Communication can be divied into two broad areas namely, the verbal and nonverbal levels. While attention has been paid to nonverbal communication in the literature, few studies address the nonverbal communication that takes place in the natural setting of a therapeutic session. The present study provides such a naturalistic study, where the verbal content of actual therapy sessions are integrated with the nonverbal content to yield a holistic view of the session. An ecosystemic epistemology is adopted in this study, and represents a move away from more traditional approaches to nonverbal behaviour which are largely confined to a positivistic framework of thought and design. Symlog Interaction Scoring is employed as a practical method of assisting observers in distinguishing nonverbal behaviours, which are usually perceived unconsciously, and lifting them into consciousness, allowing this infonnation to be integrated with the meanings and hypotheses generated during therapy. By deliberately including descriptions of nonverbal behaviour, the descriptions of therapy were broadened, thereby providing a more holistic approach to therapy. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This research examines whether a seven-year-old nonverbal boy's comprehension of syntax develops at an accelerated rate following the introduction of speech output through a portable speech synthesizer (VOIS 135). The study was motivated by (1) a general lack of agreement about the relationship of comprehension and production in language acquisition, (2) some child language investigators' claims that--at certain points during the development of language--production precedes and influences comprehension, and (3) the natural experimental condition provided by a nonverbal child who is suddenly given the ability to 'speak' with the help of a portable speech synthesizer. At the beginning of the research period, the child's sentence comprehension was thoroughly assessed with standard and special purpose tests. His production was assessed through analysis of videotaped interactions. The child was then trained to use the synthetic speech device (VOIS 135) over an eight month period. At the end of this period testing of both comprehension and production was repeated to provide a measurement of language growth in each performance mode. The child demonstrated comprehension of concatenated structures and clefts at the end of the research period; this represented a developmental leap from the beginning of the research period when he understood only much simpler structures. During the eight month study, development of comprehension on the lexical level came to an apparent halt. Production results indicated that the child experienced a definite expansion in productive vocabulary and length of utterance during the research period. Observations indicated that the child's pragmatic and discourse skills improved markedly with his use of the speech output device. Factors which might account for developments (or lack of development as in the case of lexical comprehension) are discussed. Clinical implications of improvements in pragmatic and discourse skills through the use of the device are considered along with methodological suggestions for using this study as a pilot for larger research. Conclusions are that: (1) use of the speech synthesizer led the child to listen to utterances as structural wholes; (2) the child became a more active and independent partner in the communication exchange; (3) synthetic speech garnered the child more attention and more opportunities for interaction; (4) synthetic speech gave the subject access to a greater range of communication partners. While the comprehension-production results are interesting, i.e. the child was able to understand structures at a level of unanticipated complexity after being trained to use the speech device, these results do not elucidate the nature of the comprehension-production relationship. Difficulties in interpreting the results of this study underline the need for a coherent theory relating comprehension and production in language development. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of nonverbal communication training on the acquisition of expressive and receptive sign language skills. Thirteen skills were included. Twenty-eight participants enrolled in the Beginning Interpreter Training Program (BITP) held at the University of Arizona were selected as subjects. The subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, a control group and an experimental group. The experimental group received ten hours of nonverbal communication training in the categories of kinesics, eye movement, facial expression, proxemics, chronemics, haptics, and artifacts, concurrently with their participation in the BITP. A rating instrument was devised and administered that measured the subject's performance on thirteen expressive and receptive sign language skills. A comparison of pretest and posttest performances was made utilizing the analysis of covariance. The results of the statistical analysis indicated that the experimental group improved significantly on the skills of receptive clarity and receptive fluency. No statistically significant differences were found between the experimental group and the control group on the other eleven skills although the experimental group mean score values were consistently higher than the control group mean score values. The importance of the results for the two groups of subjects involved in this study and the field of interpreting is that nonverbal communication training appears to enhance the receptive clarity and fluency abilities of sign language interpreters. This study should serve as an impetus and a reference point for others wishing to investigate the inclusion of nonverbal communication training in sign language interpreter training programs.

