Mike Allen

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee | UWM · Department of Communication

Engineering programs require students to demonstrate communicative competency with a broad range of audiences across different rhetorical situations. For example, engineering entrepreneurs commonly seek funding for ideations and innovations using a presentation to potential investors. The presentation intends to convince investors to financially co...

This exploratory study investigates virtual environments (VEs) as a treatment intervention for the fear of public speaking (FoPS). Prior preliminary studies indicate fear reduction following VE simulations with few investigations examining participants' perspectives. Participants (N=17) recruited from a public speaking course participated in a virt...

This analysis investigates two differential PowerPoint slide designs-presentation and teleprompter-for multimedia learning. Eye tracking measures assessed differences in fixations. Participants demonstrated greater fixation counts for teleprompter slides, measures of aesthetic liking evidenced that slides incorporating imagery resulted in more plea...

Eye contact is considered a quintessential aspect of a speaker’s delivery when interacting with an audience. This exploratory study investigated a specific area of interest (AOI) exhibited by speakers in a technologically mediated virtual environment (VE). Such virtual immersion allows speakers to present to audience members and utilize their speak...

This study explores the relationship between public speaking anxiety (PSA) and Imaginary Interactions (IIs). Participants ( N = 17) were recruited from the multi-section departmental introductory public speaking course. Virtual reality (VR) as a potential form of II treatment for PSA blurs the reality between imagined and actual interactions. This...

This meta-analysis compared the educational impact of the method of notetaking in the college classroom – hand written or using electronic device. The findings involved 14 studies combining 3,075 participants demonstrated that using electronic notetaking methods reduced measured outcomes (average r = −.142). Using the Binomial Effect Size Display,...

Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends communication using technological medium(s). For the target of ghosting, the noninitiator, the action usually creates an incomplete account of the loss. This investigation explores the non-initiators’ retroactive rationalization of ghosting as loss. Utilizing...

Addressing student public speaking anxiety (PSA) through an introductory speaking course is a fundamental pedagogical touchpoint. The current study replicates and extends PSA research by seeking to understand the nature of change in PSA that students experience. Results indicate that students’ fears and anxieties regarding public speaking change be...

This study examined how group members with differential levels (highest, middle, and lowest) of ability contributed to argumentative communication while facilitating a cooperative learning process in a small group communication course. Results demonstrated that during discussions: (1) highest ability members utilized more evidence than middle or lo...

Most research focusing on the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter in US classrooms employs a linguistic perspective. The present study furthers that research by examining other challenges unique to ITAs, through the lens of the intercultural competence framework. Through individual interviews with fifteen ITAs, the st...

The purpose of this study is to examine relational dissolution using the technique of ghosting. This qualitative study explores the emerging adults’ dissolution strategies leading up to and through enactment of disengagement through mediated contexts. Participants (N = 99) completed questionnaires about their ghosting familiarity and participation...

This study catalogues student (N = 828) self-described fears related to public speaking. Specifically, this investigation adds to the knowledge of public speaking anxiety through an initial inductive analysis of students’ fears about public speaking and a second analysis (of different data) to authenticate emergent categories. Resulting categories...

This paper provides an assessment of Master’s degree programs and faculty research in Communication departments using citations available in Google Scholar. Identification of the Master’s degree programs relied on the National Communication Association website. Individual faculty were identified from the web page of the department for the instituti...

The current investigation examines the communicative hallmarks of successful chaplaincy work as articulated by professional chaplains providing spiritual care at the end-of-life. Data grounded in qualitative interviews with 32 chaplains of various denominations and lengths of service reveals a challenge in gauging success when working with dying pa...

The meta-analysis combines 230 investigations of counterattitudinal advocacy (CAA). The results indicate that CAA efforts are effective [Inline formula]. Effect sizes varied little across four different methods of CAA induction (choice, task commitment, publicity, argument source). However, an additive cues model (ACM) demonstrates that as the numb...

