Lecture 4 - Social Communication

Front 1

Clever Hans

Back 1

- a horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks
- horse was responding to nonverbal behavior of audience, not actually answering the questions

Front 2

Kelley's co-variation test

Back 2

A given effect is often the result of an interaction among a number of causes

Front 3

Attributional ambiguity

Back 3

- we don't know what causes certain treatment
⁃ expectations play a role in how we interpret the behavior of others

Front 4

Scar study (hypothetical)

Back 4

- ask people how peoples' treatment of them would change if they looked like this
- some males laughed
- females were angry, sad, disgusted, etc.
⁃ all agreed on the negative impact

Front 5

Scar study (experimental)

Back 5

- put scars on students' faces and tell them to see if people treat them differently
⁃ everyone reported nonverbal messages of discomfort, etc.
⁃ used nonverbal cues to decode the information
⁃ asked students: "How should the other person have behaved to make the scar appear irrelevant?"
⁃ didn't really have scars - were wiped off before interaction
- *expectation leads you to believe you are being socially rejected*

Front 6

emblems

Back 6

- movement behavior that has a direct verbal translation - yes and no (shaking your head), hello (waving), middle finder, etc.
- high cultural variability

Front 7

illustrators

Back 7

- e.g. moving hands in conjunction with verbal output
⁃ occasionally contradict emblems

Front 8

regulators

Back 8

- unfilled pause = your turn; filled pause (um, eh) = I'm still talking; end sentence by looking directly at you = your turn
⁃ don't end your sentence looking at someone if you don't want to be interrupted
⁃ no verbal translation but demands response of some sort

Front 9

facial movement and expressions

Back 9

we have many facial muscles that only move the skin - this is for nonverbal communication only

Front 10

Field

Back 10

- older infants - more full expression e.g. happy, sad (not just a smile, frown, squint) - babies still imitated the feeling

Front 11

The face as a source of social information

Back 11

visual cliff paradigm - surface 3 feet below other with plexiglass over it
⁃ mother's expression influences whether or not infant will cross the plexiglass

Front 12

Mirror neurons

Back 12

possible brain mechanism supporting imitation.
- - motion neuron in monkeys was fired when they grabbed a peanut and when they watched a person grab it

Front 13

Adam's research at Dartmouth

Back 13

- where eyes are looking also contributes to the meaning of facial expression
⁃ people look into environment, not people when threatened, look directly when angry