O presente trabalho teve por objetivo investigar o efeito de descrições verbais, acompanhadas ou não de operantes autoclíticos, sobre o desempenho de participantes adultos, em uma tarefa de escolha. Para isto, um delineamento de escolhas concorrentes foi planejado, sendo observado o padrão de preferência de cada participante entre alternativas de reforçamento menor e imediato ou maior e atrasado, durante um jogo de computador. Uma vez estabelecida a preferência, descrições verbais foram introduzidas, sendo avaliado se a inclusão de operantes verbais autoclíticos favoreceria ou não o controle pela descrição, verificado a partir da emissão de respostas contrárias ao padrão inicialmente estabelecido. Os resultados apontam que um padrão de preferência por reforçadores maiores e atrasados foi mais facilmente instalado do que a preferência por reforçadores menores e imediatos, quando um reforçador monetário foi utilizado. Para sete dos quinze participantes, a introdução das descrições produziu a reversão do padrão de preferência inicialmente estabelecido, independente da direção em que as escolhas estivessem sendo inicialmente realizadas. Quanto ao efeito produzido pela inclusão dos autoclíticos observa-se que, independente do tipo de autoclíticos apresentado (qualificador positivo X qualificador negativo), descrições acompanhadas por autoclíticos evocaram respostas de escolha dos participantes, particularmente entre aqueles que tivessem demonstraram preferência inicial por reforçamento maior e atrasado. Diante de descrições acompanhadas por operantes verbais autoclíticos o aumento no tempo para emissão da resposta também foi observado, sendo este efeito acentuado na presença dos qualificadores negativos. / The present study aimed to investigate the effect of verbal descriptions with or without autoclitic operants, upon the performance of adult participants in a choice task. To achieve it, a concurrent schedule design was planned, in which it was observed the preference pattern of each participant between the alternative of smaller and immediate reinforcement or large and delayed, during a computer game. Once the preference was established, verbal descriptions were introduced, and it was analyzed if the inclusion of autoclitic verbal operants would promote or not the control of the description, checked by the emission of responses contraries to the patter previously established. The results points to a major facility in the establishment of pattern of preference for larger and delayed reinforcers than smaller and immediate, when a financial reinforcer was used. Seven of the fifteen participants reverted their patter of preference with the inclusion of verbal descriptions, independently of the inicial preference pattern. On the effect produced by the inclusion of autoclitic it is noticed that independently of the type of autoclitic presented (positive qualifier X negative qualifier), descriptions accompanied by autoclitic evoked the choice responses, specially between those participants who demonstrated initial preference for large and delayed reinforcer. Once an autoclitic verbal operant was accompanying the descriptions, it was observed an increase in time for the emission of the response, which was even higher in the presence of negative qualifiers.

O presente trabalho teve por objetivo investigar o efeito de descrições verbais, acompanhadas ou não de operantes autoclíticos, sobre o desempenho de participantes adultos, em uma tarefa de escolha. Para isto, um delineamento de escolhas concorrentes foi planejado, sendo observado o padrão de preferência de cada participante entre alternativas de reforçamento menor e imediato ou maior e atrasado, durante um jogo de computador. Uma vez estabelecida a preferência, descrições verbais foram introduzidas, sendo avaliado se a inclusão de operantes verbais autoclíticos favoreceria ou não o controle pela descrição, verificado a partir da emissão de respostas contrárias ao padrão inicialmente estabelecido. Os resultados apontam que um padrão de preferência por reforçadores maiores e atrasados foi mais facilmente instalado do que a preferência por reforçadores menores e imediatos, quando um reforçador monetário foi utilizado. Para sete dos quinze participantes, a introdução das descrições produziu a reversão do padrão de preferência inicialmente estabelecido, independente da direção em que as escolhas estivessem sendo inicialmente realizadas. Quanto ao efeito produzido pela inclusão dos autoclíticos observa-se que, independente do tipo de autoclíticos apresentado (qualificador positivo X qualificador negativo), descrições acompanhadas por autoclíticos evocaram respostas de escolha dos participantes, particularmente entre aqueles que tivessem demonstraram preferência inicial por reforçamento maior e atrasado. Diante de descrições acompanhadas por operantes verbais autoclíticos o aumento no tempo para emissão da resposta também foi observado, sendo este efeito acentuado na presença dos qualificadores negativos. / The present study aimed to investigate the effect of verbal descriptions with or without autoclitic operants, upon the performance of adult participants in a choice task. To achieve it, a concurrent schedule design was planned, in which it was observed the preference pattern of each participant between the alternative of smaller and immediate reinforcement or large and delayed, during a computer game. Once the preference was established, verbal descriptions were introduced, and it was analyzed if the inclusion of autoclitic verbal operants would promote or not the control of the description, checked by the emission of responses contraries to the patter previously established. The results points to a major facility in the establishment of pattern of preference for larger and delayed reinforcers than smaller and immediate, when a financial reinforcer was used. Seven of the fifteen participants reverted their patter of preference with the inclusion of verbal descriptions, independently of the inicial preference pattern. On the effect produced by the inclusion of autoclitic it is noticed that independently of the type of autoclitic presented (positive qualifier X negative qualifier), descriptions accompanied by autoclitic evoked the choice responses, specially between those participants who demonstrated initial preference for large and delayed reinforcer. Once an autoclitic verbal operant was accompanying the descriptions, it was observed an increase in time for the emission of the response, which was even higher in the presence of negative qualifiers.

