Nonverbal Communication Research Methods
The purpose of this report is to pose five empirical research questions centered on a single topic within the field of communication research. The topic area selected herein is nonverbal communication. Aguinis and Henle (2001) stated that nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression, gesture, and body posture are important forms of communication. Nonverbal behavior is relevant to several interpersonal processes (e.g., deception, impression formation, attraction, social influence, emotional expression, and status identification). Nonverbal behavior also provides information, expresses intimacy, expresses social control, and facilitates task goals (Aguinis & Henle, 2001).
Presented below are five empirical research questions, discussed with respect to their underlying concepts, variables, research methods, ontology, and epistemology.
The first research question is: To what extent does the use of gesture benefit speech production, memory, and comprehension? Frick-Horbury (2002) argued that hand gestures are used primarily to aid the viewer or listener in the interpretation and comprehension of the message in a communicative interaction. At the same time, hand gestures are also recognized as benefiting the producer in a variety of cognitive tasks such as speech fluency, speech processing, verbal identification, and verbal recall.
The concept considered in this question is the significance, meaning, and interpretation of hand gestures and the relationship of such gestures to the perceptions and performance of both listener and speaker in a communication dyad (Frick-Horbury, 2002). The independent variable in the research question is the use and type of hand gestures whereas the dependent variable is the recall or retrieval rate verbal cues augmented by hand gestures.
The ontological assumption underpinning the question is that gestural facility is not equal...