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THE RELATION OF VERBAL RATE TO SYLLABLE LENGTH OF VERBAL ACTION IN TWO INTERVIEW SITUATIONS
Author(s) -
WEBB JAMES T.,
BRISTER DAVID M.
Publication year - 1967
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1967.tb01085.x
Subject(s) - psychology , variance (accounting) , action (physics) , audiology , social psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , medicine , physics , accounting , quantum mechanics , business
Undergraduate students were interviewed in standardized (SI) and non‐standardized (NSI) situations and their speaking rates measured in syllables per minute. Analyses of verbal rates supported Goldman‐Eisler's (1954 b ) finding of an inverse relation between subjects' verbal rate (VR) and length of action, and between the variance of subjects' VR and length of action, but these relations were observed only in the SI situation. Frequency distributions for VRs were found to be normal, by contrast with the positively skewed and leptokurtic distributions she reported. Homogeneity of VR variance across subjects was found in the SI situation, but not in NSI. Thus, the type of interview situation, i.e. the experimenter's behaviour, apparently influences subjects' VR in such a way that the more consistent the experimenter's interview behaviour, the less the variability of the subject's behaviour. Clinical implications are pointed out.