W. Gill Woodall

From the boob tube to the black box: Television news comprehension from an information processing perspective

This paper reviews research on learning from television news and develops a theoretical framework which can guide future research. Two models of memory and understanding are considered in detail: episodic memory and semantic network models. Guidelines are offered for research based on both of these models.

Randomized Trials on Consider This, a Tailored, Internet-Delivered Smoking Prevention Program for Adolescents

The Internet may be an effective medium for delivering smoking prevention to children. Consider This, an Internet-based program, was hypothesized to reduce expectations concerning smoking and smoking prevalence. Group-randomized pretest-posttest controlled trials were conducted in Australia (n = 2,077) and the United States (n = 1,234) in schools containing Grades 6 through 9. Australian children using Consider This reported reduced 30-day smoking prevalence. This reduction was mediated by decreased subjective norms. The amount of program exposure was low in many classes, but program use displayed a dose-response relationship with reduced smoking prevalence. American children only reported lower expectations for smoking in the future. Intervening to prevent smoking is a challenge, and this data suggest small benefits from an Internet-based program that are unlikely to be of practical significance unless increased by improved implementation. Implementation remains the major challenge to delivering interventions via the Internet, both for health educators and researchers.

Randomized Trial on the 5 a Day, the Rio Grande Way Website, A Web-based Program to Improve Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Rural Communities

The Internet is a new technology for health communication in communities. The 5 a Day, the Rio Grande Way website intended to increase fruits and vegetables (FV) consumption was evaluated in a rural region enrolling 755 adults (65% Hispanic, 9% Native American, 88% female) in a randomized pretest–posttest controlled trial in 2002–2004. A total of 473 (63%) adults completed a 4-month follow-up. The change in daily intake on a food frequency questionnaire (control: mean = − 0.26 servings; intervention: mean = 0.38; estimated difference = 0.64, SD = 0.52, t(df = 416) = 1.22, p = 0.223) and single item (13.9% eating 5 + servings at pretest, 19.8% posttest for intervention; 17.4%, 13.8% for controls; odds ratio (OR) = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.07, 3.17) was in the expected direction but significant only for the single item. Website use was low and variable (logins: M = 3.3, range = 1 to 39.0; total time: M = 22.2 minutes, range = 0 to 322.7), but it was associated positively with fruit and vegetable intake (total time: Spearman r = 0.14, p = 0.004 for food frequency; Spearman r = 0.135, p = 0.004 for single item). A nutrition website may improve FV intake. The comparison on the food frequency measure may have been undermined by its high variability. Websites may be successful in community settings only when they are used enough by adults to influence them.

Relationship of early inhalant use to substance use in college students

This study examined the relationship between early inhalant use and later substance use in a sample of college students. Data were taken from four campus-wide surveys that assessed changes in rates of substance use over time at a large Southwestern university. Within these surveys, a group of students (n = 187) who reported early use of inhalants (i.e., before age 18) was identified and examined in terms of their substance use behavior while in college (i.e., during the year and month prior to the survey). These students were compared to two other groups of students: those who reported early use of marijuana but no early use of inhalants (n = 1271) and students who reported no early use of either inhalants or marijuana (n = 1479). Results show that early use of either inhalants or marijuana substantially increased risk of frequent drinking, binge drinking, smoking, illicit drug use, and substance-related consequences during the college years. However, the early use of inhalants conferred the greatest risk and was associated with twice the rate of binge and frequent drinking and significantly greater rates of tobacco and drug use than early marijuana use alone. Implications of these findings for intervention and prevention with college students are discussed.

Nonverbal cue context and episodic memory: On the availability and endurance of nonverbal behaviors as retrieval cues

Two investigations provide evidence that nonverbal cues (in this case, hand gestures) play a role as contextual cues in the retrieval of co‐occurring verbal messages. In the first study, type of hand gesture and processing strategies were investigated as possible determinants of message retrieval. Results indicated that the type of hand gesture was a major determinant of language recall. The second study investigated the durability and persistence of nonverbal cues in providing utterance retrieval. Results indicated that nonverbal cues provided retrieval of messages one week after exposure to conversational stimuli and that once again the type of gesture made a difference in the effectiveness of recall.

A communicative model of violations of distancing expectations

This article presents a critique and further tests of a model proposed by Burgoon on the effects of violating conversational distance expectations. Based on the results and critique it is concluded...

The effects of nonverbal synchrony on message comprehension and persuasiveness

Previous research has not considered the effects of nonverbal synchronization by a speaker on message processing and acceptance by a listener. In this experiment, 178 subjects watched one of three versions of a message—high synchrony, minimal synchrony or dissynchrony—presented by one of two speakers. Receivers of the high synchrony message, which employed kinesic cues synchronized to the vocal/verbal stream, showed higher recall of the message and were more persuaded by it than receivers of the dissynchronous message, which had kinesic cues “out of sync” with the vocal/verbal stream. Results on three other dependent measures—credibility, distraction and counterarguing—were mixed but were generally consistent with the credibility-yielding and distraction-yielding formulations outlined.

Talking fast and changing attitudes: A critique and clarification

Previous research on the effects of vocal rate on credibility and persuasion has not carefully considered several methodological and theoretical issues. An investigation was conducted that controlled for a number of methodological factors, and considered different explanatory possibilities. Results indicated more complex and constrained relationships between rate of vocalization, credibility, and persuasion than some previous research had found, and were consistent with research in the person perception literature. Support for a straightforward credibility bolstering explanation was not found, and other explanatory rationales were considered.

Rearrest Rates After Incarceration for DWI: A Comparative Study in a Southwestern US County

OBJECTIVES This study was undertaken to assess a 28-day detention and treatment programs effect, in a multiethnic county with high rates of alcohol-related arrests and crashes, on first-time offenders sentenced for driving while impaired (DWI). METHODS We used comparison of baseline characteristics, survival curves of subsequent arrest, and Cox proportional hazards regression to examine probability of rearrest of those sentenced and those not sentenced to the program. RESULTS Probability of not being rearrested was significantly higher for the treatment group after adjustment for covariates. At 5 years, probability of not being rearrested for the treatment vs the nontreatment group was 76.6% vs 59.9%. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that this countys program has significantly affected rearrest rates for Native Americans, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic Whites.

Encoding specificity and nonverbal cue context: An expansion of episodic memory research

Recent memory research on encoding specificity suggests that cues from encoding conditions can play a significant role in retrieval processes. The two studies reported here broaden support for this claim by demonstrating the ability of nonverbal contextual cues to act as retrieval mechanisms for co‐occurring language. The results of the recall and recognition tests in this research suggest that visual contextual cues such as speech primacy and motor primacy gestures can access linguistic target information. Motor primacy cues have a greater encoding elaboration potential, however, and thus can act as stronger retrieval cues.