Den icke verbala kommunikationen är den största formen av all kommunikation och är lika trovärdig som den verbala kommunikationen. Icke verbal kommunikation definieras genom vårt kroppsspråk, blickar och/eller ögonkontakt, beröring, tonlägen gester, ansiktsuttryck och skratt och detta sker ständigt. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att belysa icke verbal kommunikation ur ett sjuksköterskeperspektiv. Databearbetningen medförde fyra kategorier: sjuksköterskans icke verbala kommunikation skapar välbefinnande, kunskap genom icke verbal kommunikation, icke verbal kommunikation hjälper sjuksköterskan att skapa relationer samt icke verbal kommunikation mellan sjuksköterskor. Resultatet visade på att det är nödvändigt för sjuksköterskan att ha kunskap om den icke verbala kommunikationen och dess olika sätt att framträdas hos enskilda patienters specifika behov. Tidsbrist är dock något som har visat sig vara ett hinder för sjuksköterskan för hens utveckling av sin icke verbala kommunikation och sin professionella relation till patienten. Vidare forskning om sjuksköterskans icke verbala kommunikation och hens relation till tid kan gynna sjuksköterskans framtida professionsutveckling. / The nonverbal communication is the most common form of all communication and is as reliable as the verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is defined by our body language, glance and / or eye contact, touch, tone gestures, facial expression and laughter, and occur constantly. The purpose of the study was to examine non-verbal communication from a nurse perspective. The Data processing included four categories: Nursing's non-verbal communication creates well-being, knowledge through non-verbal communication, non-verbal communication helps the nurse to establish relationships as well as non-verbal communication between nurses. The result showed that it is necessary for the nurse to have knowledge of non-verbal communication and it is different ways of appearing individually with each patient and differ with their specific needs. However, lack of time is something that has come back as an obstacle to the nurse for the development of non-verbal communication and the professional relationship with the patient. Further research on the nurse's non-verbal communication and relationship with time can benefit the future of nurse`s professionals skills.

Thesis aims on analyzing public appearances of former Czech prime minister Petr Nečas with special focus on pragmatics and reasoning. Whole analysis is performed with regard to political context. The goal of the thesis is creating complete characteristics, which can be used as a basis in future researches in pragmatics, political marketing or political PR. Using qualitative approach the thesis analyzes recordings from political debates, parliament meetings and press conferences from the era, when Petr Nečas was prime minister. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Synchronization research reveals that those who are able to coordinate behavior in time are more likely to feel positively towards one another. Unlike previous research that has taken a linear approach, I examine the dynamical nature of individuals' emotional coordination by investigating the overlap in their moment-to-moment emotional responses to positive and negative events in the form of film clips. By using the mouse program, I develop a new relationship paradigm and find that this measure is able to capture the nuances of emotional responses, and, more importantly, it is able to distinguish between relationship partners versus pairs of strangers. However, I am unable to determine that emotional coordination, as determined by smaller differences in mouse program data between partners, is related to relationship quality, as measured by their level of liking and loving (for romantic partners only) towards each other and their future expectancy of the relationship. / by Maureen Jane Leong-Kee. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Since students can adjust the speed of online videos by time-compression which is available through common software (Pastore & Ritzhaupt, 2015), it is important to learn at which point compression impacts comprehension. The focus of the study is whether the speaker’s face benefits comprehension during a 50% compressed lecture. Participants listened to a normal lecture or a 50% compressed lecture. Each participant saw an audio and audiovisual lecture, and were eye tracked during the audiovisual lecture. A comprehension test revealed that participants in the compressed lecture group performed better with the face. Eye fixations revealed that participants in the compressed lecture group looked less at the eyes and more at the nose when compared to eye fixations for those that viewed the normal lecture. This study demonstrates that 50% compression affects eye fixations and that the face benefits the listener, but this much compression will still lessen comprehension. