the interpersonal perception task-15 (ipt-15)

This woman is: This woman and young boy are: a. Telling the truth a. Strangers who have never met before b. Telling a lie b. Mother and son

THE INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK-15 (IPT-15)

A Guide for Researchers and Teachers

Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer1

The IPT-15 is available from:

Berkeley Media LLC Email: [email protected] Zaentz Film Center Phone: 510-486-99002600 Tenth Street, Suite 626 Fax: 510-486-9944Berkeley, CA 94710-2522 Web: http://www.berkeleymedia.com

INTRODUCTION TO THE IPT-15

The IPT-15 was developed in response to comments from users of the originalInterpersonal Perception Task (IPT). It is a shorter, less difficult version of the original. Thisnew version also meets higher standards of reliability and validity. Instead of 30 scenes, theIPT-15 has 15 scenes, thereby cutting administration time in half (from 40 minutes to 20minutes). For researchers, the briefer IPT-15 can be more easily included in research projectsusing multiple measures or a battery of tests. For teachers, the IPT-15 video allows for a quickerdemonstration of essential principles of human communication and social perception.

1Mark Costanzo (Ph.D., University of California) is Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKennaCollege, 850 Columbia Ave, Claremont, California 91711.Dane Archer (Ph.D., Harvard) is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz,California 95064.Copyright 1993 by Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer.

Interpersonal Perception Task-15

Another major advantage of the IPT-15 is that it includes only the "best" 15 scenes from theoriginal IPT. In the original version, accuracy rates for two scenes were below what would beexpected by chance and, for three other scenes, accuracy rates were only marginally above chance. Incontrast, all of the scenes in the IPT-15 have accuracy rates substantially above chance. Contentcoding of these 15 scenes indicates that every scene contains a variety of verbal and nonverbal cuesthat disclose the correct interpretation. Although the IPT-15 is briefer, the range of interactionsdepicted has been preserved. All five areas represented in the original (deception, intimacy, status,kinship, and competition) are also represented in the revision.

ABOUT NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

Humans communicate in many ways, and words are only one. The rich repertoire of nonverbalbehavior includes all human communication other than words themselves. Nonverbal communicationoccurs in many different "channels": facial expression, eye contact, "proxemics" (how we usepersonal space), "kinesics" (our gestures and body movements), and "vocal paralanguage" how wesay what we say). Sometimes verbal and nonverbal communication are combined to form a message--e.g., when we use sarcasm to say something like, "I am really glad to be back at work." We usespecial emphasis in our voice (e.g., intonation) and in our facial expressions (e.g., arched eyebrows)to show the listener that we really mean the opposite of what we say. In most interactions, each of usplays both the role of "encoder" and the role of "decoder"--we both produce communication (verbaland nonverbal) directed at others, and we interpret the communication (verbal and nonverbal)produced by other people.

In addition to investigating the meaning of specific nonverbal cues, researchers areinvestigating the process of interpretation--how we use nonverbal cues to form impressions and reachconclusions about others. Correct interpretation is a remarkable feat, because in any interaction,hundreds or even thousands of verbal and nonverbal cues stream by us, vanishing in milliseconds.How do we discard most of these cues, seizing on the few (e.g., a momentary facial expression, avocal inflection, a fleeting gesture) that tell us what another person means or is feeling? The processof interpretation is one of the most impressive and least understood of human abilities (Archer &Akert, in preparation).

The study of verbal and nonverbal communication has assumed a prominent role inpsychological research during the past two decades (Knapp & Hall, 1992). Nonverbal behaviordiscloses critical information about emotions and relationships (Hickson & Stacks, 1985), and evenbarely perceptible nonverbal behaviors can have interpretable meaning. For example, we are able torecognize a person's facial expressions of emotion from as little as a 1/24th second exposure(Rosenthal, Hall, DiMatteo, Rogers, & Archer, 1979) and it is often possible to interpret otherpeople's behavior, feelings, and relationships from something as simple as a photograph (Archer,1980). Nonverbal cues are often more powerful and reliable than verbal cues (Archer & Akert,1984). There is now evidence that the ability to decode verbal and nonverbal cues can be improvedthrough training (Costanzo, 1992).

More broadly, the ability to interpret verbal and nonverbal behavior is closely related to theconcept of "social intelligence." A key refinement in recent theories of intelligence (Gardner, 1983;Sternberg, 1988) has been increased recognition of the importance of social or interpersonal forms ofintelligence. There is compelling psychometric evidence that social intelligence is distinct from othercompetencies (Ford & Tisak, 1983; Marlowe, 1986) and, when asked to define intelligence, bothexperts and nonexperts emphasize interpersonal competence as an essential feature of intelligent


functioning (Sternberg, Conway, Ketron & Bernstein, 1981). Although there is no broad consensusabout what constitutes social intelligence, a key element of definitions has been the ability to gather andprocess information about others. Theorists have emphasized the ability to: "understand and act wiselyin relating to others" (Thorndike, 1920, p.229), ' judge correctly the feelings, moods, and motivations ofothers" (Wedeck, 1947, p.136), and "notice and make distinctions among other individuals" (Gardner,1983, p.239). Although social intelligence is a multidimensional construct with many manifestations,the ability to interpret expressive behavior (both verbal and nonverbal) is clearly a core component.

THE DESIGN OF THE IPT-15

The IPT-15 is a tool for exploring human communication and social perception. It consists of avideotape divided into 15 brief (28 to 122-second) scenes. Each scene is paired with a question that hastwo or three possible answers--this gives the viewer a chance to "decode" something important aboutthe people he or she has just seen. The design of the IPT-15 is best conveyed by describing a few of thescenes. For example, the first scene shows two adults (a male and a female) having a conversation withtwo seven-year-old children. The question corresponding to this scene is "Who is the child of the twoadults?" Another scene shows a woman first telling her true life story, and then, after a pause, telling acompletely fabricated version of her life story. The question posed of viewers is "Which is the lie andwhich is the truth?" In a third scene, two men discuss a game of racquetball they have just finishedplaying; viewers are asked to decide which man won the game. For every scene there is an objectivelycorrect answer which can be verified against an external standard--in the examples just mentioned, oneof the children is in fact the child of the two adults; one of the two men did just win the racquetballgame; and one of the woman's two versions of her life story is in fact a lie.

Every scene is paired with a multiple-choice question that has two or three possible answers. Thequestions appear on the screen before each scene. Viewers are asked to reach a conclusion about thepeople who appear in the scene that follows. A brief blank interval on the videotape enables viewers .toenter their response on the answer sheet after each scene. The multiple choice questions wereconstructed to have unambiguously correct answers. For example, rather than ask which of two men inone of the scenes is "happy" (a subjective state), we asked which of the two men had just won thebasketball game they played (an objective question).

