COMMUNICATION VAGUENESS DICTIONARY – BY J.H. HILLER

 

DESCRIPTION

Vagueness is a psychological construct which refers to the ‘state of mind’ of a communicator who does not sufficiently command the facts, knowledge, or understanding required for maximally effective communication. Vagueness is an internal stimulus condition principally determined by a performer’s instant command of knowledge, by his motivation to communicate, and by his own evaluation of imperfect success. Use of the words and phrases in the Vagueness dictionary provide the analyst with a clue to the communicator’s vague state of cognition. to uncertainty of facts and/or understanding of the thought underlying the communication. So, for example, when a speaker hesitates and then says, Well, as “you all know,” and “you know,” or says, “clearly,” “obviously,” or “naturally,” the analyst may infer that most folks in the audience do not know, and the reasons are not clear to the speaker, so that the speaker has opted to bluff his way through the topic to be addressed.

 

Ten separate categories of vagueness have been defined to permit an optional finer analysis of the nature of the vagueness exhibited (see table below).

 

SCALES DESCRIPTION EXAMPLES  ITEMS
Ambiguous Designation Something potentially specifiable is referred but not definitely identified. somewhere, stuff,
a certain, and so on
50
Negated Intensifiers Negations can be evasions. not always, not quite, isn’t necessarily 57
Approximation Use reflects real or referential vagueness or imprecise knowledge. nearly, sort of, fairly, almost, pretty much 35
Bluffing and Recovery Used when a writer is not communicating effectively and tries to shift responsibility for making sense of content to the reader. actually, anyway,
as a matter of fact,
of course
53
Admission of Error Repeated admissions indicate lack of confidence or lack of competence. I made a mistake,
maybe, I don’t know
20
Indefinite Amount An amount is potentially knowable but is not specified. a bit, a bunch, a couple, a little, some 29
Multiplicity Pseudospecification or glossing over of complexity. aspects, types, lots, factors, kinds 35
Probability and Possibility Indicates lack of clarity or lack of definite knowledge. at times, could be, generally, perhaps 33
Reservations Expressions of doubt or reluctance to commit to a definite point of view. apparently, appears, relatively, seems. 35
Anaphora Excessive and repetitious use of pronouns rather than direct references makes content more difficult to follow. former, she, she, it, latter, other, them 14

 

The scale was originally developed to analyze university lecture delivery but can also be used to detect vagueness in other sources.

 

WORDSTAT FORMAT

The WordStat format contains 362 words and phrases stored in 10 categories. An analysis at the first level gives a global score on the total of those items. Setting the level of analysis to 2 provides scores for the 10 subscales.

 

MAIN REFERENCES

  • Hiller, J.H., Marcotte, D., & Martin, T. (1969). Opinionation, vagueness, and specificity-distinctions: Essay traits measured by computer. American Educational Research Journal, 6(2), 271-286.

 

Abstract: Three characteristics of writing quality were selected for study from among the many discussed in English texts on the assumption that single words or discrete phrases reliably cue the presence of such characteristics in essays. A set of 256 graded essays was searched by computer for cues, and the measures thus obtained were correlated with the essay grades. All predicted correlations were significant at p < .01.

  • Hiller, J. H., Fisher, G. A., & Kaess, W. (1969). A Computer Investigation of Verbal Characteristics of Effective Classroom Lecturing. American Educational Research Journal, 6(4), 661-675.

 

Abstract: After the research on essay grading, the Vagueness construct was applied to data collected by the Stanford Explanation Project (se Gage, N.L, Belgard, M. Dell, D., Hiller, J., Rosenshine, B., and Unrah, W, “Explorations in the Teachers Effectiveness in Explaining.” Tech. Report 4 of the Stanford Center for R&D in Teaching, School of Education, Stanford University, 1968). Teachers delivered self-prepared lectures to their regular classrooms of students based on two magazine articles, one about Thailand and the other about Yugoslavia. Their students were administered standardized, objectively scored multiple choice knowledge tests after the lectures whose scores served as the criterion for teacher performance. The class test scores were refined by covarying out class performance on a test for a third lesson (on Israel) that was delivered by a single lecture recorded by a professional speaker, thus removing variance having to do with more or less able and motivated individual classrooms of students. In the available sample of 32 lectures about Yugoslavia, the correlation between proportion of Vagueness items in the lectures (vagueness items counted divided by total number of words for the given lecture) and the test scores was -,59 (p < .005), and in the available subsample for the Thailand lecture, the correlation was -. 48, N= 23, p < .05

  • Hiller, J.H. (1971). Verbal response indicators of conceptual vagueness. American Educational Research Journal. 8(1), 151-161.

 

Abstract: The plight of being caught without a needed word while speaking or writing is a common experience. A sudden lapse in memory or momentary confusion may underlie the difficulty. Or the problem may arise when a speaker, in the midst of expression, discovers he doesn’t command the knowledge required to complete his gambit. This paper presents an analysis of the verbal behavior of the speaker or writer confronted with the immediate necessity to express himself while he struggles against one or more such handicaps. The key term in this analysis—vagueness—is defined here, after which evidence obtained in two correlational studies is reviewed and then recent experimental evidence reported.

 

STUDIES USING THE COMMUNICATION VAGUENESS SCALE

  • Andre, M.E.D.A. & Anderson, T.H. (1979). Development and evaluation of a self-questioning study technique. Reading Research Quarterly, 14(4), 605-623.
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  • Carrier, C.A. & Fautschpatridge, T. (1981). Levels of Questions: A framework for the exploration of processing activities.Contemporary Educational Psychology, 6(4), 364-382.

 

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