A latent variable approach to the simple view of reading

The present study utilized a latent variable modeling approach to examine the Simple View of Reading in a sample of students from 3rd, 7th, and 10th grades (N = 215, 188, and 180, respectively). Latent interaction modeling and other latent variable models were employed to investigate (a) the functional form of the relationship between decoding and linguistic comprehension in third grade, (b) the contribution of these predictors as children progress through school, and (c) the contribution of passage fluency, working memory, and performance IQ to a model of reading for all grades. Results did not support the Simple View of Reading for students in grades 3, 7 and 10. Additionally, it was found that passage fluency significantly predicted reading comprehension after controlling for decoding and linguistic comprehension for students in grades 7 and 10. Likewise performance IQ was found to be a significant predictor of reading comprehension for students in third grade.     

Facilitating growth in prospective teachers’ knowledge: teaching geometry in primary schools

This paper reports on a study that focused on growth of understanding about teaching geometry by a group of prospective teachers engaged in lesson plan study within a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Participation in the activity was found to facilitate considerable growth in the participants?? pedagogical-content knowledge (PCK). Factors that influenced growth in PCK included the nature of the lesson planning task, the cognitive scaffolds inserted into the CSCL virtual space, the meta-language scaffolds provided to the participants, and the provision of both private and public discourse spaces. The paper concludes with recommendations for enhancing effective knowledge-building discourse about mathematics PCK within prospective teacher education CSCL environments.     

The effects of nonverbal behavior on outcomes of compliance gaining attempts

An increasing number of investigations have demonstrated that the use of certain nonverbal behaviors such as gaze and touch can increase compliance‐gaining effectiveness. A meta‐analysis of 49 studies with a total of 9977 subjects was conducted to determine the strength of the nonverbal‐compliance relationship. The results indicated that there are consistently positive and small effects for gaze, touch, proxemics, and apparel in increasing compliance‐gaining effectiveness. Several different theoretical accounts of these data are evaluated. Finally, the effects of the nonverbal behaviors are compared with those of verbal behaviors. The nonverbal behavioral effects on compliance‐gaining appear to be as strong, and in some cases stronger, than the effects associated with various verbal compliance‐gaining strategies.     

The Road Not Taken: William James’s Radical Empiricism and Communication Theory

This essay examines how William James’s radical empiricism deals with indeterminism and formulates a central issue in contemporary communication theory; incommensurability. A close textual reading of James’s initial approach of indeterminacy as chaos is provided and I argue James subsequently reformulates this as the problem of incommensurability in his radical empiricism. In this way, James overcomes a chaos/order dualism that continues to orient much communication theory. I examine three post-positivist theories of communication — Pearce & Cronen’s Coordinated Management of Meaning, Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action, and Mosco’s Political Economy of Communication – in light of this finding and consider its implications for pragmatist projects in communication. It is suggested that although John Durham Peters’s Speaking into the Air anticipates many of these findings, recovering James’s radical empiricism can facilitate the reconstruction of a pragmatist tradition of thougt subsequently developed through George Herbert Mead and John Dewey.     

AUTHOR INDEX FOR VOLUME 38: 2007 Prepared by Assistant Editor James K. Bracken

PROVOCATEUR: IMAGES OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN ADVERTISING by Anthony J. Cortese (Lanham, MD: Rowman &; Littlefield “Postmodern Social Futures,”; 1999—$35.00/24.95, ISBN 0–8476–9174–8 hard, 0–8476–9175–6 paper, 161 pp., photographs, glossary, reference, index)

ADVERTISINQ AQE HANDBOOK OF ADVERTISING by Herschell Gordon Lewis and Carol Nelson (Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, 1999—$39.95, ISBN 0–8442–3670–5, 228 pp., photographs, appendices, index)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS GUIDE TO THE INTERNET by Jeffrey K. MacKie‐Mason and Christopher Lee (Rockville, MD: Government Institutes “Internet Series,”; 1999—$59.00, paper, ISBN 0–86587–601–0, 241 pp., index)

MEDIA LITERACY ONLINE PROJECT [website] (http://www.interact.uore‐gon.edu/MediaLit/HomePage)