The IPT-15 has four other important design features:

1) In every scene, clues to correct interpretation can be found in a variety of channels. The IPT-15challenges viewers to identify the right answer to each question by using the broad range of cuespresent in each scene--facial expressions, words, tones of voice, hesitations, eye movements, gestures,personal space, posture, and touching. These cues occur simultaneously in the scenes, just as they do ineveryday life.

2) All scenes contain spontaneous behavior and unscripted conversation. The 15 brief scenes wereextracted from much longer (10 to 22 minute) videotaped interactions.

3) Twenty-nine different encoders (12 females and 17 males ranging in age from 18 months to 67years) appear in the videotape. Each scene shows one to four people.

4) Viewers are asked to reach conclusions about five categories of social interaction: status, kinship,intimacy, competition, and deception. There are three scenes for each of these areas.


RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY STATISTICS FOR RESEARCHERS.

The IPT-15 has been shown to be both valid and reliable, and previous research indicates thatperformance on the task relates to social skills that are important in everyday life. A thoroughdescription of the development, design, reliability, and validity of the original IPT can be found inCostanzo and Archer (1989). Reliability and validity statistics for the scenes in the IPT-15 aresummarized below. Table 1 on page 6 displays the question accompanying each scene, the scene typerepresented by each scene (status, kinship, intimacy, competition, or deception), the accuracy rateexpected by chance for every scene, overall accuracy rates for a norm group of 530 people, accuracyrates for males and females, and the results of a content analysis of the verbal and nonverbal cues ineach scene (this analysis is discussed below).

The multiple-choice format of the IPT-15 makes it possible to determine whether viewers aremore accurate than chance alone would predict. Of course, for scenes with two possible answers, 50%of the viewers should get the right answer by chance alone and, for scenes with three possible answers,33% of the viewers would be expected to choose the right answer to the question merely by guessing. Ifperformance exceeds chance levels of accuracy, it indicates that viewers are able to use the verbal andnonverbal cues in the scene to reach the correct answer. This information can also be used to identifyscenes that are relatively easy or hard.

As can be seen in Table 1, performance on the IPT-15 scenes is significantly above chance levelsof accuracy for every scene. The data in table 1 indicate that the scenes contain useful, interpretablecues that enable viewers to determine the correct answers. In other words, people are systematicallychoosing the correct answers, and not "merely guessing" when they answer the questions. The meantotal score for the norm group was 9.86 (SD=2.13). The overall score expected by chance alone is 6.33.

Many social scientists are interested in what kinds of people are good "readers" of nonverbalcommunication. For example, Rosenthal and his colleagues (Rosenthal, et al., 1974; Rosenthal, et al.,1979) were among the first to report that women were significantly more accurate than men atdecoding nonverbal behavior. This conclusion has now been supported by a large body of research(see Hall, 1985). Research with the IPT-15 also supports this conclusion. Gender differences wereconsistent--as can be seen in table 1 women were more accurate than men on all but one scene.Overall, women had a mean of 10.19 (SD=1.70) correct answers, while men had a mean of 9.36(SD=2.56) correct answers (t = 4.42, p < .001). In addition, women were significantly more accuratethan men on four of the scene types--status, kinship, intimacy, and deception. Accuracy for malesand females did not differ significantly for the competition scenes.

These results indicate that women are somewhat better at decoding the verbal and nonverbalcues in the IPT-15 -- either because they detect more cues or, perhaps, because they interpret whatthey detect differently. It is likely that this decoding advantage is largely due to socializationpractices which emphasize interpersonal skills in females (Hall, 1987). Interestingly, some researchindicates that although females outperform males on the IPT-15, males are significantly moreconfident than females that they are performing well. Males also appear to benefit more from trainingdesigned to improve decoding ability (Costanzo, 1992).

To investigate the content validity of the IPT-15, a series of codes were developed usingfindings from research on the five scene types in the IPT-15. For example, research on interactionbetween status unequals finds that the lower status person tends to assume a more formal or rigidposture; to display a more constricted range of movement; to be more visually attentive than the


higher status person, and to assume less control over the direction of the conversation (e.g., Henley,1977; Knapp & Hall, 1992). Research findings were used to create simple codes, and three raters(who were blind to both the IPT-15 answers and questions) independently coded the behaviors of theparticipants in 13 of the IPT-15 scenes. Two scenes could not be coded due to lack of relevantprevious research (e.g., the scene showing a single person engaged in a telephone conversation).

The number of coding judgments depended on the number of predicted behaviors that could beidentified from previous research. The correspondence between the predicted cues and the cuesfound in the scenes by coders is reported in the final column of Table 1. Inter judge reliability washigh (roughly .81), and the median agreement (between the behaviors predicted by the literature andthe behaviors actually coded from the videotape) was 83.3%. This suggests that even though thevideotaped behavior is unscripted and spontaneous, all scenes provide valid samples of the behaviorsthat typically characterize the types of interactions depicted in the IPT-15.

Test-retest reliability was assessed in a study of 52 university students given the IPT-15 twicewith a test-retest interval of five weeks. In this study, the retest reliability coefficient was .73,comparable to retest values found in earlier person perception tasks (e.g., Rosenthal, et al., 1979),and slightly higher than the test-retest coefficient for the original IPT. In an analysis of internalconsistency, using IPT-15 data from 530 individuals, the obtained value of KR-20 was .38, perhapsreflecting both the diversity of the items, and also the fact that the IPT-15 has only 15 items--the"effective reliability" is influenced by the number of items in an instrument (Rosenthal et al., 1979, p.74). For example, Rosenthal et al., found an overall KR-20 value of .86 working with an instrument220 items in length. The much shorter 20-item subscales, however, had a median KR-20 value of.35 before adjustment using the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula.

In a study of construct validity, 18 female university students living on the same floor of auniversity dormitory completed peer ratings regarding one another. Each person rated all the otherson four dimensions of perceived interpersonal sensitivity--"Is able to correctly interpret thenonverbal behavior of others"; "Is sensitive to the feelings of others"; "Is responsive to the feelingsof others"; and "Is good at dealing with other people". These four sensitivity items were all highlyrelated (with a mean inter-item correlation of .78) and all four were combined into a single"Interpersonal Sensitivity" score. The 18 women were given the IPT-15, and their scores weresignificantly correlated with the interpersonal sensitivity ratings the women received from theirpeers (r =.64, p < .005). This suggests that individuals judged by peers as more sensitive to otherpeople tend to have higher accuracy scores on the IPT-15--that is, performance on the IPT-15 isrelated to social skills important in everyday life.

