LIMITING THE SCOPE OF THE SPACIAL MODEL OF COMMUNICATION EFFECTS1

An experiment tested the hypothesis that cognitive change resulting from information inputs can be represented as linear motion of concepts in multidimensional space. The theoretical background is reviewed and the mathematical derivation of the hypothesis is given. A set of 15 nations was scaled using Woelfel's Galileo system of multidimensional scaling. Experimental messages were introduced and the posttest interconcept distances compared with those predicted by theory. The crucial partial correlations were low, a failure to confirm the hypothesis. Secondary analyses suggested that the failure may have resulted from inadequate control of message content and failure to ensure that the concepts scaled compose a cognitive domain. The theory made better predictions for a subset of the concepts that might be a domain.     

ANTICIPATED SOCIAL COST AND INTERPERSONAL ACCOMODATION

The paper is concerned with demonstrating the value of social cost—a concept derived from a social psychological theory of prejudice—in analyzing the cognitive processes underlying the encoding of convergent speech acts. A study showed that when speakers anticipate meeting socially significant others immediately, the effect on their perceptual processes is to perceive greater similarity to, and less undesirable traits in, such others. It was argued that this reduction of a perceived linguistic distance between a speaker and the interlocutor, termed perceptual convergence, should facilitate the adoption of convergent speech in the former. Areas for further research were discussed.