Verbal Channel Research Articles

Peach Fuzz: Conceptual Engineering of Color Categories

This article explores the products of conceptual engineering in contemporary media communication and mass culture. The analysis examines the mechanisms and communicative consequences of intentionally creating color categories. The shade known as peach fuzz, selected by the Pantone Institute as the color of the year 2024, is used as a case study. It is shown that in the case of the color of the year, the transmission of the conceptual idea involves two channels simultaneously (visual and verbal), each in two different forms. The author notes that the visual channel is used to ostensively present the shade with specific chromatic characteristics and to develope a complex visual image on this basis. Special attention is paid to the verbal channel, which is utilized in the form of intentionally constructed color designations and supporting stories (conceptual myths). It is concluded that from the perspective of color communication, verbal and visual texts serve fundamentally different functions. The visual representation shows how the viewer should see the color, while the verbal explanation clarifies why this shade is needed. It is demonstrated that the image embedded in the color name sets the desired connotation, which can transform the perception of the shade by adding necessary meanings to it. The verbal story defines a cognitive “point of view” for introducing a new category into an existing color system.

Trust my gesture or my word: How do listeners choose the information channel during communication?

Information can be conveyed via multiple channels such as verbal and gestural (visual) channels during communication. Sometimes the information from different channels does not match (e.g., saying right while pointing to the left). How do addressees choose which information to act upon in such cases? In two experiments, we investigated this issue by having participants follow instructions on how to move objects on the screen. Experiment 1 examined whether people's choice of channel can be altered by feedback favoring either the verbal or the gestural channel. In Experiment 2, there was no feedback and participants were free to choose either channel. We also assessed participants' verbal and visuospatial working memory capacities. Results showed that, when faced with contradicting information, there is a natural bias at the group level toward relying on the verbal channel, although this bias can be temporarily altered by probabilistic feedback. Moreover, when labels were shorter and of higher frequency, participants relied more on the verbal channel. In the absence of feedback, the capacity of individuals' visual, but not verbal, working memory determined reliance on one channel versus the other. Collectively, these results show that information selection in communication is influenced by group-level biases, as well as the properties of items and characteristics of individuals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Teaching categories via examples and explanations

People often learn categories through interaction with knowledgeable others who may use verbal explanations, visual exemplars, or both, to share their knowledge. Verbal and nonverbal means of pedagogical communication are commonly used in conjunction, but their respective roles are not fully understood. In this work, we studied how well these modes of communication work with different category structures. We conducted two experiments to investigate the effect of perceptual confusability and stimulus dimensionality on the effectiveness of verbal, exemplar-based, and mixed communication. One group of participants – teachers – learned a categorization rule and prepared learning materials for the students. Students studied the materials prepared for them and then demonstrated their knowledge on test stimuli. All communication modes were generally successful, but not equivalent, with mixed communication consistently showing best results. When teachers were free to generate as many visual exemplars or words as they wish, verbal and exemplar-based communication showed similar performance, although the verbal channel was slightly less reliable in situations requiring high perceptual precision. At the same time, verbal communication was better suited to handling high-dimensional stimuli when communication volume was restricted. We believe that our work serves as an important step towards studying language as a means for pedagogical category leaning.

Humor and allusions on screen

Contemporary texts often require a reader or viewer with vast background knowledge. One of the reasons behind this is intertextuality: every text is reliant, to a certain extent, on previous written, filmed, or painted artifacts. Conveying intertextuality by means of another language implies that a translator recognizes allusions and their function, analyses their recognizability in the target culture, and offers a solution that maintains their pragmatic effect. In the case of a multimodal product like an animated cartoon, the translator is also tasked with bringing the verbal channel to conformity with the non-verbal one. This article focuses on translation strategies of allusions to examine whether the distance between the original and target language plays a crucial role in conveying allusive humour. The research corpus is complete Season 5 of The Simpsons animated sitcom and its three translations: German, Ukrainian, and Russian. Selected scenes are discussed in light of the General Theory of Verbal Humour (Attardo, et al. 2002) and strategies for translating allusions (Leppihalme, 1992). The findings suggest that the distance between languages is not a key factor when searching for effective translation solutions, and that it is a translator’s competence that plays a major role in humour translation.

