COMM521 Communication and Social Memory

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Directions: Below you will find three essay questions. Everyone should respond to question one. Then you may choose to respond to either question two or question three. Respond to your two questions in well-written and well-organized essays. Think about your essays as arguments that you are advancing and supporting with evidence (evidence from class discussions and your textbook). Each essay is worth 20 points. I do not like to suggest a specific length for each essay because the length of your response should be related to the sophistication of your knowledge. That is, if you are well-prepared, you should see complexity in the question that would demand a sophisticated, and longer,response. A sophisticated response will necessarily be longer than a less sophisticated response.

Submission process: Submit your exam in drop box on Sakai. Submit your examination as a Word document with one-inch margins and 12-point font. If you submit your examination in any other form than a Word document, I will not accept your midterm and I will notify you that you must submit it as Word document. Submit both your responses in a single Word document. Label your Word document with your “last name and 521 midterm” (e.g., Waltman521midterm).

Question 1: As you respond to this question, be sure to draw on material that describes the nature and use of schemas from Fisk & Taylor and from our discussion of the relationship between cognition and communication. What are schemas? Describe their essential character? From where do our schemas originate? What social and communicative functions do schemas serve? Some have argued that schemas can be useful tools. On the other hand, Walter Lippmann in 1922 seems to allude to schemas when he says, “We are all captives of the pictures in our head–our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists.” Some have argued that schemas may have deleterious consequences for our perception and our social behavior. Perhaps Lippmann might say that we are captives of the schemas we construct and hold in memory. Which position do you hold? Perhaps the answer to this question depends on the existence of moderating factors or the character of the schemas in question. Explicitly describe your position on the value of schemas. Then, be sure to support your position with evidence (in the form of research findings) that you have learned from our text and lectures/discussions. If you have not done so, describe how the concept of schemas has been used to explain sophisticated forms of communicative behavior in the field of communication (specifically, Constructivism). Be sure to introduce the concepts of interpersonal construct differentiation, interpersonal construct abstractness, listener adapted persuasion, reflection enhancing discipline, and comforting communication. How do the findings from Constructivism help us to understand our use of schemas as described by Fisk & Taylor?

This question is asking you to integrate a lot of information discussed in class and your readings. Therefore, your response should be one that incorporates a variety of distinct concepts and uses them to write an essay that reflects your coherent understanding of this material. I don’t like to suggest page lengths for your essay but if your response is not 8-10 pages in length, you might want to question whether your response is sufficiently comprehensive.

Question 2: We discussed five philosophical anthropologies in class. Introduce and define the consistency seeker, naïve scientist, and the cognitive miser philosophical anthropologies. Using your text and class discussions, identify three specific concepts that support the logic of each philosophical anthropology (you should be discussing a total of 9 supporting concepts). You should be drawing on discussions of attribution models, attribution bias, heuristics, and schemas to support your claims. Your discussion should be thorough and comprehensive.

I believe this essay is a bit more straightforward than the first question and probably requires less thought about how you might introduce, discuss, and integrate material into a coherent essay. Nonetheless, if your response is not 7-10 pages in length you might want to question the comprehensiveness of your response.

Question 3: Consider the models and biases we discussed related to attribution theory. You may also wish to review and reflect on the introductory lectures that covered approximately 35 to 40 years of research in communication, social cognition, and social psychology. Based on your understanding of all that you have read and discussed in class, identify three to five principles that you believe summarize what we know about the nature of human information processing and human perception. One principle that has been raised several times is: Human’s information processing abilities are limited. For each of the principles be sure that you provide evidence to support your claims. Your response to this question will be evaluated according to the argument you use to support your claims (statement of principles) and your ability to discuss the principles as a unified and coherent whole. I have some ideas of my own, but I am not expecting a set of answers that are more correct that others. Just be thoughtful, reflective, and support you claims with evidence from our readings and discussions.