The Effects of Imagined Interaction and Planning on Speech Fluency and Message Strategy Selection.

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the impact that preprocessing of conversation episodes has on speech fluency and message strategy selection. This study sought to define imagined interaction activity as a precommunicative mental rehearsal strategy. The primary focus of the present investigation was to link the rehearsal function of imagined interaction to preplanning for anticipated encounters. The present investigation used an experimental design that included two independent variables; (1) induced rehearsal; and (2) an individual tendency to rehearse mentally, operationalized via imagined interaction. Five variables served as dependent measures for the present investigation. Three pausal variables were examined: (1) silent; (2) ah; and (3) non-ah. Speech onset latency and message strategy use (O\u27Hair & Cody, 1987) also served as dependent variables. Results indicated that there were significant main effects for silent pauses for both of the independent variables. Results also indicated that there were significant main effects for message strategy use for both of the independent variables. Main effects for onset latency were found to be significant in the induced rehearsal condition only. Conclusions for the present investigation are discussed in terms of planning for anticipated encounters