This qualitative interpretive research study of students participating in online discussion forums explores how the socio-constructivist nature of online discussion forums fosters the development of historical thinking. The study also focuses attention on the development of the historical understandings of students as they participant in online discussion forums in particular significance, empathy and agency. Set within the context of discussion forums and framed by socio-constructivism and historical thinking, the study uncovered what it means for students to “do history” and how students construct their own historical narratives as they interact with their peers online. Data collection included transcripts of online discussion forums, interviews with participants and the collection of other related artifacts. Findings suggest that the online discussion forums facilitate socio-constructivism in the classroom by providing students with extended opportunities to engage with their peers ideas and assumptions. Additionally, the findings also conclude that students understanding of significance, empathy and agency are related to their interactions with both the official and unofficial curriculums and the temporal and physical proximity of examples to students lived experiences. / text

In language, there exists a distinction between abstract words and concrete words. It can be said that abstract words refer to generic concepts, while concrete words pertain to physical actions or objects associated with physical movement. With respect to the linguistic community, it is often claimed that French words function at a higher degree of abstraction than English words. However, this claim lacks empirical evidence. The present study aims to examine the usage of concrete and abstract words in word association tasks, which are part of Cultura: an intercultural, web-based project that brings foreign language students from different countries and linguistic backgrounds together in a telecollaborative exchange of ideas. Specifically, this study examines the degrees of abstraction of generic nouns in French and English. / text

This work outlines the theoretical underpinnings, method, results, and implications for constructing a discussion list analysis tool that categorizes online, educational discussion list messages into levels of cognitive effort. Purpose The purpose of such a tool is to provide evaluative feedback to instructors who facilitate online learning, to researchers studying computer-supported collaborative learning, and to administrators interested in correlating objective measures of students’ cognitive effort with other measures of student success. This work connects computer–supported collaborative learning, content analysis, and artificial intelligence. Method Broadly, the method employed is a content analysis in which the data from the analysis is modeled using artificial neural network (ANN) software. A group of human coders categorized online discussion list messages, and inter-rater reliability was calculated among them. That reliability figure serves as a measuring stick for determining how well the ANN categorizes the same messages that the group of human coders categorized. Reliability between the ANN model and the group of human coders is compared to the reliability among the group of human coders to determine how well the ANN performs compared to humans. Findings Two experiments were conducted in which artificial neural network (ANN) models were constructed to model the decisions of human coders, and the experiments revealed that the ANN, under noisy, real-life circumstances codes messages with near-human accuracy. From experiment one, the reliability between the ANN model and the group of human coders, using Cohen’s kappa, is 0.519 while the human reliability values range from 0.494 to 0.742 (M=0.6). Improvements were made to the human content analysis with the goal of improving the reliability among coders. After these improvements were made, the humans coded messages with a kappa agreement ranging from 0.816 to 0.879 (M=0.848), and the kappa agreement between the ANN model and the group of human coders is 0.70.

Children and adolescents with autism commonly struggle with social interactions. In particular, it has been found that children and adolescents with autism struggle with verbal irony in face-to-face interactions where there are many competing cues that require their attention (i.e., body language, facial expressions, intonation). This study made use of Bubble Dialogue (Cunningham et al., 1992), a form of computer-mediated communication, to examine how children and adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome (HFA/AS) comprehended verbal irony when these competing cues were removed from social interactions. Speaker attribute information has been shown to be beneficial in aiding typically developing children with successful verbal irony comprehension. In this study, participants with HFA/AS and matched typically developing participants were presented with Bubble Dialogue scenarios where speaker attribute was manipulated such that speakers were labelled as a peer, an adult, or without a speaker attribute label. Participants were presented with scenarios where the speaker made either an ironic criticism or a literal compliment in order to assess whether or not the information about the speaker influenced their comprehension and interpretation of speaker belief, speaker intent and speaker humour. Participants with HFA/AS provided responses along similar themes to their typically developing counterparts for both literal compliments and ironic criticisms in each speaker attribute condition. Participants with HFA/AS performed similarly to typically developing participants on their interpretations of speaker belief, speaker intent, and speaker humour. These findings suggest that, within the context of computer-mediated communication, children with HFA/AS are able to perform as well as typically developing participants on measures of verbal irony comprehension.