Molecumentary: Adaptable Narrated Documentaries Using Molecular Visualization.

We present a method for producing documentary-style content using real-time scientific visualization. We introduce molecumentaries, i.e., molecular documentaries featuring structural models from molecular biology, created through adaptable methods instead of the rigid traditional production pipeline. Our work is motivated by the rapid evolution of scientific visualization and it potential in science dissemination. Without some form of explanation or guidance, however, novices and lay-persons often find it difficult to gain insights from the visualization itself. We integrate such knowledge using the verbal channel and provide it along an engaging visual presentation. To realize the synthesis of a molecumentary, we provide technical solutions along two major production steps: (1) preparing a story structure and (2) turning the story into a concrete narrative. In the first step, we compile information about the model from heterogeneous sources into a story graph. We combine local knowledge with external sources to complete the story graph and enrich the final result. In the second step, we synthesize a narrative, i.e., story elements presented in sequence, using the story graph. We then traverse the story graph and generate a virtual tour, using automated camera and visualization transitions. We turn texts written by domain experts into verbal representations using text-to-speech functionality and provide them as a commentary. Using the described framework, we synthesize fly-throughs with descriptions: automatic ones that mimic a manually authored documentary or semi-automatic ones which guide the documentary narrative solely through curated textual input.

Smallpox good and bad: evolution of popular perceptions of the personification of the disease in the Urals in the 19th — early 20th century

In this paper, elaboration of the image of smallpox in popular perception, which manifested itself in connec-tion with the organization of smallpox vaccination by the Russian government, is examined. In the context of the cultural dominance of the ruling class over the people and paternalistic attitude towards it, promulgation of the vaccination is a unique phenomenon for the early 19th century Russia, when the “amount at stake” forced the authorities to appeal to their subjects. It provides an opportunity to analyze the symbols generated by the domi-nant ideology and their perception by traditional consciousness. Propaganda started by means of sermons by the clergy. Numerous Exhortations emphasized contraposition of the benefits of the vaccinated smallpox and the harm of the natural smallpox. The verbal channel of the agitation was supported by a visual one — publication of ”popular prints”. Analysis of the plots in nine images from D.A. Rovinsky’s collection showed that corporeality was recognized as the main means of the visual agitation. Through the image of human body, health and beauty of persons vaccinated against smallpox was transmitted, as well as deformity and hideousness of those who went through the natural smallpox. Having absorbed the dualism of the pro-government propaganda, popular con-sciousness went to create an alternative version of perceptions of the infection and vaccination. By applying the binary oppositions ’friend-foe’ and ’sacred-profane’, people made an important change in their own system of values: unlike other epidemics, such a particularly dangerous infection as smallpox had changed its place in the traditional worldview. It stopped being associated with plague and death and became recognized as being “one’s own” and ”godsent”. Therefore, it should not be opposed but should be accepted with gratitude as a ”gift of God”. Intercultural communications on the subject of smallpox vaccination are not only a vivid illustration of the ambigu-ous impact of the dominant ideology on a folk culture; the emergence of socially and culturally differentiated im-ages of smallpox, having drawn a new demarcation line between the scholarly and folk cultures, deepened the rift in the Russian society, as well as introduced additional difficulties in the process of immunoprophylaxis and made it difficult to identify and treat the smallpox patients.

Learning to diagnose accurately through virtual patients: do reflection phases have an added benefit?

