Information Reception and Memory

Information Reception

• Involves attending to and transforming environmental messages into a form that helps guide behavior.
• It is made up of information:
  • Selection
  • Interpretation
  • Retention

Selection

• Selection of particular communication sources occurs when noticing another person.
• Influenced by:
  • The Physical Environment
  • The Context
  • Communication Styles

Interpretation

• Assigning meaning or significance to a cue or environmental message is interpretation.
• Determining if it is important or trivial, serious or humorous, new or old, contradictory or consistent, amusing or alarming.

Retention-Memory

• Plays an indispensable role in the interpretative process due to the ability to store, use, and locate an incredible amount of information.
• Information to be further used goes into short term memory for about 15 seconds.
• Some information is further processed and goes into long term memory.
• Episodic memory relates to recollections and retrieval of personal happenings, objects, people, and events experienced at a specific time and place.

Receiver Influence

• A complex set of influences impacts decisions for attending to, interpreting, and retaining information, which is greatly influenced by the nature of the receiver.
• Crucial factors that play a role include needs, attitudes, preferences, and predispositions one has about particular topics, a goal to direct their attention & capability levels

Other Influences

• Message characteristics impact selection, interpretation, and retention. Some factors include:
  • origin, mode, physical character, organisation and novelty
• Source characteristics impact reception decisions. Some factors include:
  • Proximity, attractiveness, similarity, credibility, authoritativeness, motivation, intent, delivery, status, power, and authority
• Technology can influence the process of communication.
• Context, repetition, consistency, and competition can influence communication.

Active and Complex Process

• Selection, interpretation, and reception are basic to message reception and communicating.
• These activities are influenced by many factors, making information processing one of the most complex facets of human communication.

Verbal Messages

• When producing a message, illustrations should be made to determine what kind of message to create.
• Encoding is converting an idea into a message.
• Decoding is converting a message into an idea.
• There are process versus meaning-centered Models of Communication.
• The process-centered model emphasizes the process of communication.

The Nature of Language

• Biological structure that allows the process of producing vocal sounds to deliver an information.

• Includes:

  • Mouth
  • Lips
  • Tongue
  • Larynx
  • Vocal cords

• Parts work together to produce vocal sounds

• Processes of the brain and neuro system influence the delivery of a message include

• The areas of vocal production of the brain are:

  • Wernicke
  • Broca
  • Locate in the left hemisphere

• Language acquisition is a developmental process of language skills starting early in life.

• On a basic level, language enables naming and symbolically representing things

• The principle of Non-Identity reminds that words are not the same as realities.

• The principle of Non-Allness asserts that language can never completely represent something.

• The principle of Self-Reflexiveness calls attention to the problem when language is used to talk about language.

Conversation

• Conversation is a negotiation of meaning and occurs when individuals negotiate each other's ideas of a message in an attempt to persuade the other.
• It includes a set of rules and rituals.
• Individual communication behavior is used by both men and women.
• Men and women learn to speak differently and have internalized different norms of conversation, with men adopting a more competitive style and women a more cooperative style.
• Women are proven to spend more effort facilitating continuation of conversations, which includes a higher percentage of posed questions as noted in research.
• Argumentativeness is a stable trait that predisposes an individual to advocate a position on controversial issues and verbally attack the positions of others.
• Women use larger vocabularies to discuss topics of interest and broader scope.
• Men have broader vocabularies in areas where they have greater expertise.

Metacommunication

• Involves communicating about communication.

Language in Social and Public Communication

• Production and distribution of social realities.
• Language is the primary means used for for social and public expression.
• Public speeches, news, entertainment, advertisements and public relations all use language.
• Language is a pervasive part of the environment.

This quiz explores the initial steps of information reception, including assigning meaning to messages. It covers the role of memory, focusing on short-term memory duration and recollections of personal events. Key concepts include perception and cognitive processes.