In summary, the results of several studies attest to the validity of the IPT-15: Accuracy ratesfor all scenes significantly exceed levels expected by chance; content analysis has demonstratedthat the cues necessary for correct interpretation are present in every scene; and scores are stronglyassociated with peer ratings of interpersonal sensitivity and social skills.

Published studies that make use of the IPT include: Costanzo (1992); and Smith, Archer, andCostanzo (1991). Researchers may want to read the section "Six Instructional Uses of the IPT-15".This section may suggest some possible ways of using the IPT-15 as a research tool.

TABLE 1

Question Accompanying SceneSceneType

ChanceAccuracy+

(in %)

AccuracyRate

(in %)

MatchBetween

Predicted &Coded Cues

Total Males Females

1. Who is the child of the two adults? (K) 33.3 63.9 61.9 65.3 93.3

2. What is the relationship between theman and woman?

(I) 50.0 89.6 85.6 92.4 67.2

3. Which person is the other person'sboss?

(S) 50.0 82.8 75.9 87.5 77.8

4. Which is the lie and which is thetruth?

(D) 33.3 44.9 40.7 47.8 90.5

5. Who won the game of one-on-onebasketball?

(C) 50.0 79.2 76.9 80.9 100.0

6. What is the relationship between theman and woman?

(K) 50.0 79.1 75.5 81.5 ----

7. In which scene is the woman talkingto her boss?

(S) 50.0 70.6 69.0 71.7 77.8

8. Who won the racquetball game? (C) 50.0 72.1 73.6 71.0 83.3

9. Who are the women talking to? (I) 33.3 45.1 41.7 47.5 88.9


(D) 33.3 62.6 62.0 63.1 77.8

11. Which person is the other person'sboss?

(S) 50.0 58.8 56.8 59.9 71.4

12. Who won the fencing bout? (C) 50.0 78.3 73.6 81.5 88.9

13. Who is the woman talking to onthe telephone?

(I) 33.3 41.6 36.7 45.4 ----

14. Which man is the father of thetwo little boys?

(K) 33.3 73.0 69.0 75.8 94.4


(D) 33.3 46.4 42.5 49.0 87.5

(K) = kinship scene (C) = competition scene N = 530(I) = intimacy scene (S) = status scene

(D) = deception scene

+ Chance levels reflect the number of multiple choice alternative answers (either two or three).


INSTRUCTIONS TO GIVE TO RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS OR STUDENTS

The IPT-15 is a self-contained videotape, and administration is largely self-explanatory. Thefirst part of the videotape provides viewers with some instructions, and each scene is preceded bythe appropriate question. However, it is useful to standardize the procedure for showing the IPT-15, particularly for research purposes. We have found it helpful to give each viewer a copy of theblank answer sheet along with the following oral information.

1) The videotape you are about to see consists of 15 brief scenes and lasts about 20 minutes. Thepeople who appear in the scenes are not actors. The conversations are unscripted and unrehearsed.

2) For each question, there is an objectively correct answer, and the correct answer is listed as oneof the multiple-choice alternatives on your answer sheet.

3) Each of the questions on your answer sheet corresponds to one of the scenes. Before each scenebegins, the question for that scene will appear on the screen. During the time the question is on thescreen, you should also read the multiple-choice answer options for that scene--these appear only on theanswer sheet.

4) For most of the questions, you will be asked to choose between the "person on the left" and the"person on the right". "Left" and "right" refer to your own left and right as you face the video screen.

SIX INSTRUCTIONAL USES OF THE IPT-15

Teaching about verbal and nonverbal behavior presents a difficult challenge because the subtletyand complexity of verbal and nonverbal behavior are difficult to convey using lectures and readings.Students often come away with the impression that there is a simple codebook of nonverbal cues--thatspecific cues have invariant and unambiguous meanings. The techniques described below sensitizestudents to the variety and complexity of verbal and nonverbal cues, facilitate classroom discussion,and help students understand the process of interpreting these cues. This section is based on an articlewhich appeared in the journal Teaching of Psychology (Costanzo and Archer, 1991).

1) Are People Just Guessing? The simplest use focuses on audience accuracy for specificscenes and for the videotape as a whole. In making interpretations like those involved in the IPT-15,people may feel that they are choosing an answer at random. However, even when people feel they aremerely guessing, they almost always reach correct conclusions at well above chance levels of accuracy.A quick test of whether people are "just guessing" is whether or not performance exceeds chance.

The multiple-choice format makes it possible to determine whether viewers are more accuratethan chance would predict. After a portion of the IPT-15 has been shown, the instructor can read aloudthe correct answers while students score their own accuracy. The instructor can then ask for a show ofhands for those who chose each answer. This show of hands will illustrate dramatically that people arenot choosing answers randomly but, instead, are systematically decoding the informative cues presentin the scenes. Accuracy rates can also be used to identify scenes that are relatively easy or difficult.

2) Comparing Verbal and Nonverbal Cues. The IPT-15 can be used to sensitize students to thevarieties and importance of different communication channels. One way to approach this issue is to ask,"What kinds of cues are found in nonverbal communication that are unavailable in words alone?" Asimple class demonstration involves contrasting the usefulness of purely verbal information with the farricher cues available in full-channel (verbal + nonverbal) communication. One way to do this is to


compare the accuracy of students given only written transcripts of the scenes (written transcripts for all15 scenes begin on page 12) with the accuracy of students shown the videotape. Research indicates thatthe interpretability of words is overshadowed by the power of nonverbal cues (Archer & Akert, 1977;Archer & Akert, 1984). The group using verbal transcripts will be far less accurate than the group withaccess to both verbal and nonverbal cues. Alternatively, an entire class can be asked to determine theanswers for several scenes using the transcript alone. Then, the same scenes can be shown using thefull-channel videotape to see whether (and why) people would revise their original judgments.

3) Student Interpretations of Specific Cues. Another instructional technique involves focusingon viewer perceptions of potentially important cues. A good way to do this is to invite comments aboutwhy people chose a specific answer. The video can be stopped after a given scene to ask members ofthe audience two questions: (1) "What do you think the correct answer is?", and (2) "What specific cuesled you to choose this answer?" This process is valuable and informative, because viewers will citequite different cues, even if they agreed on the answer to a particular question.

Research indicates that there is usually a high level of consistency across channels and that manydifferent cues can lead a viewer to the correct interpretation (Archer, 1980). This tendency towardconsistency usually produces a high level of redundancy across channels. The varied cues cited byviewers will demonstrate that cues to correct interpretation are available in many channelssimultaneously and that there are multiple paths to the correct answer.