Recently, Kim, Levine, and Allen have successfully demonstrated that the intertwined model of psychological reactance is applicable for message features other than freedom threat (i.e., personal insult, poor argument). The supporting evidence was obtained where resistance prevailed. The current study further extends the utility of the intertwined m...

The theory of motivated information management (TMIM) provides one framework to examine information-seeking behaviors, especially in conversations involving sensitive or difficult information such as preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care. The spouse plays a significant role in decision making surrounding EOL care. Consequently, individuals need in...

This study examined teaching assistant’s immediacy in lecture/laboratory and self-contained classes. Two hundred fifty-six students responded to instruments measuring teachers’ immediacy behavior frequency, perceptions of instruction quality, and cognitive learning. No significant difference was identified when comparing lecture/laboratory and self...

A qualitative cross-cultural comparison of native Japanese and Caucasian American women was used to examine whether the women critically processed magazine images differently. Four focus groups were used to generate data (n = 19). The data analysis revealed that the native Japanese women viewed magazine images holistically, whereas the Caucasian Am...

The present study compared American and Japanese user practices on social networking sites (SNSs). Analysis focused on self-presentation such as posting party and drinking pictures on SNSs. A total of 1,079 college students (583 American and 496 Japanese) participated in the survey, which provided the basis for analysis. The results of the study de...

This investigation compares whether an intertwined or a separate process model better explains message failure incurred by threat to freedom. The current project extends the intertwined model proposed by Dillard and Shen (200513. Dillard , J. P. , & Shen , L. ( 2005 ). On the nature of reactance and its role in persuasive health communication . C...

This meta-analysis examined the impact of a mother's decision to disclose her HIV positive serostatus to her children. Results indicated that disclosure to a child improves the parent–child relationship (average r = +.171). There was a corresponding increase in internalized negative emotions (average r = +.108) and negative externalized behaviors (...

Chaplains provide a much-needed service to patients and families requiring spiritual care in the healthcare setting. Despite evidence documenting improvements quality of life for patients using spiritual services, chaplains experience challenges in translating the benefits they provide into concepts understood by patients, team members, and adminis...

This investigation compares 398 Spanish student and 481 Thai student perceptions of instructor credibility. The findings indicate a unidimensional construct shared in common by both cultures where instructor source credibility constitutes a second order factor that combines the three factors of: (a) competence, (b) trustworthiness, and (c) goodwill...

Meta-analyses provide support for the improved persuasiveness of a message including: (a) evidence source qualification, (b) assertive evidence, and (c) statistical over narrative evidence. The current empirical examination seeks to determine whether the persuasiveness of a message represents the additive effect of the individual message elements....

The present study examined Japanese college students’ ( N  = 476) use of sexually explicit material (SEM) and associations with perceptions of women as sex objects and sexually permissive attitudes. Results indicate that Japanese college students used print media most frequently as a source for SEM followed by the Internet and the television/video/...

Early developments in WSNs focused on minimizing the physical size and energy footprint of the nodes, and on exploring the opportunities and problems introduced by very large networks of low-cost nodes. In practice, however, deploying or testing systems at this scale has not been practical. At smaller scales, extreme resource constraints are often...

This chapter introduces the design for deployment process, emphasizing the importance of gathering application requirements, applying a sound testing strategy and debriefing post-deployment. A set of key WSN design parameters are identified and explained in the context of the real deployments described in Part II. A case is made for deploying itera...

The chapter introduces the topical focus and aims of the book. The book's practical, experience driven outlook onto the domain of embedded wireless net-worked sensing systems is justified and the potential gains for the reader are highlighted. The authors promote the adoption of a deployment based, experiential research approach as key to the succe...

Prenatal care has been promoted in the United States as a significant factor in reducing negative birth outcomes since the early 1900s (Brown, 1988). During the 1990s, prenatal care usage enjoyed a modest, but steady increase (Martin, et al., 2006). However, this increase may have reached a plateau. In both 2004 and 2005 no significant increases we...