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Introduktion: Kommunikation delas in i verbal och icke-verbal då det inte bara är språket som är viktigt i förmedlandet av ett meddelande, utan också de icke- verbala signalerna som sänds via kroppen eller tonläget. Relaterat till hälso - och sjukvård innebär kommunikation att kunna förstå och tillämpa olika behov samtidigt som att kunna skapa en interpersonell relation av ömsesidigt förtroende med patienter. Syfte: Att belysa kommunikation mellan sjuksköterskan och patienter i palliativ vård. Metod: Litteraturstudien genomfördes i enlighet med Polit och Becks nio steg. Elva vetenskapliga artiklar som kvalitetsgranskats utgjorde resultatet. Resultat: Genom belysningen av kommunikationen mellan sjuksköterskan och patienter i palliativ vård framkom det fyra teman: Verbal kommunikation, Icke-verbal kommunikation, Bristfällig kompetens i kommunikation och Tidsbrist. Ytterligare fyra subteman identifierades inom icke verbal kommunikation: Ögonkontakt, Beröring, Närvaro och Aktivt lyssnande. Slutsats: Kommunikation uppfattas som en viktig copingstrategi för patienter i palliativ vård i hanteringen av lidandet och dessutom en central faktor för tillhandahållandet av kvalitet inom vården. Utbildning i kommunikation anses som nödvändigt för att ge en personcentrerad och patientsäker vård.

In this study, we investigated what informational aspects of faces could account for the ability to match an individual’s face to their voice, using only static images. In each of the first six experiments, we simultaneously presented one voice recording along with two manipulated images of faces (e.g. top half of the face, bottom half of the face, etc.), a target face and distractor face. The participant’s task was to choose which of the images they thought belonged to the same individual as the voice recording. The voices remained un-manipulated. In Experiment 7 we used eye tracking in order to determine which informational aspects of the model’s faces people are fixating while performing the matching task, as compared to where they fixate when there are no immediate task demands. We presented a voice recording followed by two static images, a target and distractor face. The participant’s task was to choose which of the images they thought belonged to the same individual as the voice recording, while we tracked their total fixation duration. In the no-task, passive viewing condition, we presented a male’s voice recording followed sequentially by two static images of female models, or vice versa, counterbalanced across participants. Participant’s results revealed significantly better than chance performance in the matching task when the images presented were the bottom half of the face, the top half of the face, the images inverted upside down, when presented with a low pass filtered image of the face, and when the inner face was completely blurred out. In Experiment 7 we found that when completing the matching task, the time spent looking at the outer area of the face increased, as compared to when the images and voice recordings were passively viewed. When the images were passively viewed, the time spend looking at the inner area of the face increased. We concluded that the inner facial features (i.e. eyes, nose, and mouth) are not necessary informational aspects of the face which allow for the matching ability. The ability likely relies on global features such as the face shape and size. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Studies exploring facial emotion recognition (FER) abilities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) samples have yielded inconsistent results despite the widely-accepted finding that an impairment in emotion recognition is a core component of ASD. The current study aimed to determine if an FER task featuring both unfamiliar and familiar faces would highlight additional group differences between ASD children and typically developing (TD) children. We tested the two groups of 4- to 8-year-olds on this revised task, and also compared their resting-state brain activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements. As hypothesized, the TD group had significantly higher overall emotion recognition percent scores. In addition, there was a significant interaction effect of group by familiarity, with the ASD group recognizing emotional expressions significantly better in familiar faces than in unfamiliar ones. This finding may be related to the preference of children with autism for people and situations which they are accustomed to. TD children did not demonstrate this pattern, as their recognition scores were approximately the same for familiar faces and unfamiliar ones. No significant group differences existed for EEG alpha power or EEG alpha asymmetry in frontal, central, temporal, parietal, or occipital brain regions. Also, neither of these EEG measurements were strongly correlated with the group FER performances. Further evidence is needed to assess the association between neurophysiological measurements and behavioral symptoms of ASD. The behavioral results of this study provide preliminary evidence that an FER task featuring both familiar and unfamiliar expressions produces a more optimal assessment of emotion recognition ability. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection