Chapter 1
Table 1
| Communication | the simultaneous sharing and creating of meaning through human symbolic action |
| Speech Communication | a humanistic and scientific field of study, research, and application, focusing on how, why, and with what effects people communicate through language and nonverbal behaviors |
| Communication Competence | ability to take part in effective communication, which is characterized by skills and understandings that enable communication partners to exchange messages successfully |
| Process | series of actions that has no beginning or end and is constantly changing |
| System | combination of parts interdependently acting to form a whole |
| Interaction | exchange of communication in which communicators take turns sending and receiving messages |
| Transaction | exchange of communication in which the communicators act simultaneously, that is, encoding and decoding go on at the same time |
| Intentional Communication | message that is purposely sent to a specific receiver |
| Unintentional Communication | message that is not intended to be sent or is not intended for the person who receives it |
| Source | creator of messages |
| Encoding | process by which the source expresses thoughts or feelings in words, sounds, and physical expressions, which together make up the actual message that is sent |
| Message | stimulus that is produced by the source |
| Interference | anything that changes the meaning of an intended message |
| Channel | route (such as sound waves or light waves) by which messages flow between the source and the receiver |
| Decoding | process of translating a message into the thoughts or feelings that were communicated |
| Feedback | response to a message that the receiver sends to the source |
| Environment | psychological and physical surroundings in which communication occurs |
| Context | circumstances or situation in which communication occurs |
| Intrapersonal Communication | process of understanding information within oneself |
| Interpersonal Communication | informal exchange of information between two or more people |
| Dyadic communication | exchange of information between two people |
| Interview | carefully planned and executed question-and-answer session designed to exchange desired information between two parties |
| Small group Communication | exchange of information among a relatively small number of persons, usually three to thirteen, who share a common purpose |
| Public communication | transmission of a message from one person who speaks to a number of individuals who listen |
Chapter 2
Table 2
| Cognitive Complexity | the number of mental structures we use, how abstract they are, and how elaborately they interact to shape our perceptions |
| Stimulus | something that incites or quickens action, feeling, or thought |
| Selection | sorting of one stimulus from another |
| Selective Exposure | the deliberate choices we make to experience or to avoid particular stimuli |
| Selective Attention | focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring or downplaying other stimuli |
| Selective Retention | processing, storage, and retrieval of information that we have already selected, organized, and interpreted |
| Organization | categorizing stimuli in our environment in order to make sense of them |
| Figure and Ground Organization | ordering perceptions so that some stimuli are in focus and others become the background |
| Closure | filling in details so that a partially perceived entity appears to be complete |
| Proximity | grouping stimuli that are physically close to one another |
| Similarity | grouping stimuli that resemble one another in size, shape, color, or other traits |
| Interpretation | assigning meaning to stimuli |
| Perceptual Set | fixed, previously determined view of events, objects, or people |
| Stereotyping | categorizing events, objects, and people without regard to unique individual characteristics and qualities |
| Attribution | complex process through which we attempt to understand reasons behind others' behaviors (by focusing on a person's internal traits) |
| Attribution Error | occurs when we perceive others as acting as they do because they are "that kind of person" rather than because of any external factors that may have influenced their behavior |
| Culture | deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving |
| Ethnocentric | a person whose pride in his or her heritage or background leads to the conviction that he or she knows more and is better than those who differ |
| Cultural Relativism | the belief that one should strive to understand differences rather than to judge others, so that intercultural relations can develop |
| Gender | a social construct related to learned masculine and feminine behaviors |