THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT DEGREES OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AN AUDIENCE ON THE CONTENT OF COMMUNICATION: THE MALE AUDIENCE.

The article reports on attempts to measure some of the effects of the audience on the content of communication. An experimental room was divided into three parts. In the first section subjects were briefed. In the second section stood a table covered with a black cloth. On the table rested 45 selected stimuli. In the third section sat the experimenter who served as the audience. In front of this experimenter rested a table, on which stood a wire recorder. The objects used as stimuli in this experiment were of natural size; one-third of the items were male-linked, one-third female-linked, and one-third non-sexed linked. The subjects were 90 undergraduate college students, their ages range from 18 to 30. Forty-five were women and the same number men. A frequency distribution was made for each experimental classification on the basis of the total number of items recalled by each subject within the classification. Comparisons were made among the mean frequencies by application of the t-test.