Viewer perceptions provide a lively source of classroom participation because different peopledo not decode scenes in precisely the same way. The perceptions of people who chose an incorrectanswer are also important, because the cues that lead people astray will become apparent. Viewers whoreach the correct judgment may have noticed these misleading cues, but assigned them less weight intheir interpretation process. Some illustrative viewer perceptions for all 15 scenes begin on page 21.

4) Silent Cues. Facial expressions, gestures, and other nonverbal behaviors usually occur alongwith words and act to change the perceived meaning of words. In many cases, however, nonverbal actshave independent meaning. It is easy to use the IPT-15 to demonstrate the power of this "silentlanguage." Scenes can be shown with the audio level on the TV monitor turned off. Students can usethe cues they have available (facial behavior, gestures, eye contact, proxemic behavior, posture, activitylevel, touching) to answer the questions. This approach encourages viewers to focus exclusively onnonverbal behavior--for example, to determine if people are lying merely by watching (but not hearing)them.

After students have tried answering the questions using only visual cues, the scenes can bereplayed with the audio. Do they change their answers? If so, what reasons do they give? Remindstudents that playing the videotape silently not only removes verbal cues, but also the important cuesfound in vocal paralanguage (pauses, tone of voice, dysfluencies, hesitations, and interruptions). Thisexercise also illustrates that verbal cues and vocal paralanguage are especially important fordecoding some types of scenes (e.g., deception).

5) Subjective and Objective Accuracy. The process of interpreting verbal and nonverbal cues isonly partly understood. However, it is clear that the processing of cues is not entirely conscious andthat people have imperfect awareness of the cues they use in understanding behavior (Smith, Archer,and Costanzo, 1992). One way to encourage students to focus on process is to ask them to provide a"confidence rating" for each answer (e.g., a value between 0% to 100%). Students can also be asked toestimate the total number of items they answered correctly for some portion of the IPT-15. Thesesubjective estimates can be compared to true accuracy scores.


After a segment of the videotape has been shown, the instructor can announce the correctanswers. If viewers are more accurate on the scenes they felt more confident about, it indicates thatthey were able to identify (and were consciously aware of) specific cues. If viewers were unexpectedlyright (or unexpectedly wrong) on specific scenes, it may be that they were reaching interpretationswithout full awareness. Because the process of interpretation seems to rely on different types of cues(those we can articulate and those that we are not fully conscious of), both outcomes are possible.

This exercise sensitizes students to the tenuous relationship between confidence and accuracy.Frequently, there is an overconfidence effect: People believe they scored higher than they actuallyscored, and most people think that they scored significantly better than average (Costanzo, 1992).

6) Using the IPT-15 to Introduce Research Findings. The IPT-15 is also useful for introducingimportant findings and current issues in the field of nonverbal behavior. As noted earlier, a substantialbody of research indicates that women are significantly more accurate than men at decoding nonverbalbehavior. Women may be better decoders because they detect more nonverbal cues or, perhaps,because they interpret what they detect differently. Before telling students about this gender difference,it is useful to ask them to indicate (by a show of hands) if they think males or females do better on taskslike the IPT-15. The introduction of this issue leads quite naturally to a discussion of differences inmale and female socialization that may produce female's decoding advantage.

The videotape can also be used to prompt discussions of unresolved issues in the study ofcommunication. An example might be the question of whether there are "special" decoding abilities:Would police detectives be unusually skilled at decoding deception scenes? Would parents be moreaccurate than non parents at identifying parent-child relationships in the kinship scenes? Would athletesbe better able to spot winners and losers in the competition scenes? The answers are not yet clear,although research on the issue of special abilities is in progress.

Another set of unresolved issues concerns the role of cultural factors in verbal and nonverbalcommunication. For example, would interactions between status unequals be more formal (andtherefore more easily decoded) if filmed in Japan? Would parent-child interactions be recognizableacross cultural boundaries, or is there something uniquely American about the interactions depictedin the videotape? Assuming the problem of verbal translation could be solved, would there still be aproblem of nonverbal translation? Would a college student in China, Zaire, or Brazil have muchmore trouble trying to decode some scenes? The expressive behaviors present in the scenes are morecomplex than simple smiles or frowns (which may be universally recognizable), and it may help tobe a cultural "insider" when trying to decode verbal and nonverbal cues.

Research has demonstrated the pedagogical effectiveness of these techniques. Costanzo andArcher (1991) found that classroom use of the IPT-15 offered significant advantages over thetraditional lecture--students exposed to the IPT-15 based approach gained a more sophisticatedunderstanding of communication processes, and rated the approach as preferable to a lectureapproach. In addition, use of the techniques described above produced greater student involvementand fuller, more wide-ranging discussions. These findings suggest that these techniques areeffective ways of presenting complex material and promoting student involvement andparticipation. As a teaching device, the IPT-15 highlights the subtlety and complexity ofexpressive behavior, and promotes active learning by presenting social interaction in a vivid andinvolving manner.


DIALOGUE TRANSCRIPTS FOR HIT-15 SCENES

Transcripts for all scenes are provided on the following pages, along with correspondingquestions and answer options. In scenes with more than one speaker, the physical arrangement of thespeakers is indicated at the top of the transcript. When working with a large group, it may be usefulto photocopy these transcripts so that each member of the audience has a copy.

SCENE 1: Who is the child of the two adults?a. only the little boy.b. only the little girl.c. neither the boy or girl is the child of the adults.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2 Person 3 Person 4(man) (boy in man's lap) (girl) (woman)

1 (man): Complain a lot ...4 (woman): You complain, yeah1 (man): Who do you talk to your pillow, or, or, just yell out the window, or what do you do, slam

the door?3 (girl): No, just1 (man): None of that, huh?2 (boy): When Brendan has a tantrum he throws his math book.4 (woman): Huh?1 (man): Does Brendan ... ?2 (boy): That's what he did yesterday!4 (woman): He threw his math book?1 (man): Uh huh.2 (boy): On his desk!4 (woman): You're kidding Nate!1 (man): You mean he looks through all his books and picks out the math book?3 (girl): I know1 (man): And then throws that? Is that what he does?3 (girl): Yeah, he's ...4 (woman): Oh my goodness.3 (girl): He's all mad just because ... um2 (boy): Lauren's going to move in where Cory is.1 (man): Oh ...4 (woman): Oh ...3 (girl): Yeah, so ...

SCENE 2: What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a. they are lovers who have been together for about 9 months.b. they are lovers who have been together for about 3 years.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2(woman) (man)


1 (woman): I think maybe one child's nicer to have from the parent's point of view ... Less work.um. But as 1 of 3, I felt a lot different. I grew up sharing a room with my sister, as youknow.