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Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2005 / This study explores the use of nonverbal communication in Northern Sotho discourse. The paper serves as an introduction to the study of nonverbal communication in African languages. The concept of nonverbal communication is as equally important in a communication system as verbal communication . Therefore, this paper focuses onsome of the various forms of nonverbal communication such as facial expressions, proxemics, haptics, personal appearance, and most importantly, the concept of time. This study is done mainly in comparison with the Western way of doing things and how the social changes affect the use of these cues

Technology and communication skills simultaneously increase organizational productivity and decision-making. However, excessive use of technology to make decisions can diminish the added benefits that nonverbal communication can bring. The interpersonal sensitivity effects on perception of service quality model, face-to-face communication versus teleconferencing, the technology acceptance model, and decision-making were the conceptual framework of the study. The research questions examined how excessive use of technology to make decisions can diminish the added benefits that nonverbal communication can bring to organizational leadership decision-making. Employing an exploratory multiple case study design, organizational leaders from the Southern California region, ranging in seniority from team-leader through executive, completed 25 member-checked interviews and 15 qualitative questionnaires. Using Yin's 5-step approach to analyzing the data, 8 themes remerged. From these themes, I developed 5 findings regarding technology, non-verbal communication, and decision-making. My study affects positive social change by educating organizational leaders on the importance of distancing themselves from work during nonwork hours, encouraging organizational leaders to develop guidelines around the use of teleconference software, promoting organizational learning with an emphasis on soft-skill training, and acknowledging when there is a misunderstanding in nonverbal communication. Organizational leaders can improve decision-making by using the favorable traits associated with both electronic and nonverbal behavioral communications.

This minor thesis reports an attempt to describe and understand moments of experiential meaning within the dance therapy process for a patient with dementia. It also documents an attempt to develop a methodology which could adequately grasp the complexities of such an experience. A phenomenological approach with its emphasis on allowing the phenomenon to reveal itself through multiple perspectives seemed the most appropriate for this study. However, while phenomenology influenced the format of the dance therapy sessions as well as the constitution and analysis of the data, ultimately a hermeneutic analysis was employed for further explication of the material. The study consisted of four individual dance therapy sessions with an 85 year old patient with moderate dementia. The researcher/therapist worked improvisationally and a music therapist provided improvised music. After the sessions, all of which were videotaped, the patient was videotaped viewing the dance session video, in order to obtain her verbal or non-verbal responses to the material. It was decided to focus on the 'significant moments', selected intuitively as moments which seemed high points of the session. A naive description was made, on which an adaptation of Giorgi's four-phase method of analysis was applied. Certain foci, such as energy flow, were identified and individually described. In time, it became clear that the written descriptions alone were insufficient and that reflection would need to cover all the material from multiple sources and perspectives. This was done, and the data were later further explicated by reference to writings on dance therapy, dance aesthetics and the philosophical concept of the embodied self, and Sacks's neurological writings on the awakened self. The conclusions of the research were that the patient was not only transformed within the dance session and able to re-create aspects of her old self, but also underwent, through the experience as a whole (the dance and the reflection upon it, facilitated by the video viewing), a change in awareness, through which she reintegrated the past with the present and, in her words, 'came out of the cupboard...into the brightness'.