BackgroundSimulation-based learning with virtual patients is a highly effective method that could potentially be further enhanced by including reflection phases. The effectiveness of reflection phases for learning to diagnose has mainly been demonstrated for problem-centered instruction with text-based cases, not for simulation-based learning. To close this research gap, we conducted a study on learning history-taking using virtual patients. In this study, we examined the added benefit of including reflection phases on learning to diagnose accurately, the associations between knowledge and learning, and the diagnostic process.MethodsA sample of N = 121 medical students completed a three-group experiment with a control group and pre- and posttests. The pretest consisted of a conceptual and strategic knowledge test and virtual patients to be diagnosed. In the learning phase, two intervention groups worked with virtual patients and completed different types of reflection phases, while the control group learned with virtual patients but without reflection phases. The posttest again involved virtual patients. For all virtual patients, diagnostic accuracy was assessed as the primary outcome. Current hypotheses were tracked during reflection phases and in simulation-based learning to measure diagnostic process.ResultsRegarding the added benefit of reflection phases, an ANCOVA controlling for pretest performance found no difference in diagnostic accuracy at posttest between the three conditions, F(2, 114) = 0.93, p = .398. Concerning knowledge and learning, both pretest conceptual knowledge and strategic knowledge were not associated with learning to diagnose accurately through reflection phases. Learners’ diagnostic process improved during simulation-based learning and the reflection phases.ConclusionsReflection phases did not have an added benefit for learning to diagnose accurately in virtual patients. This finding indicates that reflection phases may not be as effective in simulation-based learning as in problem-centered instruction with text-based cases and can be explained with two contextual differences. First, information processing in simulation-based learning uses the verbal channel and the visual channel, while text-based learning only draws on the verbal channel. Second, in simulation-based learning, serial cue cases are used to gather information step-wise, whereas, in text-based learning, whole cases are used that present all data at once.

Which Tools in Multimedia Are Best for Learning Outcomes? A Study Grounded in Cognitive Load Structures.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the importance of three compositions in multimedia for learning outcomes (LOs) in relation to individual differences in short-term memory (STM) capacity. The study is based on a survey of 378 individuals at the bachelor level (military officers, teachers, and psychology students). The LOs of three different multimedia compositions (means) were tested. This applied to individuals with low, medium, and high STM capacity. The results show that the successive presentation (Type II) of learning materials through multiple representation forms/channels (speech, pictures, and screen text/labels) provides a better LO than just speech (Type I) and simultaneous presentation (Type III). Overall, visual and verbal channel capacities did not contribute to the LO in any of the three tools tested, but some specific STM capacity types or substructures (visual and verbal progressive capacities) and non-verbal (RAPM) types have significance, particularly in exploiting successive presentation (Type II) for learning. Although the tools used in the multimedia educational material had a low cognitive load, the individuals with low capacity learned relatively less than the individuals with higher capacity. A symbolic form of expression was introduced concerning the relationship between cognitive load structure (CLS) and LOs through various tools in multimedia as an aid in the theoretical and empirical analyses. This is referred to as the CLS-LO formula. The main assumption of this study, based on previous empirical and theoretical ones, is that the relationship between CLS and LO is expressed with the following CLS-LO formula: . Based on this study, the relationship became: . This basic research study is primarily a contribution to understanding underlying cognitive processes in STM and their importance for learning in multimodal forms compared with analogue text. The findings will also be relevant as a basis for performance analysis and decision-making under high information pressure, risk, and unpredictable conditions.

Creolized Text as a Polylingual Phenomenon

In oral speech communication is advisable to distinguish between verbal and non-verbal communication channel. The verbal channel is served by the sounds of a particular ethnic language, with which the meanings of words formed in another ethnic culture are associated. The verbal channel broadcasts non-linguistic signs: height, strength, pace, rhythm of the speakers voice. These signs, used intentionally or unintentionally, carry, regardless of the semantics of language means, non-verbal information about the speaker, about his attitude to the interlocutor, to the subject of communication, to the speaker himself. The study revealed the contribution of the speakers gender to the quality of the sounding (spoken) text in comparison with the qualities of the same text in written performance.

