Offering a focus on the development of human communication, this book integrates and synthesizes an array of research. As such, it incorporates materials dealing with the development of nonverbal communication, language and cognition, and examines how they are integrated in the growing child's everyday interaction. This information is distilled into a set of key principles and practices - culled from a variety of fields including developmental and social psychology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and communication - for parents or adults interested in child development. While this book...

This book is the initial volume coming out of the "excellence project"--a comprehensive research effort commissioned by the IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) Research Foundation. The purpose of this project was to answer two fundamental questions about public relations: What are the characteristics of an excellent communication department? How does excellent public relations make an organization more effective, and how much is that contribution worth economically? The research team began its work with a thorough review of the literature in public relations and related...

Our interpretations of the world we live in, and the people and institutions that comprise it, are acquired through complex interactions among what we believe to be true, what the world is, and/or what others think it is. Understanding those complex interactions is one of the most important goals of the social sciences. Of the many disciplines that have contributed to that understanding, two take center stage in this book -- psychology and communication.
This volume's purpose is to reconnect the partially isolated environments of social psychology and communication. To do so, it utilizes...

This book provides academic reformers with a blueprint for tackling the upheaval facing media education. It calls for a new professionalism that rejects the status quo, reflects the mission and diversity of individual programs, and demands a redefinition of both traditional media studies and the liberal arts.
The book directs philosophical assaults and uses real-life examples to challenge the paralyzing effects of the "seven deadly sins" of media education.

The mental representations of perceptual and cognitive stimuli vary on many dimensions. In addition, because of quantal fluctuations in the stimulus, spontaneous neural activity, and fluctuations in arousal and attentiveness, mental events are characterized by an inherent variability. During the last several years, a number of models and theories have been developed that explicitly assume the appropriate mental representation is both multidimensional and probabilistic. This new approach has the potential to revolutionize the study of perception and cognition in the same way that signal...

Providing a personal overview of hemispheric differences in human cognitive activity, Professor Efron is selective in his presentation of significant issues. To ensure a balanced overview, references are made to many books, review articles, and research reports that present opposing positions. Although additional material has been included in this book, the informal style of the oral presentation has not been altered. This volume may be perceived as a report of one man's opinion; however, the conclusions may reflect the views of a silent majority of cognitive neuroscientists.

This volume is a case study of education reform and innovation using technology that examines the issue from a wide variety of perspectives. It brings together the views and experiences of software designers, curriculum writers, teachers and students, researchers and administrators. Thus, it stands in contrast to other analyses of innovation that tend to look through the particular prisms of research, classroom practice, or software design.
The Geometric Supposer encourages a belief in a better tomorrow for schools. On its surface, the Geometric Supposer provides the means...

The question of what types of children are most influenced by -- or can best benefit from -- television is a recurrent theme in the scientific literature as well as a frequently raised issue for pediatric associations, educators, and parent/citizen groups concerned about the welfare and advancement of young children. To effectively address this question, this book focuses on a wide variety of children with highly divergent cognitive abilities, social skills, and educational capacities -- that is, those labeled as emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, mentally retarded, and intellectually...

This volume explores how a number of developing countries -- including India, Malaysia, Columbia, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia -- are responding to the pressures of the information society. Infrastructural development, policies, and social systems are investigated, and models of information technologies and society are proposed in order to better reference the differences and similarities among the nations profiled. The authors identify the social technology perspective via the assimilation of technology in lifestyles and social systems. From this perspective, the diffusion of technologies is...