Previous studies of the design studio have tended to treat learning to design as a matter of learning to think in the right way, despite the recognition that material artifacts and the ability to make and manipulate them in architectural ways is important to the design process. Through the use of empirical data gathered from watching design teachers and students in action, this thesis works to discover how material things and bodies are important to the fabrication of architectural meaning and architectural subjectivity within design studios. In particular the role of gesture is highlighted as doing important work in design studio knowledge practices. / The approach taken in this thesis is to treat design activity in design studios in a ‘post-human’ way. An analytical eye is turned to how things and people perform together and are organised in various ways, using Actor network theory (ANT) as a way to orientate the investigation. The assumption drawn from ANT is that that architectural meaning, knowledge and identity can positioned as network effects, enacted into being as the design studio is ‘done’ by the various actors — including material things, such as architectural representations, and human behaviours, such as gesture. / Gesture has been largely ignored by design studio researchers, perhaps because it tends to operate below the threshold of conscious awareness. Gesture is difficult to study because the meanings of most gestures produced during conversations are spontaneous and provisional. Despite this humans seem to be good interpreters of gesture. When studied in detail, ongoing design studio activity is found to rely on the intelligibility of gesture done in ‘architectural ways’. The main site for the observation of gesture during this study was the ‘desk crit’ where teachers and students confer about work in progress. In the data gathered for this thesis gesture is found to operate with representations in three key ways: explaining and describing architectural composition, ‘sticking’ spoken meanings strategically to representations and conveying the phenomenological experience of occupying architectural space – the passing of time, quality of light, texture and movement. / Despite the fact that most of the work of the thesis centres on human behaviour, the findings about the role of gesture and representation trouble the idea of the human as being at the centre of the action, putting the bodies of teachers and students amongst a crowd of non human others who participate together in design knowledge making practices.

Communication is surrounding us. Leaders and followers are not an exception to that rule. Indeed, leadership actors are communicating with their co-workers, their boss, their employees, the media, and so forth. However, in the course of this paper and because of its importance, the focus on non verbal communication will be adopted. Basically, this form of communication is everything except the actual words that people pronounce. Body language, tone of the voice, cultural differences, deceit signals, all these components of non verbal communication and many others will be developed. The core of this work will be understanding the main concepts of non verbal communication and then applying them to leaders’ real life situations.   This thesis will also, among other things, aim to answer the following questions: What is the importance of non verbal communication in everyday life? How are leaders using non verbal communication to give sense? Do they use deceit signals? What influences the non verbal communication? What is the emotional intelligence concept? Can the non verbal communication be extrapolated and be seen as being inter-cultural?

With this research we aimed to seek how youth workers express their experience of counselling on the internet compared to traditional counselling face to face with a theoretical ground in semiotics and symbolic interactionism. Our questions were 1) How do youth workers describe their experiences from anonymous, faceless online counselling? 2) How do youth workers experience the differences between online counselling and the traditional face-to-face counselling? 3) Which possibilities and difficulties do they see in online communication with adolescents? We used semi-structed interviews with seven youth workers. Six of those are active in non-profit organisations, and one in social services. The results from our interviews showed that the interviewees saw that misunderstandings were more frequent on the internet, but that online counselling with adolescents still was easier than in the face-to-face meetings. To compensate for the non verbal part of communication in real life, symbols is seen as very important in online communication. The youth workers meant that the development of the on line counselling has opened a new arena. An arena where they get an opportunity to meet young people whom they don´t believe they would have met elsewhere. We found that this is a new, not fully developed culture with its own langue which we are about to learn. Once we understand and are capable of using this language new ways to meet with clients will be opened.

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