In the context of patients visiting cancer specialists, the objective is to test the association between both patient-centered communication (including Affective Behavior and Participation Behavior) and Instrumental Behavior and patients' post-visit satisfaction with a variety of visit phenomena. Meta-analysis of 25 articles representing 10 distinc...

A meta‐analysis comparing the persuasiveness of one‐sided and two‐sided messages was conducted. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model it was hypothesized that audience favorability would moderate the effectiveness of the messages. However, the Discounting Hypothesis predicted increased persuasiveness for the two‐sided message. The analysis indi...

A meta-analysis involving 134 estimates of the relationship of self-efficacy (belief in one's ability to perform a behavior) and response-efficacy (belief that a response will be effective) to reduce risk for HIV infection was conducted. Witte's Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM) for fear appeals suggests that both of these elements would be...

This study assesses the relationship between communication apprehension (CA) and factors of perceived communication situational frequency and communication situational importance. The results reveal a trend demonstrating that the more often a person encounters and the more important a person feels about the particular communication, then the less C...

This meta-analysis (k = 35, N = 11,629) examines the effect that listening to music, particularly popular music, has on consumers. Results demonstrate that listening to music generates an effect on listeners consistent with the content of the music (average r = .210, k = 35, N = 11,629). This effect was similar when considering survey research (r =...

A central concern of persons in HIV education and prevention is whether a person testing positive tells sexual partners of this result. An accumulation of 51 studies across twenty years reveals that 40% of persons testing positive for HIV antibodies did not reveal this result to sexual partners (5287/8854). The impact of various factors (age, gende...

Earlier studies on identity have reported that North Americans and East Asians have very distinct views of self. While North Americans related consistency, stability, and clarity of self to high self-esteem, good social adjustment, and strong true self, East Asians, who tended to contextualize their identity and demonstrate high inconsistency and l...

Knowledge equity is a concept which can mean different things to different people. This research project addresses fair access to knowledge in organizational settings and develops a comprehensive view of knowledge equity within organizational units. The aim of the project is to explore attitudes toward knowledge equity, examine the cultural affects...

The results of the investigations providing data on the connection between measures of sexual arousal and positive psychological affect indicate a positive relationship whether measured directly (r=.212) or by a comparison of manipulation check data (r=.223). Female research participants demonstrate more negative emotional responses than men expose...

This meta-analysis of nine studies compares courses with and without a service learning component on the basis of the amount of learning. The summary finds that the addition of a service learning component increases learning outcomes (d = .424). Using the Binomial Effect Size Display, this improvement translates into about a 53% improvement. The im...

A meta-analysis of 26 studies was conducted to assess whether more complex forms of psychotherapy would be superior to control treatments of either biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, or both. Consistent with hypotheses, more complex treatments provided a small, significant improvement over biofeedback and progressive muscle relaxation (r =...

This investigation developed and tested a theoretical model using data from a field study evaluating the utility of court-ordered divorce mediation. Couples who had filed for divorce with child custody disputes evaluated the process of mediation as a means of settling their arguments rather than relying on the court system to resolve their conflict...

This paper is a meta-analytic review of the base-rate fallacy in persuasion research. The base-rate fallacy argues that individuals provided a set of statistical conclusions are unable to successfully utilize the statistical information when encountering contrary examples in a message. The meta-analysis provides empirical support for that claim. Re...

This is a unique investigation that is particular to the needs of this special issue of Human Communication Research (HCR). Specifically, this study analyzes the media effects research that has been published in HCR during the past 25 years via meta-analysis. Numerous significant findings point to various themes and trends regarding media research...

This paper quantitatively summarizes the literature examining the association between acceptance of rape myths and exposure to pornography. In this meta-analysis, nonexperimental methodology shows almost no effect (exposure to pornography does not increase rape myth acceptance), while experimental studies show positive effect (exposure to pornograp...

A meta-analysis considered 59 quantitative studies containing data concerned with partisan media bias in presidential election campaigns since 1948. Types of bias considered were gatekeeping bias, which is the preference for selecting stories from one party or the other; coverage bias, which considers the relative amounts of coverage each party rec...