Recognition and Naming of the Sentence Content in Deaf Children Trough Verbal and Neverbal Approach

The aim of the research is to determine the effects on the recognition and naming of certain sentence structures through a verbal and non-verbal approach, or through the use of a verbal and non-verbal communication channel. The study was conducted on a sample of 30 deaf pupils at age from 11 to 14 years. As a measurement instrument, a modified image description test was used. The test consisted of six complexes, illustrated sentences, in which the actions and subjects performing certain actions are shown in the picture sequence in a way that deaf children understand. The descriptive analysis method was used for data processing. Measures of central tendencies and variations have been made. Testing the difference between verbal and non-verbal approach was performed by t-test. The correlation between the chronological age and the recognition and naming of the spoken structures were verified through the non-verbal approach. The results of the research have shown that respondents have achieved better results in recognizing and naming spoken content using the non-verbal communication channel, that there is a statistically significant difference in the use of verbal and non-verbal communication approaches in recognizing and naming spoken content, and that there is a high correlation between the chronological age of respondents and recognizing and naming of spoken content through a non-verbal approach

Recognition and naming of the sentence content in deaf children through verbal and non-verbal approach

The aim of the research is to determine the effects on the recognition and naming of certain sentence structures through a verbal and non-verbal approach, or through the use of a verbal and non-verbal communication channel. The study was conducted on a sample of 30 deaf pupils at age from 11 to 14 years. As a measurement instrument, a modified image description test was used. The test consisted of six complexes, illustrated sentences, in which the actions and subjects performing certain actions are shown in the picture sequence in a way that deaf children understand. The descriptive analysis method was used for data processing. Measures of central tendencies and variations have been made. Testing the difference between verbal and non-verbal approach was performed by t-test. The correlation between the chronological age and the recognition and naming of the spoken structures were verified through the non-verbal approach. The results of the research have shown that respondents have achieved better results in recognizing and naming spoken content using the non-verbal communication channel, that there is a statistically significant difference in the use of verbal and non-verbal communication approaches in recognizing and naming spoken content, and that there is a high correlation between the chronological age of respondents and recognizing and naming of spoken content through a non-verbal approach.

‘Language of lies’: Urgent issues and prospects in verbal lie detection research

Since its introduction into the field of deception detection, the verbal channel has become a rapidly growing area of research. The basic assumption is that liars differ from truth tellers in their verbal behaviour, making it possible to classify them by inspecting their verbal accounts. However, as noted in conferences and in private communication between researchers, the field of verbal lie detection faces several challenges that merit focused attention. The first author therefore proposed a workshop with the mission of promoting solutions for urgent issues in the field. Nine researchers and three practitioners with experience in credibility assessments gathered for 3 days of discussion at Bar‐Ilan University (Israel) in the first international verbal lie detection workshop. The primary session of the workshop took place the morning of the first day. In this session, each of the participants had up to 10 min to deliver a brief message, using just one slide. Researchers were asked to answer the question: ‘In your view, what is the most urgent, unsolved question/issue in verbal lie detection?’ Similarly, practitioners were asked: ‘As a practitioner, what question/issue do you wish verbal lie detection research would address?’ The issues raised served as the basis for the discussions that were held throughout the workshop. The current paper first presents the urgent, unsolved issues raised by the workshop group members in the main session, followed by a message to researchers in the field, designed to deliver the insights, decisions, and conclusions resulting from the discussions.

Learning in-progress

Abstract Though gesture is a growing area in second language research, its role in the teaching and learning of grammar remains on the margins. Drawing from Sociocultural Theory, the present case study addresses this gap by offering a microgenetic analysis of an ESL learner’s developing understanding of the progressive aspect. Our analysis is threefold. First, we observe how the learner’s gesture reveals her initial understanding of the progressive aspect. This is followed by study of the learner’s appropriation of the teacher’s gesture for the progressive aspect. Finally, we examine the crucial ways in which the learner’s gesture differs from the teacher’s, arguing that the learner merged her initial understanding and the teacher’s gesture, instead of merely copying the teacher. We contend that gesture should not be regarded as supplementary to speech but as an indispensable window into the learning process that may not be accessible through the verbal channel alone.

