A cognitive approach to human communication: An action assembly theory

Abstract

An essential characteristic of human communicative behavior is that it is at once novel and creative yet patterned and repetitive. This observation suggests processes of selection of memory elements and subsequent construction of novel behaviors. In an effort to explicate these processes a general theoretical framework is developed. Further, a specific theory, consistent with the general framework, is also advanced. The theory is comprised of five axioms and seventeen propositions which serve to specify the nature of the relevant structures and processes.

Notes

John O. Greene is Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California. The author wishes to thank foseph N. Cappella, Robert M. Morris, and Donald A. Norman for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper.