbal measures. On the non-gender-linked task men displayed greater power both verbally and nonverbally than did women. There were 2 exceptions to this overall pattern. Across all conditions, women smiled more often than did men, and men had a higher frequency of chin thrusts than did women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metric distance models of creativity and children's appreciation of figurative language.

36 kindergartners, 3rd, and 6th graders indicated their semantic preferences among 9 figures of speech. Ss were administered the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test and Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking. Results indicate that at the kindergarten level, Ss' appreciation of figurative language may be based on nonverbal creativity. But at Grades 3 and 6, presumably with the onset of operational reasoning, Ss' figurative language behavior is increasingly tied to verbal IQ and verbal creativity. Results are consistent with the notion that figurative language behavior is essentially an exercise in creativity. Developmental differences in the relationship between creativity and figurative language are discussed in terms of changes in cognitive development. A least-squares metric distance solution is established for scaling Ss' preference judgments. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Actions speak no louder than words: Symmetrical cross-modal interference effects in the processing of verbal and gestural information.

Five experiments are reported that investigate the distribution of selective attention to verbal and nonverbal components of an utterance when conflicting information exists in these channels. A Stroop-type interference paradigm is adopted in which attributes from the verbal and nonverbal dimensions are placed into conflict. Static directional (deictic) gestures and corresponding spoken and written words show symmetrical interference (Experiments 1, 2, and 3), as do directional arrows and spoken words (Experiment 4). This symmetry is maintained when the task is switched from a manual keypress to a verbal naming response (Experiment 5), suggesting the mutual influence of the 2 dimensions is independent of spatial stimulus-response compatibility. It is concluded that the results are consistent with a model of interference in which information from pointing gestures and speech is integrated prior to the response selection stage of processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training students to decode verbal and nonverbal cues: Effects on confidence and performance.

Conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of using previous research findings as a means of teaching students how to interpret verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Students were pretested and then randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: no training, receiving an informational lecture about verbal and nonverbal cues, or receiving practice in identifying relevant cues in videotaped interactions. Results indicated that only the group that received practice significantly improved its ability to correctly interpret verbal and nonverbal behavior. Information alone produced no improvement in performance, but it significantly increased Ss' confidence in the accuracy of their performance. Some interesting gender differences were also uncovered. Although pretest scores indicated that women earned higher accuracy scores than men, men were much more confident that they had performed well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What you say and how you say it: The contribution of speech content and voice quality to judgments of others.

14 groups of undergraduates (2 for each of 7 conditions) made judgments based on separated channels (speech content, voice quality, face alone, and body alone) and judgments based on combined channels (speech, face plus speech, and face plus body plus speech). Ss observed (via videotape) and heard (via audiotape) the spontaneous behavior of 15 stimulus persons in 2 types of interview situations and rated various aspects of the behavior. In Study 1, criterion judgments were based on a task similar to answering a phone. In Study 2, they were similar to watching TV. In Study 3, a complete set of behavioral clues was the basis of the criterion judgments. Results show that correlations between separated and combined channels varied significantly, depending on the kind of behavior judged. Judgments of honestly described positive feelings based on nonverbal channels were highly correlated with judgments of the whole person, while most speech-content judgments were uncorrelated. Judgments of stimulus persons' lied-about negative feelings were less influenced by nonverbal behavior. Judgments based on content of what was said were most highly correlated with how the person making the statement was judged. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonverbal imitation and toddlers' mastery of verbal means of achieving coordinated action.

Fourteen dyads of unfamiliar peers (White, both same gender and mixed gender) were observed longitudinally at 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 months of age. Verbalizations to the peer were analyzed for their social function with respect to the ongoing nonverbal activity and their temporal and topical coherence to prior talk. Six types of speech ( including verbal directives and topically well-connected speech) increased in frequency only after the peer partners had shown a marked increase in their readiness to imitate each other's nonverbal actions. These same types of speech occurred reliably more often when the peers were engaged in bouts of coordinated action generated largely by means of nonverbal imitative acts than during bouts of less coordinated nonverbal activity. Toddlers, through their nonverbal imitative activity, appear to create joint understandings of what they are doing together that aid in their use and development of verbal means of achieving coordinated action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of speech characteristics in scholastic success.

Compared 2 groups of 93 French-Canadian 3rd grade boys in terms of verbal intelligence and various characteristics of speech. Ss in both groups came from low social class homes, and were similar in measured nonverbal intelligence. The essential difference between groups was school achievement; 1 group had average grades of B or above, the other, C or below. It was found that the groups differed reliably in verbal intelligence and in particular speech characteristics, analyzed by an experienced linguist. Distinctive patterns of speech differentiated the 2 groups even with verbal intelligence statistically controlled. Results are discussed in terms of current psycholinguistic theories of social-class differences in speech and language. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of inconsistency between counselor verbal and nonverbal behavior on perceptions of counselor attributes.

Investigated the effects of inconsistency between a counselor's verbal and nonverbal behaviors on perceptions of the counselor as empathic, genuine, and expert and on willingness to seek the counselor's help. 120 undergraduate women, randomly assigned to 4 groups, viewed 1 of 4 8-min videotaped role plays of a counseling session. Each videotape demonstrated a combination of the counselor's responsive and unresponsive verbal statements and nonverbal behaviors. Ss rated the counselor on empathy, genuineness, expertness, and willingness to seek the counselor's help for themselves and others. Consistent with prior research, results indicate that nonverbal behavior seemed to increase the impact of a congruent verbal message and to alter an accompanying incongruent verbal message in the direction of the nonverbal cues. The significance of results for communication theory is discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the use of proximity and eye contact in judgments of affiliation in preschool children.

Investigated sex differences in preschool children's use of nonverbal cues in judgments of affiliation in 2 experiments. Ss were a total of 40 male and 40 female 3-6 yr olds. Results of Exp I show that although both 4-yr-old boys and girls used proximity cues in judging liking, only girls showed an increase in the accuracy of use of this cue by age 6. At age 4 neither boys nor girls were functioning above chance in their use of eye contact cues in judgments of affiliation, and again girls alone showed improvement by age 6. Exp II demonstrates that discrimination training involving the proximity cue facilitated the correct use of this cue in the judgments of 4-yr-old girls but not in boys. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Client verbal and nonverbal reinforcement of counselor behavior: Its impact on interviewing behavior and postinterview evaluation.

Examined the effect of client reinforcement on counselor behavior within the interview as well as on selected attitudinal judgments of the counselor about the client. 30 counselor-trainees interviewed a standard client for 1 20-min interview. Following a 10-min baseline period, the client reinforced the counselor's reflection of feeling (RF) statements with either a verbal response, a verbal plus nonverbal response, or a noncontingent verbal plus nonverbal response. Counselors then completed a postinterview questionnaire measuring attraction to and clinical impression of the client. Results show that (a) counselors in verbal and verbal plus nonverbal conditions showed significant increases in RF statements, while noncontingent controls showed no significant gains; and (b) differences in counselor attraction and clinical impression of the client were minimal. Implications are discussed in terms of skill acquisition in counselor training. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)