Uni-Representational Vs. Cross-Representational Difference in Imagery Formation: Verification of Dual Coding Theory

Dual coding theory states that information is stored by visual and verbal channel separately. During formation of imagery the visual and verbal channels are used distinctly. The study explores how retrieval of visual imageries of natural scenes varies with the variation in representational forms of encoding and recognition. Each stimulus set contained two different cards for encoding and recognition purpose. Both encoding and recognition of visual scenes were varied in both pictorial (picture form) and linguistic (word form) mode. Thus four plausible conditions are pictorial encoding associated with pictorial recognition, pictorial encoding and linguistic recognition; linguistic encoding and linguistic recognition and lastly, linguistic encoding with pictorial recognition. The aim of the study is to see whether the mode of object representation influences imagery formation. The aim of the study is to explore which kind of representation benefits recognition of imagery. 40 female University students (21 to 23 years) were selected and randomly assigned in to four experimental conditions. From each participant data was collected in the laboratory set up in a single session. Nine stimulus cards were presented to each subject. Presentation of a single stimulus card in encoding situation was followed by the recognition situation. The two way ANOVA result shows changing the representational forms has significant effects on retrieval. The present finding supports the notion of Dual coding hypothesis with an additional observation that poor retrieval in case of pictorial recognition when the information has been encoded linguistically.

Individual Differences in Visual and Verbal Channel Capacity and Learning Outcome from Film and Text

The main objective of this study was to investigate the importance of visual and verbal channel capacity for learning outcome from visual and verbal presentation forms. The study is based on a survey of 396 students at bachelor level (officers, student teachers and psychology students). The results show that there is a significant correlation between channel capacity and learning outcome from film and text, especially in the learning of details. Visual channel capacity has the greatest impact on learning details from text, while verbal channel capacity is most important for learning details from film. Furthermore, the results indicate that individuals with a high visual channel capacity have an advantage when learning context from film, while individuals with a high verbal channel capacity may have a benefit when learning contexts from text. While previous studies have concluded that some individuals have a higher verbal or visual capacity and thus learn better from either film or text (Paivio, 1986; Clark & Mayer, 2008), this study shows that the verbal or visual capacity specifically consists of various types of short term memory capacity differences. This applies primarily to the ability to process information presented successively (progressive capacity). The capacity for simultaneous presentation through several channels concurrently (multi-capacity), is also important for learning from both film and text, although multi-capacity seems to have had less impact than expected. The effect of divided attention (split-attention effect) may have compensated for the strain of the information processing. An estimated multimedia oriented compensation and proximity effect may also have had some significance when learning contexts, especially for individuals with low to medium channel capacity. In a pedagogical perspective the results indicate that teaching which included multimedia and separate text presentations should be organized according to the participants’ channel capacity and also to the content of the educational material.

Exploring the Listening Processes of Pre-university ESL Students

To better prepare pre-university students for learning in the university setting, scholars have called for the critical examination of the basic language skills necessary for lecture comprehension. This call is also echoed in ESL listening research where experts have accentuated the importance of investigating the listening processes which are at work in an academic setting to improve learning. This inevitably puts listening skills in the forefront because by far listening is the most indispensable skill for learning in a university environment. Within this context, this paper reports on a pilot project which uncovers the listening processes of pre-university ESL students. The primary aim of the investigation is to explore the listening processes of pre-university students to learn more about their cognitive and behavioural listening strategies. A procedure that incorporated the verbal channel for gathering think-aloud protocols was developed to suit the respondents’ language ability. Pre- university students were asked to listen to a selection of audio taped texts, modelled on the Malaysian University English Listening Test (MUET). As they listened, they were asked to think-aloud their thoughts as they attempt to answer 15 multiple choice questions (MCQ). Their verbal protocols were audio taped and their behavioural responses observed by the researcher. The findings reveal that students employ a variety of listening strategies during the listening event. The study concludes by discussing the implications of using the data collected as an alternative pedagogical opportunity that could be infused gainfully into the ESL listening classroom.