The uses and gratifications approach places power in the hands of the audience and is a helpful perspective when trying to understand media usage, exposure, and effects. However, while the uses and gratifications approach has been applied regularly to traditional media, research explaining why people use new social media networks as well as the gratifications they obtain from them is scarce at best. This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the uses and gratifications approach as well as the current literature about social media networks. An argument is built within the thesis to study Twitter as one social media network through the uses and gratifications theoretical lens. Research questions are provided and a survey of 216 college undergraduates was conducted. Results show that people use a variety of Twitter functions, that the gratifications sought from Twitter are not the gratifications obtained from Twitter, and that people are careful about the types of information they share on the social media network. Additionally, results suggest that Twitter users obtain more gratifications from the passive functions of Twitter rather the active functions in terms of relational maintenance and entertainment. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future directions are also provided.

The purpose of this investigation is to further an understanding of the spiral of silence theory as it functions within both face-to-face (FtF) and computer-mediated contexts. Computer-mediated communication (CMC is often touted for being an empowering medium as it affords its users anonymity. This finding could have an impact on whether the spiral of silence occurs within CMC. Previous studies have relied upon hypothetical scenarios and have established weak support for the theory. Despite this study’s utilization of a within-subjects experimental design, however, no significant differences in minority opinion holders’ fear of isolation were found. Similarly, no significant relationship was found between minority opinion holders’ attention paid to news and fear of isolation. In regards to both majority and minority opinion holders, no significant differences in perceptions of opinions expressed in either condition were found. Reasons for such unexpected findings, as well as strengths, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Children and adolescents with autism commonly struggle with social interactions. In particular, it has been found that children and adolescents with autism struggle with verbal irony in face-to-face interactions where there are many competing cues that require their attention (i.e., body language, facial expressions, intonation). This study made use of Bubble Dialogue (Cunningham et al., 1992), a form of computer-mediated communication, to examine how children and adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome (HFA/AS) comprehended verbal irony when these competing cues were removed from social interactions. Speaker attribute information has been shown to be beneficial in aiding typically developing children with successful verbal irony comprehension. In this study, participants with HFA/AS and matched typically developing participants were presented with Bubble Dialogue scenarios where speaker attribute was manipulated such that speakers were labelled as a peer, an adult, or without a speaker attribute label. Participants were presented with scenarios where the speaker made either an ironic criticism or a literal compliment in order to assess whether or not the information about the speaker influenced their comprehension and interpretation of speaker belief, speaker intent and speaker humour. Participants with HFA/AS provided responses along similar themes to their typically developing counterparts for both literal compliments and ironic criticisms in each speaker attribute condition. Participants with HFA/AS performed similarly to typically developing participants on their interpretations of speaker belief, speaker intent, and speaker humour. These findings suggest that, within the context of computer-mediated communication, children with HFA/AS are able to perform as well as typically developing participants on measures of verbal irony comprehension.