This report uses meta-analysis to derive correlations between the variables of teacher immediacy, cognitive learning, and affective learning. A model was constructed such that the perception of teacher immediacy, a behavior, generates an intermediate outcome of affect, a motivation, which in turn increases cognitive learning outcome. The data acros...

This book focuses on safer sex discussion and practice in close, personal relationships, emphasizing research on individuals in personal relationship types that are experiencing a rise in HIV infection and AIDS. Moving beyond studies of gay adult males and IV drug-users, this work paints a clear picture of the very real risk that exists for these l...

This article uses meta-analysis to summarize the quantitative literature comparing the performance of students in distance education versus traditional classes. The average effect (average r= .048, k= 39, N= 71,731) demonstrates that distance education course students slightly outperformed traditional students on exams and course grades. The averag...

The fear appeal literature is examined in a comprehensive synthesis using metaanalytical techniques. The meta-analysis suggests that strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived severity and susceptibility, and are more persuasive than low or weak fear appeals. The results also indicate that fear appeal motivate adaptive danger control acti...

This meta-analysis reviews the findings of 81 studies (N=24,474) examining the relationship between teachers' verbal or nonverbal immediacy (or both) and students' learning outcomes. The cumulative evidence indicates meaningful correlations between teachers' nonverbal immediacy and student reports of perceived learning (r=.51) and affective learnin...

A meta‐analysis examined eleven studies examining the relationship between social skills (communication competence) and whether the person was a sexual offender (rapist, molester, incest offender, pedophile, exhibitionist). After the removal of one study due to methodological reasons, the remaining ten studies provide a homogeneous set of effects d...

This investigation summarizes existing research on peer mediation outcomes in school-based settings. The meta-analytic review examines the outcomes associated with incorporating a mediation program to manage school conflict. Results indicate a 93 percent agreement rate and that 88 percent of the participants were satisfied with the agreements reach...

This meta-analysis summarizes the available data concerning the impact that the public announcement that Earvin "Magic" Johnson, a National Basketball Association All-Star, had tested positive for HIV. The results demonstrate that the announcement increased the level of accurate knowledge in persons, the number of persons getting tested for HIV, an...

This literature summary, using meta-analysis, compares the influence of parents versus peers on substance use. The data indicated that the average relationship for peer effects on substance use was larger than the effect for parental influence. Several moderating influences (such as youth age and type of substance) are considered. The findings indi...

Well-known literature reviews from the 1960s question whether cognitive dissonance underlies experimental participants' selective exposure of themselves to consonant messages and avoidance of dissonant ones. A meta-analytic review of 16 studies published from 1956 to 1996 and involving 1,922 total participants shows that experimental tests consiste...

Well-known literature reviews from the 1960s question whether cognitive dissonance underlies experimental participants' selective exposure of themselves to consonant messages and avoidance of dissonant ones. A meta-analytic review of 16 studies published from 1956 to 1996 and involving 1,922 total participants shows that experimental tests consiste...

Meta-analysis provides a method of quantitatively summarizing and comparing empirical literature to reduce Type I and Type II error. The meta-analysis described here indicates a slight student preference for a traditional educational format over a distance education format (average r = .031, after the deletion of outliers), and little difference in...

O'Keefe's (1987) meta‐analysis concluded that the relative advantage for a high credible source was diminished when the identification of the source occurred after the message. Two replications using 1945 subjects and a total of 12 messages confirm this finding but provide a smaller estimate (r = .093 for this investigation while O'Keefe reports an...

This essay is a review of four projects that use meta‐analysis to summarize existing research on four behavioral issues for HIV/AIDS education and prevention. The first project considers the importance of behavioral routines to promote safer sex behavior and the need to consider how the gender of the participant impact on those discussions. The sec...

The fear appeal literature is examined in a comprehensive synthesis using meta-analytical techniques. The meta-analysis suggests that strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived severity and susceptibility, and are more persuasive than low or weak fear appeals. The results also indicate that fear appeals motivate adaptive danger control ac...

