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In this study, we examined the relationship between trait-like communication apprehension (CA) and resting alpha range asymmetry in the anterior cortex (AC). Although theory and research in cognitive neuroscience suggest that asymmetry in the AC constitutes a relatively stable, inborn, substrate of emotion, some studies indicate that asymmetry can be increased by experimentally induced transitory anxiety. Transitory anxiety produced by interaction with strangers covaries with trait-like CA, raising questions regarding whether asymmetrical electrical activity in the AC during data collection represents resting levels as assumed in the literature or transitory reactions to dyadic interaction with the experimenter. Because the question if unanswered poses issues for theory and approaches to remediation, we computed correlations among alpha range asymmetry in the AC gathered by electroencephalograph (EEG) while participants were at rest, transitory anxiety scores referring to the participants' interactions with the experimenter, and CA scores gathered four weeks earlier. Results revealed a partial correlation based on disattenuated correlations, r=0.51, p less than 0.05, between CA and EEG scores when the effects of transitory anxiety due to participant-experimenter interaction were removed. (Contains 5 notes and 2 tables.)

A substantial body of scholarship focused on the processes involved in message planning has accumulated in the communication literature. One of the central tenets of memory models upon which most of the message planning models are based is that dynamic memory systems organize and reorganize knowledge structures to maximize information processing efficiency. Accordingly, efficiency can be achieved by merely retrieving and enacting plans that have achieved goals previously under similar conditions. Plan failure, however, requires alteration or even production of an original plan. Although researchers have relied exclusively on output (e.g., response latency, memory tests) to draw inferences about planning processes, it is possible to observe cognitive processes more directly by measuring cortical responses. In the present study, electrical activity was monitored in the region of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during verbal planning. Results indicated that (a) electrical activity while planning under conditions that permitted enactment of verbal plans that required no modification was significantly lower than during planning in the initial trial but, (b) electrical activity while planning under conditions in which previous efforts failed was significantly higher than during planning in the initial trial. These results provide physical evidence for the hypothetical cognitive processes proposed in the cognitivist models of routine formation.

Examines the relationship between H. Eysenck's personality dimensions (extraversion, neuroticsm, and psychoticism) and communication variables, in three separate studies encompassing more than a dozen communication variables. Finds consistent patterns across the three studies. (SR)

Contends that communication apprehension represents individuals' expression of inborn, biological functioning, antecedent to social experience and therefore independent of social learning processes. Presents a temperament-based conceptualization of communication apprehension; integrates neurologically-based temperament functions into three fundamental propositions based on communication apprehension research; and discusses the implications of this theoretical position. (SR)