“COME TO THINK OF IT…”

In Phase 1 of this study, communicators responded truthfully or deceptively to positive or negative interrogative probes. In Phase 2, the interviews were shown, at four levels of probe exposure, to observers who rated the communicators' eracity. In Phase 3, verbal and nonverbal cues were correlated with actual and perceived deception. Although exposure level had no effect on detection accuracy, liars and trulhtellers exposed to negative interrogative probes were judged more truthful than those exposed to positive probes. Analysis of the verbal and nonverbal cues revealed that none of the nonverbal cues relied on as indicators of deception were related to actual deception, and only one of the verbal cues (verbal content) was related to actual message veracity. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are offered.     

THE TRUTH-DECEPTION ATTRIBUTION: EFFECTS OF FAMILIARITY ON THE ABILITY OF OBSERVERS TO DETECT DECEPTION

This study investigated the relationship between an observer's familiarity with the normal, truthful communicative behavior of an individual, and the observer's ability to detect deception on the part of that individual. Specifically, an attempt was made to provide an experimental test of the degree of linearity between familiarity and judgmental accuracy in detecting deception. After exposure to varying amounts of a communicator's normal, truthful behavior (baseline segment), observers made judgments of a communicator's veracity following observation of truthful or lying behavior (test segment). The results indicate a significant deviation from linearity in the relationship between familiarity and judgmental accuracy, and that the relationship is better described by an inverted parabolic curve (quadratic function). The possibility of information overload, the possibility of communicator-specific characteristics which provide clues to deception, and the possibility of observer fatigue were proposed as possible explanations of these results.     

Student-reported grades as predictors

Student-reported past grades were compared with school-reported grades as to their usefulness in predicting success in mathematics courses. Student-reported grades were as valid as school-reported grades in predicting criteria of algebra success but were slightly less valid in predicting criteria of geometry success. It is concluded that for the purposes described here, student-reported grades may be used.     

ATTITUDES TOWARD A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM: A COMPARISON OF ANGLOPHONE AND FRANCOPHONE HOSPITAL EMPLOYEES

The purpose of this study was to explore the hypothesis that the French and English Canadians, due to their unique cultural backgrounds, differ in their perceptions of and satisfaction with the nature of the organizational communication system under which they operate. The study was conducted in a large community general hospital. A total of 977 or 65.9 percent of the employees (of the 1,483 employees asked to complete the questionnaire) responded. The study revealed that Anglophcne employees consistently showed lower levels of satisfaction then the Francophone employees with the various aspects of the communication system that were investigated in this study. It was suggested that consistency of response to communications perhaps stems from the differing cultural values of the two groups of employees. Implications of these results were discussed.     

Nudging the Responsibility Objection

abstract   The 'Responsibility Objection' to Judith Thomson's famous argument for the permissibility of abortion challenges the relevance of her 'Violinist Analogy' to certain types of voluntary unwanted pregnancy, on the grounds that those pregnancies, even though they may be unwanted, are pregnancies for which the woman can be plausibly held responsible. This article considers the force of a number of recent objections to the Responsibility Objection, advanced by Harry Silverstein, David Boonin, and Jeff McMahan, and judges them to be unpersuasive. It is concluded that, in the absence of further considerations, the Responsibility Objection carries force.