How groups cooperate in a networked geometry learning environment

This paper presents a small group computing environment in which four students each control a different point in a geometric space, such that as a group they collectively manipulate the vertices of a quadrilateral. Prior research has revealed that students have considerable difficulty in learning about the interrelationships among quadrilaterals shapes. In this study, we investigated how a designed environment can help support students’ learning in this area. In particular, in a case study of two student groups, we used the notions of appropriation and objectification to explain how students learned from one another different ways of using the technology and of explaining geometric concepts to progress in their geometric reasoning. When the students did not attain a shared focus of attention, they were not able to appropriate others’ approaches to using the technology or explaining geometric concepts. In one group, although some individuals demonstrated learning gains, when the coordination among the group members fell apart, not all the members were able to benefit. On the other hand, another group which demonstrated more group-oriented behavior—listening to one another, sharing the same focus of attention, engaging in coordinated actions—was able to benefit as a whole and did better overall on individual assessments.     

General Communications

Joseph C. Goulden's Monopoly (Pocket Books 77135, 95¢)

Bryce Rucker's The First Freedom (University of Southern Illinois Press, $2.85)

John Phelan's Communications Control (Sheed & Ward, $3.45)

David Manning White's edited collection Pop Culture in America (Quadrangle Books, $5.95/2.45)

Marshall Fishwick and Ray B. Browne's edited Icons of Popular Culture (Bowling Green University Popular Press, $1.00)

Don Fabun's Three Roads to Awareness (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Glencoe Press, $5.95/4.95)     

A content analytic technique for measuring the sexiness of women's business attire in media presentations

This study describes the development and pretest of a content analytic category scheme for objectively measuring the sexiness of women's business attire in media presentations. In a test of the validity of the category scheme, presentations of women's business attire in television soap operas were compared to real world examples. The television samples were found to be significantly more provocative than the real world attire. In addition, the results of the content analysis of soap opera attire was compared to an intuitive perception of “sexiness.” A significant positive correlation was found between the degree of sexiness as measured by the content analytic category scheme and subject's perception of sexiness.     

A rules‐based study of television's role in the construction of social reality

A qualitative analysis of one couple's conversational uses of mediated content is presented. Observations spanned a two‐year period. Data were categorized according to usage type and then examined from Lull's (1981) rules persective.     

Past and future research on learning hierarchies 1

Several areas of research on learning hierarchies are identified. It is proposed that the first of these, investigating the validity of hierarchies, should now be considered virtually at an end because of the increased support for hierarchies provided by the evidence of recent studies. A brief discussion is given of the few studies that have been performed in six other areas. General recommendations are made for future research on hierarchies, and some plans are suggested for specific investigations.     

The Communication Anxiety Regulation Scale: Development and Initial Validation

A series of studies present the development and validation of the Communication Anxiety Regulation Scale (CARS), a self-report measure designed to assess the use of emotion regulation strategies to manage acute communication anxiety—in contrast to measures of general emotion regulation tendencies. Study 1 delineates the item derivation and selection process that yielded the final 12 CARS items. Results of an exploratory factor analysis supported the existence of four distinct subscales, each representing one of four anxiety regulation strategies (suppression, reappraisal, avoidance, and venting). Study 2 confirmed this factor structure and also examined correlations of the CARS with existing measures in an attempt to establish concurrent validity. Finally, Study 3 presents results of an item-sort task demonstrating the scale’s face validity and items’ substantive validity. Overall, findings provide preliminary support for the utility of the CARS as measure of communication anxiety regulation to be used by communication and psychology researchers.