2 (man): Right.1 (woman): And that way, sharing a room in college with a roommate was a lot easier. And didn't

fight over things ... and then there were a lot of times where I think I would have beenreally lonely, if I didn't have her, and also a little brother. I grew up where there weren'tvery many kids my age, and we had each other--We wouldn't have had each other.

2 (man): Uh huh.1 (woman): if they weren't there. I mean I can see your point, about2 (man): I don't know, I just ...1 (woman): I guess all the advantages, but I think there's other advantages too, not just

advantages of all the attention2 (man): Uh huh.1 (woman): But advantages of having playmates, um, peers.2 (man): Yeah, I just remember how I felt when I had a step--I have a step-brother and a step-

sister, and when they'd come for the summer, and I always felt, when I was a little kid, Ialways felt like ... my turf was being invaded on just a little bit.

SCENE 3: The two people in the following scene work together. Which person is the other person'sboss?a) the man is the boss.b) the woman is the boss.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2(man) (woman)

2 (woman): But I'm not afraid of heights. I just don't like water.1 (man): I'm afraid of heights, I got one on you there.2 (woman): Did you fall from some place high?1 (man): No, uh, when I was about 3, I think it was about, my father, we went to the Grand Canyon, we

were traveling cross country. And he, they have the railings around, and he said, he'd go andput me on top of it, and said "hang on" and

2 (woman): (laugh)1 (man): Yeah, that's what he did--no he went like this. He went like this: Hey Pat (unh), and it was

like, he had a firm grip on me, but I jut went "AHHH!," and started to fall forward ... and hegot me and pulled me back and I, I still remember that to this day as I, my father had thatcruel sense of humor, that he would have a little fun with his kids.

2 (woman): My dad used to play shark 1(man): (laugh)2 (woman): in swimming pools, like underwater, sneak up and grab our feet. That could probably

have contributed to it too.1 (man): (laugh)2 (woman): My dad has a rather perverse sense of humor.1 (man): Well it sounds like they should, our fathers should get together and have a nice long talk.2 (woman): Might have a few yucks, wouldn't they, yeah.1 (man): (laugh)2 (woman): Yeah, let me tell you what I did to my kid.


SCENE 4: You will see the same woman in two separate scenes. Which is the lie and which is thetruth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

Person 1 (woman)

1: (first monologue):My mom and my dad, let's see, my mom and my dad are still together, even though he lived at ... in SanJose at his mother-in-law's house for nine years, and commuted back and forth, every weekend, fromSan Jose to Ukiah, and back, he works at different electronics technicians places in the Bay Area. Um... my mom's name is Jan, my Dad's name is Don. They still get along. My dad is an atheist, my momis a Seventh Day Adventist which is pretty strange, because I ended up going to church on Saturdayall through school, which didn't quite mesh well with everybody else. Kind of been an odd-ball, thewhole time--skipping a grade, being younger than everyone else, and going to a weird church.(laugh) Not fun, but ... but I guess I'm a stronger person for it.

1: (second monologue):My mom's a Presbyterian, and my dad I don't really know I haven't talked to him since I was aroundnine, when he came and picked me up at Christmas, once, and we went and had lunch, and that wasit, and he didn't call back, and he didn't send me a card and he didn't do anything ... um ... I don'tknow about ... my dad ... he used to be in ... he used to work as a plumber ... and uh . . . he'd go todifferent houses and things . . . and he'd come home late at night and that was about the only time Isaw him, so I guess I didn't really see him very much, other than at night when I was younger. I don'treally remember much of my dad. I remember he had a beard. That was about it.

SCENE 5: Who won the game of one-on-one basketball?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2

(man) (man)

2: So he got me practicing pretty often. I've been playing ball since I was 8 years old, and he's beenplaying less than that, a lot less than that. And I got my shot down pretty pat, even ... even if I'mcold, I know I'm still gonna eventually hit, and I don't know about, about himself.

1: Um. My shot isn't down pat. I just have to feel the ball. I'm, I'm like a weather player. If theweather's all right, then I'm all right. Lately, so like the past three weeks I've been gettingconfident, 'cept I make a mistake that he knows that if I, when I shoot, I'm not gonna telleveryone, but when I shoot I happen to, do it on only on one move, either side, but, I don't know, Ihate doing that, 'specially when I play him, cause he knows, he knows I'm gonna do it, but then Itry not to do it and mess up my whole game.

SCENE 6: What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a) they are brother and sister.b) they are friends who have known each other for about three months.


Left Right(Person 1) (Person 2)(man) (woman)

2: Let's not worry about time right now, let's just decide where we're gonna go, and then see howmany months we have to do it and then break that up into how much time we want to spend ineach place.

1: Okay ... besides Tokyo, where else do you want to go?2: Ah, definitely Kyoto. Well go see Diana ... and Mark and those guys.1: Do you want to go back to Nikko?2: I would love to go to Nikko, but I don't think on this trip I want to go to Nikko. (laugh)1: Scratch that ... um.2: What about Osaka? We haven't been to Osaka yet.1: Okay.2: That's, that's all I really want to do.1: Okay, and then how do you want ... do you want ....2: unless you want to go ....1: do you want to go straight to Beijing from there?: Beijing.1: Sorry, Beijing.2: Yeah.

SCENE 7: In which scene is the woman talking to her boss?a) only in the first scene.b) only in the second scene.

Person 1 (woman)

1: (first monologue):I really liked it--that really helped, that really just zonked me in on trying to get into black-whiterelations and, uh ... I know some people didn't agree with the class, but I felt that it pretty much hitwhat I'd gone through, I mean not a lot of the blatant racism, but a lot of the subtle forms . . .

1: (second monologue):Uh, I think the . . . the academics is ... extremely ... it's wonderful, I really like it a lot and, uh, thepsych department is ... is really just what I thought it would be and, um ... I haven't really had toomuch trouble with the lack of, uh, minority faculty 'cause there wasn't that much at Riverside.

SCENE 8: Who won the racquetball game?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2(man) (man)

1: My strong point is my forehand, my bad point is my backhand, and I just, all the time, I'm tryingto get as far over into the left hand of the court so that I can hit a forehand, and, and admitting that is


gonna really make people beat me badly. . because all they have to do is, is shoot it over to the otherside, and I'll be, I'll be done for2: Well yeah, but you know, you want to hit it to someone's backhand normally anyway and

uh ....1: Yeah, well that's true.2: What's really tough is to actually be able to hit it there. My strong point is probably my serve, Ican move it around fairly well, when it works, though it doesn't always work. Um ... my backhandis definitely my weak point, though it's getting better through this class. This is the first timewe've played, um ....1: um, hum.2: In this class. We hadn't played ever before. And I've been playing for probably about the same

time, five years, though always off and on, I played ...

SCENE 9: Who are the women talking to?a) both women are talking to strangers.b) both women are talking to friends.c) the first woman is talking to a friend, the second woman is talking to a stranger.

Person 1 (woman)

1: So, and that's a, it's a really nice center. I'm ... I'm real pleased with that one, if I can, if they callme back this afternoon. And the one this morning is group homes for abused and abandonedchildren. Um ... It's run by a church organization and. . . uh ... the treatment set up was really notwhat I was looking for. In fact, it makes me really sad to see the children are in settings like that. It'smainly custodial care; not very therapeutic. And, uh, apparently the kids are real obnoxious, youknow, this is what he woman told me, "Well the kids are very angry, they're very obnoxious.Sometimes, it's hard not to shake them and hit them." I was like ... (laugh) ... this is not what I'mlooking for.

Person 2 (woman)

2: So we get here, and it's new, everything looks strange, and I think, what am I doing here? Youknow, do I really want to be here? So my mother stayed for a weekend, and she left early Mondaymorning, and it was really strange because .... When she was about to say goodbye, it was sorta like Iregressed back to being 10 years old, an she was saying goodbye to me leaving me at school. And Ijust lost it. I started to cry, and she was like, you know, "Don't do this, don't make it any harder thanyou have to," so I kind of controlled myself, and she left, and I was all alone.

SCENE 10: Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.

Person 1 (man)

1: (first monologue):Well you can see, oh, I've been ... running, but the reason I have is too get a foretaste of . . . myretirement. I've been looking forward to it for a long, long time. As a matter of fact, I started to thinkabout retiring about 20 years ago, and I expect I just can't wait for it to happen. Um, I think ... that I'llprobably do it sometime in the next month or two as soon as I can. Um. the kind of running, uh, that


I've been doing today essentially is, um . . . an old man's run. I run as slowly as I can so as not toinjure any of my organs, um, now I'm in pretty good health all around, but I have a feeling that I canhave an injury just about any minute.

1: (second monologue):I did choose the John Muir trail as my ... as my challenge ... that was, um ... that's sort of the standardbig walk in this area, about 220 miles over sort of the spine of the Sierra's and, uh, I set out for thefirst year on a bad knee, um, there was a lot of snow, rain that year, and, uh, started out, uh, fallinginto a stream getting my pack wet, half drowning, crawling out. At any rate, after 70 miles, I gaveup. Um ... I set out the next year, got 30 miles before I gave up. Plus the year following, I went from... uh. . . went from Lake Tahoe to Mount Whitney, and that was 320 miles.

SCENE 11: The two people in the following scene work together. Which person is the other person'sboss?a) the man is the boss.b) the woman is the boss.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2

(man) (woman)

1: If, if they end up--oh, what drives me up the wall is if they come in late. And I realize, the way thecampus is spread out, it's very difficult, the bus, buses ... and parking's a bear and everything, butwhen they came in late it always, I kind of internalize it and say, oh shoot, try and come earliernext time.

2: Uh huh.1: Or things along that line.2: Have you said anything to them?1: They realize it and usually they'll come to me afterwards, and say, well, you know, gee, I tried but... uh ... I missed the bus, or things along that line .... Uh, my daughter is, uh ... I had to take her today care, or something like that, and I understand those things. So basically the students have beenvery considerate and respectful. So I've been fairly pleased.2: There hasn't been that much of a ... some of them come in late in the class, but for the most part,

they come in along the side, so that isn't much of a distraction.1: Uh huh.2: It's, uh, stranger to have them sleeping than to have them coming in late.

SCENE 12: Who won the fencing bout?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2(man) (man)

1: We're both ... he's a, he's, ah, it was pretty equal .... It was .... It was really good ... he said that Iwas pretty quick in some places, but my defense is a little weak. I get ... I get sort of scared whenpeople come at me with swords .. . . Um ... And a lot of the time there was . .. uh ... what is calledsimultaneous touch. In the rules of fencing, you determine who's attacking by if you have your arm


extended or not. Whoever extends their arm first is attacking ... and so a lot of the times we just ... alot of the time you just sit and wait, and see what happens and then he would extend and we'd bothgo out and hit each other at the same time, and he'd throw that out, and so it took a little longer thannormal. There's a lot of that, and there's a lot of off-target hitting. The only valid target is the, uh,torso, the legs and arms, and face are out. Ah . . .

2: Yeah, um ... simultaneous attacks happen a lot for beginners because that's all they know how todo . .. it's just throw out their arms, um, but, uh, maybe experts or more advanced people, they uh,they ... they can um, parry, they can do feints, they can riposte, uh. A parry is, is just uh, whensomeone extends on you, you just block their blade, and then a riposte, is uh, maybe what you wouldcall a counter-attack, uh, back against them.

SCENE 13: Who is the woman talking to on the telephone?a) her mother.b) a female friend.c) her boyfriend.

Person 1 (woman)

1: Oh, I'm just, you know, me, having another nervous breakdown .... I know, but I think that . . . Iknow, I know ... but I told you that a couple of nights ago, and you were like, well, I won't bother you,you do your work. That didn't happen though .... We bothered each other, that's what happened (laugh)....Yeah, no, no I know, I half expected it. Of course . . . I know ... I half expected it anyway. I mean it'snot the end of the world. That's something you've taught me .... Yeah.

SCENE 14: Which man is the father of the two little boys?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.c) neither man.

Left RightPerson 1 Person 2 Person 3 Person 4(man) (boy in left man's lap) (boy in right man's lap) (man)

1: So ... look at him ... he's all right.2: (cries)4: (laugh)1: Want some more juice? Juice?4: Did I do something ... ?1: I should get the cream cheese off my jacket.4: (laughs) You look pretty on camera.4: (laughs) Yeah, really. (laughs)


SCENE 15: Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is the lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

Person 1 (woman)

1: (first monologue):I've been living in Washington for, for quite a few years as a legal secretary, and it was a pretty fastlifestyle, but I was pretty uncomfortable there, um ... uh ... I was real unhealthy too .... And I've, I'vejust been getting back on my feet--there was a lot of drugs there and, uh, people were pretty cut-throat,you know. I don't know, it was a really bad situation that I was in. So, um, I'm here and I've gotten a lotof scholarships and, uh, you know aid from the government to help me in school but, uh . . . I likeliving in Santa Cruz--my, my family, my, my parents died when I was about 20,... 21 ...uhm, but wetraveled a lot together when we were, I was, growing up. We had a lot of experiences in Europe. And,uhm, I'm just an only child, so...