Traditional models of conversation treat the participants as autonomous; ideally, speakers convey information to listeners in alternating turns. In contrast, the more recent collaborative model emphasizes moment-by-moment collaboration between participants in dialogue (Clark, 1996). Two computer-mediated communication (CMC) experiments tested these models by questioning the utility of strict turn exchanges (a central feature of autonomous models) versus more flexible moment-by-moment collaboration (a central feature of Clark’s model). A novel feature of these experiments was the development of three new process measures that are relevant to the autonomous versus collaborative comparison. Conversational coherence was a quantitative measure of the adjacency of all semantically related utterances, that is, how well the conversation maintained an orderly sequence of topics. Collaborative topic development was a quantitative measure of how much participants built on one another’s ideas (versus contributing independently on separate topics). That is, to what degree did the conversations take the form of loosely related alternating monologues versus an integrated dialogue? The third measure assessed the contributions of listeners. Each process measure required detailed analysis of all messages in each conversation. Experiment 1 compared three CMC formats, ranging from highly autonomous to highly collaborative: IRC (Internet Relay Chat), in which participants compose and send messages independently; ICQ (I-Seek-You) with an imposed turn marker; and ICQ-free with no turn rules. Sixty University of Victoria students in 30 unacquainted dyads completed a brainstorming and a joint recall task in one randomly assigned condition. As predicted by the collaborative model, all dependent measures confirmed that the ICQ-free format was significantly superior to the IRC and ICQ-turn maker conditions. That is, the format without an imposed turn structure produced more coherent, more collaborative conversations, with higher performance scores and better task efficiency. Qualitative analysis revealed that, in the absence of familiar turn cues, the ICQ-free dyads used timing and text space to manage their interaction, which often did not involve strict turn taking. Experiment 2 was a replication and extension with two new communication conditions, a new measure of listener responses, and the use of three-person groups. In a within-subjects design, participants completed two tasks in a face-to-face (FTF) condition, the previous IRC condition, and an electronic bulletin board (BB) condition, which also imposed turn taking. These three conditions varied in the degree of reciprocity possible, with FTF permitting the maximum and fastest reciprocal interaction and BB the least and slowest. Twenty-seven University of Victoria students formed nine randomly assigned, unacquainted triads. Together, each triad completed a brainstorming task and a debating task with different topics in each condition. The results again showed that flexible moment-by-moment interaction was superior to the two formats that enforced turn taking. The FTF conversations were more coherent, with more collaborative topic development. Also, the rate of listener responses was significantly higher, indicating a higher rate of feedback to speakers, and the number of words used per turn was lower, suggesting more rapid turn-around (i.e., finer granularity). In sum, the FTF participants tightly intertwined their contributions to ensure understanding, maintain coherence, and develop their joint topics. Taken together, the results clearly support a collaborative model of conversation and raise new questions about the functional utility of strict turn taking. In both process and performance measures, the conditions that maximized collaboration were superior to those that favoured autonomous individual action. At the practical level, these results should inform the design of mediated communication systems by identifying the affordances that may help or hinder online interaction.

Social networking sites are the contemporary agora: where individuals share their lives, understand the world, exchange cultural artefacts and tend to relationships. Yet, these sites are paradoxically lauded for their ability to connect lives and disparaged for the effect they have on the quality of language and relationships. Covered extensively across disciplines, including inquiries into identity and gender politics, social networking sites remain under investigated in linguistics. Here, the interplay of identity, gender, and language in a group of adolescent girls on Facebook is explored in the sociolinguistic tradition. This research demonstrates how a discourse analytic framework can determine some aspect of identity from an individual’s online interactions, including gender as constrained by historical and cultural discourses. A collaborative methodology navigates the difficulties of collecting data online, the complexities of gender and identity, as well as provides a commentary on the need for reform in ethical protocol for online research. / Graduate

iii ABSTRACT TRUST AND SELF-DISCLOSURE IN THE CONTEXT OF COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION Erdost, T&uuml / rk&uuml / ler M. S., Department of Psychology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bengi &Ouml / ner &ndash / &Ouml / zkan April 2004, 120 pages This study was aimed to shed light on the effects of computer mediated communication on self-disclosure and trust which appear to be the two important concepts within interpersonal relations. To what extent the computer mediated communication differs from or similar to face-to-face communication in terms of trust and self-disclosure which play a key role in the establishment, development and maintenance of relationships was explored. Results were obtained from 100 people who participated in synchronous communication via Internet. Computer administered multi scaled questionnaire was used for data collection. Results of 2 (communication medium: face-to-face vs. computer mediated communication) X 2 (intimacy of relationship: trust vs. self-disclosure) repeated measures of ANOVA revealed a significant main effect for communication medium and intimacy of relationship indicating that subjects reported more intimate relationships for face-to-face communication and the reported levels of self-disclosure were found to be higher than the reported levels of trust. Also an interaction was found for communication medium and intimacy of relationship. Although in terms of face-to-face communication no significant differences were found between trust and selfdisclosure scores, trust scores were found to be significantly lower when people communicate via Internet. In addition, findings revealed that both measures of trust and self-disclosure were significantly lower in computer mediated communication condition than in face-to-face communication. Findings which did not completely but partially supported the hypothesis of the study were discussed within the context of literature and in terms of their theoretical as well as practical implications. Limitations and possible confounds were also mentioned for their potential influence on the results. Keywords: Internet, Computer Mediated Communication, Self-Disclosure, Trust.