Memory Structures for Relational Decay

On the basis of memory structure research, a series of four studies was conducted to determine whether individuals (1) could generate memory structures for de-escalating relationships, (2) agree on the rank ordering of expected actions, (3) distinguish between the typicality of and necessity for the behaviors in relationship decay, and (4) segment prototypical scenes of deteriorating relationships in a time-ordered linear sequence. A number of hypotheses and research questions regarding the generation and processing of expectations for relationship decay are discussed. Results reveal a prototypical mete-memory structure of deterioniting relationships containing 11 actions that could be understood in terms of four underlying factors with slight variations between the perceptions of typicality and necessity of various behaviors. Gender differences, the presence of inferences interspersed among behaviors, and the effect of previous relational histories are discussed in terms of memory structures. Implications for additional research and the development of a stage-appropriate, communication typology an forecast.     

Against Middle Knowledge

As a result of my teen–age conversion to the Catholic Church … I read a work called Natural Theology by a nineteenth–century Jesuit… and found it all convincing except for two things. One was the doctrine of scientia media , according to which God knew what anybody would have done if, e.g., he hadn't died when he did…. I found I could not believe this doctrine: it appeared to me that there was not, quite generally, any such thing as what would have happened if what did happen had not happened, and that in particular there was no such thing, generally speaking, as what someone would have done if… and certainly that there was no such thing as how someone would have spent his life if he had not died a child. I did not know at the time that the matter was one of dispute between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, who took rather my own line about it. So when I was being instructed a couple of years later by a Dominican at Oxford … and he asked me if I had any difficulties, I told him that I couldn't see how that stuff could be true. He was obviously amused and told me that I certainly didn't have to believe it, though I only learned the historical fact I have mentioned rather later.     

VISUAL COMPLEXITY AND YOUNG CHILDREN'S LEARNING FROM TELEVISION

The impact of both the static and dynamic visual complexity of a half-hour sequence of “Sesame Street” segments upon viewers' visual attention, recall, and recognition are assessed in this study of 48 four and five year olds. Previous research has produced inconsistent results with respect to the links among the three sets of variables in this observational learning process. Results of a path analysis indicated strong negative relationships between static complexity and all three viewer variables, positive relationships between dynamic complexity and both attention and recognition, and between attention and both types of learning. No significant relationship emerged between dynamic complexity and recall. Implications for television production aimed at young children are discussed.     

THE SOCIAL USES OF TELEVISION

Building from the social constructivist view, this paper provides evidence that audience members create specific and sometimes elaborate practical actions involving television in order to gratify particular needs in the context of family viewing. The ethnography of mass communication is recommended as a methodological framework suitable for discovering and documenting these behaviors. Based on findings from systematic participant observation research, and from the pertinent uses and gratifications literature, a typology of the social uses of television, with emphasis on their communicative value, is presented. Mass media are found to be valuable social resources, not unlike language or the occasions for talk, which are particularly useful to the imaginative social member for the construction and maintenance of desired relations at home.