John O. Greene

A cognitive approach to human communication: An action assembly theory

An essential characteristic of human communicative behavior is that it is at once novel and creative yet patterned and repetitive. This observation suggests processes of selection of memory elements and subsequent construction of novel behaviors. In an effort to explicate these processes a general theoretical framework is developed. Further, a specific theory, consistent with the general framework, is also advanced. The theory is comprised of five axioms and seventeen propositions which serve to specify the nature of the relevant structures and processes.

Message production : advances in communication theory

Contents: G.G. Sparks, Foreword. Part I:Theories of Message Production: Historical Context, Future Prospects. J.O. Greene, Introduction: Advances in Theories of Message Production. S.R. Wilson, Developing Theories of Message Production: The Next Generation. Part II:Intra-Individual Coherence and Coordination. J.P. Dillard, Explicating the Goal Construct: Tools for Theorists. J.R. Meyer, Cognitive Influences on the Ability to Address Interaction Goals. S.A. McCornack, The Generation of Deceptive Messages: Laying the Groundwork for a Viable Theory of Interpersonal Deception. S. Kemper, M.L. Hummert, New Directions in Research on Aging and Message Production. J.O. Greene, A Second Generation Action Assembly Theory. D. Hample, Framing Message-Production Research with Field Theory. Part III:Inter-Individual Coherence and Coordination. V.R. Waldron, Toward a Theory of Interactive Conversational Planning. C.R. Berger, Producing Messages Under Uncertainty. R.E. Sanders, The Production of Symbolic Objects as Components of Larger Wholes. J.K. Burgoon, C.H. White, Researching Nonverbal Message Production: A View From Interaction Adaptation Theory. R. Buck, From DNA to MTV: The Spontaneous Communication of Emotional Messages.

An examination of relationship disengagement: Perceptions, breakup strategies and outcomes

Questionnaires were obtained from 310 participants who reported on past intimate relationships. Items assessed how the relationship and partner were perceived and how the relationship breakup was accomplished. Also assessed were selected outcomes: felt anger, depression, freedom and the extent to which the partners remained friends after the disengagement. The results replicated earlier findings by Baxter (1982) and Cody (1982) and extended the range of variables pertinent to strategy selection by evaluating the role of network overlap, partner desirability, trust and dyadic adjustment. Both relational variables and tactics were associated with consequences of the disengagement. Partners were more likely, for instance, to stay friends if the disengager used de‐escalation tactics, the partner was desirable, and the disengager did not use justification or avoidance tactics. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Evaluating cognitive explanations of communicative phenomena

The rise of cognitive approaches to the study of human communication demands an analysis of standards for evaluating such accounts. Three sets of standards are detailed in this essay: necessary requirements, aspects of an explanation needed to advance falsifiable predictions concerning cognitive structures and processes; sufficiency requirements, principles for assessing an explanation with respect to its relationship to relevant data; and aesthetic requirements, matters of quality which concern the intuitive power and appeal of explanations.

Cognition and Talk: The Relationship of Semantic Units to Temporal Patterns of Fluency in Spontaneous Speech

This paper reports two studies concerning the relationship of temporal rhythms in speech fluency to the ideational content of the discourse. Action assembly theory is employed to advance the prediction that when subjects are not allowed to prepare speech in advance of actual production, there will be a tendency for ideational boundaries to be associated with a decrease in speech fluency. This relationship was hypothesized to be attenuated, however, when the structure of the discourse (as opposed to the content) has been prepared in advance. The first prediction was borne out in Experiment 1 in that five of seven ideational boundaries were found to be associated with a decrease in speech fluency (at p < 0.10). Experiment 2 showed that this relationship was, indeed, attenuated under conditions of structural preparation in advance of speech.