AD WORLDS: BRANDS, MEDIA, AND AUDIENCES by Greg Myers (London and New York: Arnold, 1999—$60.00/19.95, ISBN 0–340–70006–8 hard, 0–340–70007–6 paper, 246 pp., photos, references, index, charts, glossary, tables, illustrations)

LEGAL INFORMATION: HOW TO FIND IT, HOW TO USE IT by Kent C. Olson (Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1999—price not given, paper, ISBN 0–89774–963–4, 333 pp., tables, index)

THE COPYRIGHT BOOK: A PRACTICAL GUIDE by William S. Strong (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999 [5th ed.]—$34.95, ISBN 0–262–19419–8, 376 pp., appendices, endnotes, index)

THE FATHER OF SPIN: EDWARD L. BERNAYS &; THE BIRTH OF PUBLIC RELATIONS by Larry Tye (New York: Crown Publishers, 1998—$27.50, ISBN 0–517–70435–8, 306 pp., photographs, notes, bibliography, index)

JAHRESBIBLIOGRAPHIE MASSENKOMMUNIKATION 1997/ANNUAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MASS COMMUNICATION 1997 compiled by Wilbert Ubbens (Berlin: Wissenschaftsverlag Volker Spiess, 1999—no price available, ISBN 3–89166–486–9, 446 pp., personal name, title, and corporate name indexes)     

F. Memoirs and Biography

ON TELEVISION by Pierre Bourdieu, translated from the 1996 French original by Priscilla Ferguson (New York: The New Press, 1998—$18.95, paper, ISBN 1–56584–407–6, 104 pp., appendix, translator's note, bibliography, notes, index)

BUYER'S GUIDE TO FIFTY YEARS OF TV ON VIDEO by Sam Frank (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999—$22.95, paper, ISBN 1–57392–226–9, 1,498 pp., index)

THE TELEVISION STUDIES BOOK edited by Christine Geraghty and David Lusted (London: Arnold / New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998—$59.95/18.95, ISBN 0–340–66232 hard, 0–340–66231‐X paper, 337 pp., index)

WHY WE WATCH: THE ATTRACTIONS OF VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT edited by Jeffrey H. Goldstein (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998—$49.95/17.95, ISBN 0–19–511820–0 hard, 0–19–511821–9 paper, 270 pp., illustrations, references, subject and name indexes)

BROADCASTING IN AMERICA: A SURVEY OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA by S. W. Head, C. H. Sterling, L. B. Schofield, T. Spann, and M. A. McGregor (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998 [8th ed.]—$52.00, paper, ISBN 0–395–87371–1, 337 pp., 280 photos &; graphics, bibliography, index, instructor's manual)

PRIME TIME LAW: FICTIONAL TELEVISION AS LEGAL NARRATIVE edited by Robert M. Jarvis and Paul R. Joseph (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 1998—price not given, ISBN 0–89089–805–7 hard, 0–89089–808–1 paper, 323 pp., notes, index)

MASTERPIECE THEATRE AND THE POLITICS OF QUALITY by Lawrence A. Jarvik (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999—$60.00, ISBN 0–8108–3204–6, 261 pp., notes, bibliography, index)

TELEVISION VIOLENCE: A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE edited by P.T. Kelly (Nova Science Publishers, 6080 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 207, Commack, NY 11725—price not given, ISBN 1–56072–299–1, 193 pp., index)

UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY, CULTURE, AND TELEVISION by Paul Monaco (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998—$55.00, ISBN 0–275–96057–9, 152 pp., bibliography, index)

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TELEVISION NEWS edited by Michael D. Murray (Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1999—price not given, ISBN 1–57356–108–8, 315 pp., photos, further reading, index)

STUDENT TELEVISION IN AMERICA: CHANNELS OF CHANGE by Tony Silvia and Nancy F. Kaplan (Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1998— $29.95, paper, ISBN 0–8138–2160–6, 243 pp., illustrations, selected bibliography, appendixes, index)

LIVING COLOR: RACE AND TELEVISION IN THE UNITED STATES edited by Sasha Torres (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998—$49.95/17.95, ISBN 0–8223–2178–5 hard, 0–8223–2195–5 paper, illustrations, selected bibliography, index)