Corrective feedback, gesture, and mediation in classroom language learning

This article examines the way in which a teacher’s provision of form-focused corrective feedback synchronized with gesture mediated a student’s learning in an ESL reading classroom. Specifically, the focus of the analysis is on the student’s appropriation of the teacher’s gesture as a tool that mediates his own independent functioning. It is argued that while the teacher’s corrective feedback in the verbal channel helped to scaffold the learner’s performance by modeling a correct syntactic structure and highlighting the specific locus of the correction, it was her gesture activity that became available to the student as a psychological tool. The discussion centers on the role of gesture in mediating second language development. Implications for future research and classroom language teaching are also sketched out.

Rapport in Negotiation

This study examined the contribution of verbal behavior to the creation of rapport in negotiation, while methodologically addressing the issue of dependence between dyadic measures, which is inherent to the concept of rapport, with the Actor-Partner Interdependence model. The approach adopted is substantially different from that of past research, which emphasized the contribution of nonverbal behavior to rapport and used averaged rapport to asses it. Drawing both from the theoretical concept of rapport and from Politeness theory, the authors developed the Verbal Rapport Assessment scale. The authors found that rapport is indeed encoded in the verbal behavior and that various verbal behaviors contribute to negotiators’ sense of rapport, as well as to the judgment of negotiators’ rapport behaviors. Likewise, the authors found that a negotiator’s sense of rapport was primarily affected by his partners’ verbal behavior and by the interaction between behaviors of both sides. These findings emphasize the importance of the verbal channel and the dyad in creating rapport in negotiation. Negotiation in the twenty-first century is often characterized by exclusively verbal interactions (via telephone, chat, and e-mails); negotiators from many different fields can benefit from these findings.

Constant connections: piloting a mobile phone-based peer support program for Nuer (southern Sudanese) women

Refugee women have poor psychosocial health as a result of past trauma and difficulties associated with settlement. This study was a pilot to find out how to use mobile phone-based peer support to improve the psychosocial health of, and facilitate settlement in a group of nine Nuer refugee women in Melbourne, Australia. Nine participants recruited by a community leader received peer support training over two five-week periods. They were further provided with mobile phone recharge vouchers to call one another to practice peer support techniques. The fifth and final sessions were focus groups to evaluate the intervention. Notes from the focus groups were thematically analysed. The women reported greater confidence and empowerment as they received more support, had better connections within the group and better access to information. Relationships with friends, family and the community became richer as they adopted and experienced more functional communication patterns. Using mobile phones for peer support helped to re-create community by bridging the geographical distance that separates refugee women. It allowed the women, from similar backgrounds and with similar experiences, to provide mutual support and exchange information through a verbal channel, the form of communication they are most comfortable with. The program demonstrates the positive psychosocial effect of peer support in a refugee community, and provides a viable model for using mobile phones in health promotion interventions. The successful outcomes, as perceived by the participants, are indicative of the potential of using technology to bridge health inequities in a marginalised group.

Casting the light on cinema – how luminance and contrast patterns create meaning

La cuestión de la creación del sentido siempre ha sido recurrente en la investigación académica. Considerada desde la perspectiva cinematográfica, nos lleva automáticamente a pensar en la trama y los diálogos. Sin embargo, la transmisión del sentido de las películas no se basa únicamente en su canal verbal, sino que también se manifiesta en su capa visual, comprendida en las expresiones faciales, la composición, la localización y la edición. Centrándose en el cómo, el artículo presta especial atención a la influencia de los patrones de luz y contraste en la lectura del cine. Con la intención de resaltar su rol en el lenguaje cinematográfico y su relevancia en traducciones y adaptaciones, la autora reflexionará sobre el papel de los patrones de luminiscencia en la percepción activa de filmes, su potencial contribución a la comprensión de la trama y los procesos de jerarquización contenidos en la luz y el contraste.