A meta-analysis was conducted to determine whether the relative magnitude of common factor and specific treatment effects was related to the classes of outcome domain (subjective well-being, symptoms, and life functioning) described in Howard, Lueger, Maling, and Martinovitch's 1993 phase model of psychotherapy. Effect sizes were calculated for 80...

This study provides an experimental test for the conclusions of the Allen and Preiss (1997) meta‐analysis that statistical evidence is more persuasive than narrative evidence. This investigation extends that finding to consider the case where a message combines statistical and narrative evidence to determine if a combination of evidence is more eff...

This study examines whether or not the subjective probability model accurately predicts the beliefs of an individual for circumstances of a single event with multiple causes. The mathematical model specified by the subjective probability model continues to provide some degree of prediction for beliefs prior to the exposure to a message. After expos...

This study investigates the internal dimensions of the Organizational Identification Questionnaire (OIQ). Results of factorial analytic tests of cross-sectional and longitudinal data indicate that the OIQ is unidimensional across organizations and time, but that only 12 of 25 items contribute meaningfully to the scale. Furthermore, these 12 items e...

This article challenges current interpersonal deception literature by summarizing seven studies that examined the ability of members to detect deception in the context of organizational processes. The combined effect (r = .472) indicated that organizational members are able to differentiate honest from dishonest communicators. According to the Bino...

Using data gathered through a meta-analysis, this study tests a path model representing variables that relate to sexual coercion. Specifically, sex, attitudes toward women, past/current relationship, alcohol, coercion strategies, victim resistance, and rape justifiability were proposed and their effects examined. Results indicated that the level of...

In the ongoing debate between two organizations in higher education, the National Association of Scholars and Teachers for Democratic Culture, the rhetorical position of each side resemble those of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union of the 1950s and 1960s, where each side created a mirror image of the other based on ethnoce...

This meta‐analysis considers the impact of various methods of improving public communication skills on critical thinking. The results indicate that communication instruction improves the critical thinking ability of the participants (longitudinal designs r= .18, cross‐sectional designs r= .20). Forensic participation demonstrated the largest positi...

This literature review summarizes the existing research examining how the attitude a potential juror has toward the death penalty impacts on the probability of favoring conviction. The summary of 14 investigations indicates that a favorable attitude toward the death penalty is associated with an increased willingness to convict (average r = .174)....

Sigman (1991) proposed that relationships are continuous despite discontinuous periods of physical and interactional co-presence and that couples manage the discontinuous aspects of social relationships by using Relational Continuity Constructional Units (RCCUs). RCCUs are actions or behaviors that couples do before, during, or after an absence to...

A recent meta‐analysis of gender differences in the selection of conflict management strategies revealed small effect sizes. To explore the possibility that the primary experiments used situations and instances containing embedded gender expectations, 49 participants completed a survey evaluating the actual scenarios used in the primary research. T...

This article summarizes published experimental studies dealing with the use of video taping to provide feedback to students in public speaking courses. Meta‐analytic procedures were used to summarize twelve published studies. Results of the analysis indicate that the use of videotaping to provide feedback to students in public speaking courses resu...

A quantitative summary of 15 studies indicates that African‐American/ Latino students receive more negative feedback and less praise from teachers in the classroom than Euro‐American students. In addition, teachers interact less frequently with African‐American/Latino students than Euro‐American students in the classroom. The results indicate a pot...

A meta-analysis explored the association between past studies on intercultural communication effectiveness and intercultural communication competence, and examined the relationship between knowledge-based and skill-based attributes in predicting intercultural communication competence. A total of 16 studies met the criteria of having recoverable qua...

A meta‐analysis was used to summarize the existing research on methods of reducing heterosexual dating anxiety. Twenty studies were identified as relevant for this analysis. The average positive effect (r = .336) demonstrates that intervention techniques successfully reduce dating anxiety and increase the dating behavior of the participants. The im...