Social Goals and Speech Production: Effects of Multiple Goals on Pausal Phenomena

There is a current widespread recognition that communication involves the production and processing of messages aimed at accomplishing multiple social goals. Despite this, it remains to discover how people design and implement such messages. The research reported here was undertaken to examine various temporal and content features of multiple-goal messages on the assumption that these features are essential to the development of theory in this domain. The speech of participants given a great number of social goals was contrasted with that of participants assigned the task of pursuing fewer goals. Messages developed in pursuit of more goals were found to be characterised by slower speech onset latency, longer message duration, more frequent use of sociocentric sequences, and a higher rate of ideational repetitions. The effects of construct differentiation on these variables were also examined, but proved to have little effect on the message features of interest.

The Stability of Nonverbal Behaviour: An Action-Production Approach to Problems of Cross-Situational Consistency and Discriminativeness

Two decades of extensive research and intense debate have served to make clear that human behaviour is characterised by both stability and variation over time and across situations. It remains, however, to articulate a coherent theoretical account detailing the processes of person-situation interaction that give rise to this consistency and discriminativeness. Toward this end, requirements for an adequate interactional theory are reviewed. Central to the approach taken here is the assumption that because consistency and discriminativeness are properties of behaviour, these phenomena are likely to be understood only by recourse to models of behavioural production. The second section of the article then summarises a cognitive model specifying the structures and control processes comprising the behavioural output system. This model permits a reconceptualisation of individual dispositions and situational influences in terms consistent with the properties of the output system. Finally, the model is extended to the realm of nonverbal behaviour to make explicit claims concerning those conditions under which behavioural stability should be enhanced.

Representation and processing in the self‐system: An action‐oriented approach to self and self‐relevant phenomena

This paper outlines a cognitive model of the self‐system. The model details the structural representation of self‐relevant information in memory and the processes by which that information is retrieved and utilized. Central to the model is the assumption that self‐knowledge is held in action‐relevant modular units that are employed in guiding and regulating cognition and behavior. Five experimental tests of various facets of the model are also reported. These studies support the view that self‐relevant information is held in modular units, independent of other units comprising the self‐system. Further, it is possible to prime the symbolic primitives comprising these modules by presentation of situational features. Finally, once a particular symbolic node is activated, that activation will spread to other, associated nodes. Implications of the model and its relation to other cognitive models of the self‐system are discussed.

Cognitive Processes in the Production of Multiple-Goal Messages: Evidence from the Temporal Characteristics of Speech.

There may be no property of human communication more widely recognized than the fact that interpersonal messages function in the service of multiple social goals. Despite this, relatively little is known of the encoding processes that give rise to such messages. One effort to specify these processes is found in the work of Greene and Lindsey (1989) who draw on action assembly theory in positing a model of the structures and processes involved in production of multiple‐goal messages. These authors suggest that the increased cognitive load accompanying multiple‐goal messages arises from difficulties in assembling, or integrating, incompatible message features. This paper reports two empirical investigations designed to examine the plausibility of Greene and Lindseys account. Experiment 1 revealed that, relative to messages aimed at accomplishing two compatible social ends, messages produced in pursuit of incompatible goals were characterized by greater pause‐phonation ratios and longer average pause durati...

Acquisition of message‐production skill by younger and older adults: Effects of age, task complexity, and practice

This study investigated the impact of age, task complexity, and practice on adult message‐production‐skill acquisition and performance. Participants (30 older adults and 30 college students) learned a sequence for describing geometric arrays and then employed this organizing sequence in a series of 90 performance trials. Half of the participants learned a six‐step (high task‐complexity) sequence, while the remaining participants learned a three‐step (low task‐complexity) sequence for describing the arrays. The results suggest that overall message‐production speed is characterized by a “complexity effect” (i.e., an interaction between age and task complexity such that younger adults exhibited superior performance relative to their older counterparts, and this difference was more pronounced under complex‐task conditions). Complexity effects were also found for initial message‐production‐skill performance and rate of skill acquisition: older adults exhibited slower initial performance and slower rates of ski...