1: (second monologue):I have two older brothers and an older sister and 5, 5 nephews and 7 nieces and they live all inCalifornia, and, uh ... we, we all get along really well, my parents are still alive and, uh . . . althoughthere's the, uh, increasing problems with your parents as you get older and you, you become more of aperson, you tend to tolerate your parents less, or you find how different you really are, and howgrowing up with them has made you what you are, and you resent them for certain things and on andon, but anyway, that's a, that's coming into focus now, the whole family scene.

VIEWER PERCEPTIONS AND SPECIFIC CUES.

On the following pages we have summarized viewer perceptions of specific cues that reveal the correctanswers.

Scene 1The boy is the child of the two adults. The boy is comfortably sprawled across his father's lap. In

contrast, the girl is stiff and formal. She holds her arms in close to her body and doesn't touch. anyone.The boy is more responsive to the questions of the adults, and at one point the father jokes with the boyabout intentionally selecting the math book to throw. The little boy is more relaxed and expressive.Viewer comments: "The woman is trying to gently draw out the little girl. She doesn't have to try sohard with the little boy because he's her son." "The man is holding the boy firmly, but he's careful not totouch the little girl."

Scene 2Viewers who correctly guess that these two people have been a couple for only 10 months

comment that the relationship still seems new and tentative. As one viewer remarked, "These twopeople are still getting to know each other--they are careful about what they say to each other, and arestill explaining themselves to one another." Another viewer said, "There is an element of formality,still, in how they interact--their postures and eye contact indicate that they know each other, but not yetperfectly." "They seem uncomfortable talking about parenthood--if they'd been together longer, theywould have had that conversation already."

Scene 3


The woman is the higher status person. Her posture is more relaxed and open than the man's. Shelooks and acts older and more self-assured. She controls the direction of the conversation. Someviewers have said that the man seems like he's trying to impress the woman; others comment that he isleaning away from the woman as if intimidated by her. One viewer said, "She's more relaxed and incontrol of the situation." Another said, "He's playing up to her, ingratiating himself."

Scene 4The cues are most revealing when the first story is compared to the second story. In the true

account (the first), the woman speaks more rapidly and with greater animation in her face and voice.When lying (account two), she speaks slowly and deliberately, having to concentrate on what she'ssaying. She also pauses more and shows more speech dysfluencies. Some viewers are misled by thesad content of account two; one said, "You can tell she was really hurt by her father's insensitivity--she looks like she's on the verge of tears." Some viewers wrongly attribute her slower, more hesitantspeech to her perceived sadness.

Scene 5The winner of the basketball game (the man on the right) displays a proud posture: chest

forward, head up, holding the basketball. One viewer suggested this man is holding the ball like atrophy. Another viewer noted the man on the right behaves like a "classic humble winner." Indeed,the winner makes a gracious excuse for his opponent's poor performance: "I've been playing since Iwas 8 years old, and he's been playing much less than that...." The loser appears distressed andagitated and even makes an excuse for his loss: he says he telegraphs his shots by making oneparticular move before he shoots. Facial expressions also differ. The winner looks content and happy;the loser embarrassed and slightly irritated.

Scene 6The man and the woman (a brother and sister) seem very familiar and comfortable with one

another. They are planning a major trip together and the dialogue indicates that they have somemutual friends. Many viewers comment on a family resemblance between the two. When the sistercorrects her brother's pronunciation of the word "Beijing" some viewers say her behavior ischaracteristic of an older sister. As one viewer said "that's exactly the way my big sister always treatsme."

Scene 7This is a very difficult scene because only one person is shown. The cues are very subtle. In the

first scene--when she is talking to someone of equal status--she is friendlier and more expressive. Hervocal style is more relaxed and casual (e.g., she uses the phase "zonked me in"). In the second scene--when she is talking to someone of high status--she chooses her words more carefully, and her vocalstyle is more formal. Some viewers noticed her compliments of the university in the second scene:"she's trying to flatter one of her professors by telling him how wonderful the psych department is."

Scene 8This is a fairly easy scene because the cues are consistent across channels. The man on the left

(the loser) says that until he improves his backhand, people are going to "beat him badly." Heappears agitated and displays a lot of movement and fidgeting.

In contrast, the winner assumes a calm, even proud stance and his facial expression is more positive.His gaze is straight and his chin is level. The loser's chin and gaze are often cast downward. Someviewers are misled because the man on the left "looks like a better athlete."


Scene 9This scene is quite difficult because only one person appears on screen at a time. Unlike the

deception scenes, each woman is seen only once so there are no comparative cues. Both women aretalking to friends. They both seem relaxed and animated, indicating that they are talking to people theyalready know well. Viewers comment that the women self disclose more deeply than they would tostrangers. The second woman in particular shares an emotional story about a difficult personalexperience.

Scene 10The man's distinctive vocal style makes this scene difficult to interpret. Speech dysfluencies are oftenseen as characteristic of lying. This man's slow, halting speech makes the lie more difficult to detectfrom vocal paralanguage. However, there are many revealing verbal cues. The first monologue is a lieand viewers see it as contradictory--"why the hell is he running if he really thinks he's going to injurehis vital organs?," and "if he's so keen on retiring, why hasn't he done it already?"

The first monologue is vague and stereotyped. In contrast, the second story is detailed and specific. Heknows exactly how many miles he hiked each year, and tells about specific incidents (e.g., falling andalmost drowning). Some viewers noted more facial and vocal expression in the second story, "you cansee him reliving his disappointments and proud accomplishments by looking at his facial expressions."

Scene 11The lower status member of the pair--the man--is more formal and upright in posture. He appears

to be choosing his words carefully. The woman (his boss) is more informal. She slumps in her chairand appears to be less concerned with the impression she is making. Viewers noted that "he's doing allthe work," while the woman seems disinterested, aloof, and "guru-like." The man is more attentive tothe woman than she is to him, and she controls the direction of the conversation. At one point in thescene, the man seems to "gulp," perhaps indicating his nervousness. A viewer concluded, "He's a first-time student teacher and she's probably his supervisor." In fact, she is a professor and he is her teachingassistant.

Scene 12The loser of the fencing match (the man on the left) seems agitated, restless, and discouraged.

Although he doesn't make explicit excuses for his performance, he spends a lot of time describing thebout. As one viewer commented, "He looks like he's replaying the match in his head." The eyes andhead of the man who lost are often downcast. The winner holds his head higher. He doesn't movearound nervously. His gaze is steadier and he looks more content. At one point in the scene, the losermakes a hand motion near the winner's face. One viewer interpreted this as veiled anger: "He's so madabout losing that he wants to slap the other guy." Another viewer commented that the winner "talks likehe just gave the other guy a fencing lesson."

