Motivated by Meaning: Testing the Effect of Knowledge‐Infused Rewards on Preschoolers' Persistence

Research and theory suggest that young children are highly attuned to causality. This study explores whether this drive can motivate task engagement. Fifty‐six 3‐ and 4‐year‐olds completed a motor task as many times as desired, viewing a picture of a novel item upon each completion. Forty‐two randomly assigned children then received either: (a) causally rich information regarding the item, (b) causally weak information regarding the item, or (c) a tangible reward. The remaining 14 children participated in a baseline condition featuring no rewards. Preschoolers completed more trials when rewarded with causally rich than causally weak information, or when given no reward. Children also trended toward lengthier persistence in the causally rich than the tangible reward condition. Implications for theory and educational practice are discussed.     

Implicit theories of communicative competence: The semantics of social behavior

Observers evaluating the competence of communicators use both observed behaviors and traits inferred from these behaviors in their evaluation. In order to understand the process by which these evaluations are made, the manner in which the beliefs about trait/behavior relationships that underlie this process must be understood. Based on analysis of judgments of prototypical “communicators” of different skill levels and of actual people, trait/behavior relationships are, with one exception, similar across competence level and communicative situation.     

11. JOURNALISM

THE AMERICAN BOOK BUYERS STUDY “conducted and prepared”; by Bruno and Ridgway Research Associates for Publishers Weekly and the Book Industry Study Group (New York: Cahners Publishing Company, September 1997—$295.00, paper [additional copies $60.00 for BISG voting Members, $80.00 for BISG non‐voting members], ISBN 0–940016–68–0, approximately 550 pages [various pagings], tables, charts, appendixes)

BOOKS, BRICKS &; BYTES: LIBRARIES IN THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY, edited by Stephen R. Graubard and Paul LcClerc (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction, 1998—$24.95 paper, ISBN 1–56000–986–1, 361 pp.)

BOOKNOTES: AMERICA'S FINEST AUTHORS ON READING, WRITING, AND THE POWER OF IDEAS by Brian Lamb (New York: Times Books, 1997— $15.00, paper, ISBN 0–8129–3029–0, 426 pp., illustrations, appendix, index)

EXPERIMENTATION AND COLLABORATION: CREATING SERIALS FOR A NEW MILLENNIUM: Proceedings of the North American Serials Interest Group 12th Annual Conference edited by Charlene N. Simser and Michael A. Somers (New York: Haworth Press, 1998—$69.95, ISBN 0–7890–0525–5, 442 pp., index)     

Measurement of communication flexibility: Working adults vs. college students

Earlier work has indicated that certain groups of adults might be disproportionately inflexible in their communicative interactions, but conclusions are uncertain due to the accepted practice of sampling college students to develop and validate measures. This study compared working adults with college student respondents on the Communication Flexibility scale (Martin & Rubin, 1994). Results from two samples of working adults indicate that adults score lower on communication flexibility than do traditional college students. This reinforces researchers’ need to be aware that some measures’ norms may vary depending on the targeted population.     

Teacher’ use of humor,self‐disclosure,and narrative activity as a function of experience

This investigation reported normative data for experienced (N = 20) and less‐experienced (N = 20) college teachers’ use of humor, self‐disclosure, and narrative activities. Results indicated that both groups of teachers observed in the study incorporated the three behaviors within their 50‐minute lectures. Experienced teachers, however, used humor, self‐disclosure, and narrative activities more frequently than the less‐experienced teachers. Additionally, the experienced teachers used the behaviors to clarify course content.