The Research of James C. McCroskey: A Personal and Professional Remembrance

James C. McCroskey passed away on December 27, 2012. He contributed immensely to the study of human communication. He led the field in in-field publications and citations. Perhaps his most lasting contribution is naming and measuring communication constructs. James C. McCroskey contributed substantially to Communication Research Reports as a past editor, editorial board member, and contributing author. This essay is a personal and professional remembrance of James C. McCroskey.     

Strong Diagnostic Questioning Effects on Deception Detection Accuracy With U.S. Customs Agents

Recent communication research shows several paths to improving accuracy in deception detection. According to truth-default theory, one promising approach is diagnostic questioning. A sample of elite U.S. Customs agents participated in a deception detection task. Agents viewed senders who were interrogated with one of three different sets of questions that differed in diagnostic utility. The different questioning sets produced a 36-point swing in accuracy from 42% to 78% accuracy. These findings demonstrate that how someone is questioned can make a substantial difference in deception detection accuracy and that improved accuracy is possible with diagnostic questioning.     

Curation,conservation, and the artist in Silent Explosion: Ivor Davies and Destruction in Art

This paper examines the preservation and curatorial approaches explored for the exhibition Silent Explosion: Ivor Davies and Destruction in Art at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales (November 2015–March 2016). The collaboration between the artist, curator/researcher, and conservators is considered and the evolving and flexible way in which transient pieces were presented/re-presented is described. The paper offers a case study in the context of this exhibition and argues that regardless of whether it is in traditional media (such as painting) or as time-based media (unstable and open to interpretation), Davies' work challenges a perception of artworks as finished, single-authored objects.     

The development of case studies as a method within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision in the Republic of Ireland

When developing case studies within a longitudinal study of special educational needs provision within the Republic of Ireland, the authors were conscious of the critiques of the use of this approach within educational research. The difficulties associated with generalisation, challenges of ensuring trustworthiness and the possibilities of researcher bias have been identified as limiting factors in the presentation of case study data. In order to confront these limitations, the researchers developed a framework for case study development that aimed to provide a secure database and trustworthy interpretation in order to make assertions in relation to special educational needs provision. This paper describes this process and suggests that the need to develop safeguards in order to present case studies that have high degree of credibility is essential when using this approach. Furthermore, the transparency of research methods, a significant omission in many reports of research, is necessary in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of data.     

Mathematical situations of play and exploration

The mathematical situations of play and exploration introduced here have been developed as an empirical research instrument for the longitudinal study “erStMaL” (early Steps in Mathematics Learning). They are designed as situations that allow children and a guiding adult to construct situation-related knowledge in common dialogue processes and in mutual conditions. In addition, the situations focus on the activity of the persons involved, as well as the meaning of artefacts as objects of different cultural worlds. Besides relevant theoretical aspects for the development of the mathematical situations of play and exploration, exemplary analyses are introduced to clarify the conceptual aims.