Mindfulness, mindlessness and communication instruction

Abstract

In recent years scholars have pondered the extent to which communicators are consciously mindful of message production during interpersonal encounters. Evidence that nonconscious, or mindless, verbal behavior permeates human interaction violates the assumptions of some communication scholars and many traditional approaches to pedagogy. Advances in cognitive neurosciences and in communication theory account for both mindful and mindless communicative behavior. Suggestions are offered for integrating the mindfulness‐mindlessness concept of awareness into interpersonal communication research and pedagogy.

Keywords:

• interpersonal communication
• mindfulness
• mindlessness
• cognitive neuroscience
• pedagogy