The effects of inquiry-based information literacy instruction on memory and comprehension: A longitudinal study

How information literacy instruction affects students' learning has been a concern for many librarians and teachers. This study examines the effects of six-year integrated information literacy instruction on elementary students' memory and comprehension of subject content through inquiry learning and also focuses on the moderating factor of students' academic achievement levels. The subjects were 75 students participating in the study from the time when they entered elementary school. The school adopted information literacy instruction and integrated it into various subject areas using the framework of inquiry learning, for example, the Super3 and Big6 models. A total of 11 inquiry learning projects were implemented from Grade 1 through Grade 6. The results showed that inquiry-based integrated information literacy instruction helps students memorize facts and apply new concepts in the subject content. In general, the progress level in comprehension was higher than in memory learning for the six-year integrated information literacy instruction. Regardless of students' prior academic achievement levels, if they devoted their efforts to inquiry processes, their fact memorization and conceptual understanding of subject content improved. Low-achieving students displayed the most progression in both memory and comprehension learning, compared to their medium- and high-achieving peers. This study underscores the importance of information literacy instruction in students' learning.     

The development of compromising as an alternative to persuasion

Children's responses to situations in which their interests conflicted with those of the other interactant were investigated to determine whether children would attempt to persuade the other or to initiate compromise. One hundred twenty‐seven third, fourth, and sixth graders constructed messages in such situations. There was a tendency for more of the older children than young ones to spontaneously initiate compromise. Results were interpreted in terms of development and communicative skills reflecting the pursual of multiple goals. In this case, older children were concerned not only with their own primary interests, but with those of the other interactant.     

The semantics of social influence: threats vs. persuasion

This study investigates how language is used to make sense of influence attempts. More specifically, the perceived potency and evaluation of both influence agents and targets and the influence tactic used are examined for their effect on the actors' perceived power and influence success. The two influence tactics examined are threats and attempts to persuade. A pilot study (N=145) and main experiment (N=189) were conducted to create 84 simple sentences, the units of analysis for this investigation. Agents are perceived as more powerful than targets of influence. The tactic used to secure compliance (threaten versus attempt to persuade) does not affect the perceived power of either the agent or the target. A bad agent is seen as more powerful than a good agent, and a bad target is considered more powerful than a good target. Furthermore, good agents have more success in gaining compliance by using persuasion than by using threats, and they have more success when influencing a good target than a bad target. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Subjective message constructs: A theory of persuasion

Subjective message construct theory maintains that the underlying constructs, or cognitive tests, that receivers apply to persuasive messages require that message information be perceived as important, novel, and plausible for belief change to occur. In three different studies a total of six complete replications of the theory were performed. For each replication respondents indicated their subjective beliefs in the probability of the claim, datum, claim given the datum, and claim if not the datum. These subjective probabilities were subsequently placed in a mathematical formulation that represented a multiplicative combination of importance, novelty, and plausibility. The results from six replications indicated that between 25 and 50% percent of the variance in belief change can be explained by subjective message construct theory. Additionally, the results from validity checks indicated that subjective probabilities can be used to construct valid operational measures of importance and novelty.     

The role of nonverbal behaviors as distractors in resistance to persuasion in interpersonal contexts

The role of two nonverbal variables, conversational distance and physical self‐presentation, are examined as potential sources of distraction with consequent effects on susceptibility to persuasion. A model of conversational distancing violations is adapted to a distraction perspective to predict how nonverbal variables specifically might function as distractors. Results of an experiment manipulating violations of distancing expectations and physical attractiveness of confederates (N = 350) indicate that both may be sources of distraction, and offer modest support for the prediction that attractive individuals engaging in violations of expectations will serve as positive sources of distraction, leading to greater susceptibility to persuasion. Failure to support the prediction that unattractive individuals engaging in violations of expectations foster more resistance to persuasion is partly explained by the lack of a sufficiently unattractive confederate.     

The last refuge of media persuasion: news use,national pride and political trust in China

This study examines theoretical connections among three variables, each in its own way engendering profound political implications for the Chinese society today: news use, national pride, and political trust. We focused on the impact of ‘positivity bias in news’ and advanced a theoretical model on the basis of framing theory to address the dynamics of propaganda and its persuasive effects. Using data from the World Value Survey, we found: (1) news use in general, television news viewing in particular, was positively associated with political trust and national pride; (2) impact of news use on political trust disappeared once national pride was statistically controlled; and (3) intensity of national pride moderated the bivariate relationship between news use and political trust. The effect of party propaganda intended to consolidate political trust in China was contingent upon both one's affective ties to the state and the form of news media regularly consumed.     

Possessions theory of persuasion: An examination of its basis and range

Possessions theory claims that individuals learn to relate to their possessions in either an instrumental or symbolic fashion, and that this object orientation transfers to attitudes. Implicit in the theory is the notion that instrumental and symbolic orientations anchor the poles of a single continuum. The results of the first study tested that assumption and found that a bivariate conception was more empirically defensible than a bipolar conception. Study 2 was concerned with the scope of the theory's predictions for persuasion. The possessions orientation of women at‐risk for breast cancer was measured and they were then exposed to either a symbolic or instrumental message both of which asked them to participate in a clinical trial of a breast cancer preventative. Although no effects were observed on attitude toward participation nor on intention to participate, instrumental orientation showed a reliable, positive relationship with judgments of the persuasiveness of the messages.     

Antecedents of children's comprehension of television advertising

This study compared the importance of role taking and logical operations stage in predicting children's understanding of the purpose of television advertising. Role taking was found to be the more critical variable.     

Scientific comprehension of the nature of information

Information is characterized as the basic notion of informatics (information science). Different views of the nature of information are presented. An analysis of information definitions, including the Stanford definition, is given. On the basis of analyzing and generalizing the presented definitions the authors present their own definition of information. Information is studied as a sign using the concept of the semiotic triangle. The problem of the existence of information in animate and inanimate nature is considered and concrete examples of this view are given.     

An experimental study of the effect of three speech variables on listener comprehension

Though the scope of Aristotle's Rhetoric is at once broader and more limited than Bacon's theory, the Englishman owes most of his primary rhetorical doctrines to his predecessor. The two philosophers agree on the nature and general function of rhetoric, its place among the arts and sciences, its psychological basis, and the use to which it puts logical, ethical, and pathetic proofs. Some of Aristotle's hints are expanded by Bacon, mainly those regarding the philosophical style, and Bacon often corrects what he takes to be inconsistencies and errors in Aristotle's work. Moreover, because he looks to the past only for material to change and augment, Bacon does original and important new things to Aristotle as he re‐works him for a new English rhetoric.     

The effects of cd-rom on library services

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Type of speech,sex of speaker,and sex of subject as factors influencing persuasion

Speeches that advocated “institutional”; norms were compared with speeches that did not, in conditions where male and female speakers were varied. Female speakers were more successful when they took a noninstitutional position, and male speakers were more successful when they took an institutional position. “Masculinity”; and “Femininity”; were not significant factors in any of the effects.     

The effects of power and message variables on compliance

It has long been recognized in the nonverbal communication literature that individual differences in extraversion are expected to be most clearly evident in expressive forms of nonverbal behavior. Although several studies designed to examine the correlation between extraversion and nonverbal behavior have been conducted, most attempts to summarize these studies reflect the inconsistent nature of the research findings. Indeed, correlations range from ?.36 to .73. The extant literature summaries are limited to narrative reviews, however, which tend to be highly selective. The purpose of this study was to meta‐analyze the relevant studies. Results indicated that the mean correlation coefficient weighted for sample size was .13 for the entire sample of studies. Although 63% of the variance was attributable to sampling error, the distribution of correlations was heterogeneous. The remaining variance was due to two methodological artifacts: sample size and the number of nonverbal behaviors coded. For example, hierarchical breakdowns by moderator indicated that the mean correlation was .50 for highly focused studies—those in which researchers concentrated on a few behaviors and limited coding to 40 or fewer subjects. A cognitive‐overload model for these findings is offered and corroborated by findings from other research domains. Implications for communication research and theory are discussed. In addition to clarifying the empirical relationship between extraversion and nonverbal behavior, the contributions of this study reside, in part, in its implications for large samples and large numbers of nonverbal behaviors coded in research and for meta‐analyses of such research literatures.     

The effects of language intensity modification on perceived verbal aggressiveness

This study examined the effects of variation in language intensity on the perceived aggressiveness of sentences representing five empirically established levels of verbal aggression. Subjects read and rated the aggressiveness of replicated sentences in which the level of verbal aggression and language intensity had been systematically varied. Tests of the hypothesized relationship between language intensity, verbal aggression and perceived aggressiveness gave evidence that frequency adverbs do affect the perceived aggressiveness of sentences at most levels of verbal aggression. Increasing language intensity increases perceived verbal aggression only at low levels of verbal aggression; decreasing language intensity is most effective at higher levels of verbal aggression.