Scene 13This is a very difficult scene because only one person appears on screen and we are only able to

hear her half of the telephone conversation (she is talking to her boyfriend). Many viewers commentedthat the conversation seems too intimate to be with a parent. She seems committed to her relationshipwith the person on the other end of the line and they are discussing time they spent together in therecent past. One viewer said, "she seems to be trying too hard for it to be a female friend or her mom."Many viewers noticed that she is holding the phone very close, in a way that indicates great fondness orromantic attraction. Interestingly, some viewers are misled when the woman says, "that's somethingyou taught me." They conclude that she must be talking to a parent.


Scene 14The young boy sits stiffly in the lap of the man who is not his father (the man on the right), and is

unresponsive to this man. When the real father (the man on the left) picks up the baby and shows himthe other man, the baby starts to cry. The father then comforts the baby by holding him and giving himjuice. Another clue is when the father wipes off his shoulder where the baby has spit up on him--hepulls out a handkerchief he apparently carries around for just this purpose!

Scene 15Again, the clues to deception are relative; the woman's nonverbal behavior is quite different in the

two accounts. In the lie (first account), her speech is slower, more deliberate. The woman's facialexpressions appear more controlled, and the story is more general. She appears especiallyuncomfortable when lying about her parents’ death--she looks away, touches her face, and fumbles forwords. A viewer said, "In the first part, she has to concentrate more because she's making it up as shegoes along." In the true account (the second), the speech is much faster and more lively. Her face andvoice are much more animated, and the story contains details. A viewer said, "She seems much moreinvolved in the second story she tells."

A FINAL NOTE: FEEDBACK ON INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

The IPT-15 is designed for research and instructional uses. Although researchers sometimescommunicate their findings to research participants, information about individual performance isusually not provided. In instructional settings, however, students are accustomed to being told howthey scored on a particular task. We have found that students are usually eager to learn their ownscores. A problem may arise if students interpret their score as an infallible indication ofinterpersonal sensitivity. It would be a disservice to allow students who obtain low scores toleave feeling that they are therefore poor judges of behavior. This negative feedback couldoutweigh the learning benefits of exposure to the videotape.

If people are told their overall scores, it is important to note that performance is probablyinfluenced by several factors: Motivation, practice, viewing conditions, fatigue, attention, andexperience with similar tasks. It should also be pointed out that the videotape shows the behaviorof unfamiliar others--it does not directly address the perception of one's intimates andacquaintances, or other dimensions of social intelligence such as judging motives or personalitycharacteristics. Providing this information suggests alternative explanations for poorperformance and cautions students against drawing sweeping conclusions on the basis of theirscore. The classroom exercises described above do not require giving students information abouttheir total score. These exercises are designed to focus attention on the process of interpretationand the nature of verbal and nonverbal behavior, not the issue of individual accuracy.

IPT-15 ANSWER KEY AND UNMARKED (BLANK) ANSWER SHEET

This guide is followed by: (1) an Answer Key, with the correct answers marked, and (2)an unmarked (blank) answer sheet.

NOTE: Do not mark on the blank sheet--save it as your "xerox master." Extra copiescan be reproduced as needed.


NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL PERCEPTION:A BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY (Includes articles cited in this guide).

Articles and Chapters

Archer, D. and Akert, R.M. Words and everything else: Verbal and nonverbal cues in socialinterpretation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977, 35, 443-449.

Archer, D. and Akert, R.M. The encoding of meaning: A test of three theories o£ socialinteraction. In D.H. Zimmerman and C. West (Eds.), Language and Social Interaction, aspecial issue of Sociological Inquiry, 1980, 50, 393-419.

Archer, D. and Akert, R.M. Nonverbal factors in person perception. In M. Cook (Ed.), Issues inPerson Perception. New York and London: Methuen & Co., 1984, 114-144.

Costanzo, M. (1992). Training students to decode verbal and nonverbal cues: Effects onconfidence and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 308-313.

Costanzo, M., & Archer, D. (1989). Interpreting the expressive behavior of others: The InterpersonalPerception Task. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13, 225-245.

Costanzo, M., & Archer, D. (1991). A method for teaching about verbal and nonverbalcommunication. Teaching of Psychology, 18, 223-226.

deTurck, M. & Miller, G.R. (1990). Training observers to detect deception: Effects of self-monitoring and rehearsal. Human Communication Research, 16, 603-620.

DePaulo, B.M. (1992). Nonverbal behavior and self-presentation. Psychological Bulletin, 111, 203-243.

Ford, M. & Tisak, M.S. (1983). A further search for social intelligence. Journal of EducationalPsychology, 75, 197-206.

Hall, J. (1987). On explaining gender differences: The case o£ nonverbal communication. In P.Shaver & C. Hendrick (Eds.), Review of Personality and Social Psychology, 7 177-200.

Marlowe, H. A. (1986). Social intelligence: Evidence for multidimensionality and constructindependence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78, 52-58.

Riggio, R.E. (1986). Assessment of basic social skills. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,51, 649-660.

Rosenthal, R., Archer, D., DiMatteo, M., Koivumaki, J.H. and Rogers, P. (1974). The languagewithout words. Psychology Today, 8, 44-50.

Smith, H.J., Archer, D., and Costanzo, M. (1991). "Just a hunch": Accuracy and awareness in personperception. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 3-18.

Sternberg, R.J., Conway, B.E., Ketron, J.L., & Bernstein, M. (1981). People's conceptions ofintelligence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41,37-55.

Thorndike, E.L. (1920). Intelligence and it's uses. Harper's Magazine, 140, 227-235.Wedeck, J. (1947). The relationship between personality and "psychological ability." British Journal

of Psychology, 37, 133-151.Zuckerman, M., Koestner, R., & Alton, A.O. (1984). Learning to detect deception Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 519-528.

Books

Archer, D. (1980). How to Expand Your Social Intelligence Quotient. New York: M. Evans & Co.(Dutton-Elsevier).

Archer, D. and Akert, R.M. (in preparation). The Interpretation of Behavior: Verbal and NonverbalFactors in Person Perception. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Argyle, M. (1990). Bodily Communication. Madison Conn.: International Universities Press.Bull, P.E. (1987). Posture and Gesture. New York: Pergamon Press.DeVito, J.A. (1991). Human Communication: The Basic Course. New York: Harper Collins.


Ekman, P. (1985). Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage. NewYork: Norton.

Ellyson, S.L. and Dovidio J.F. (Eds.)(1985). Power, Dominance, and Nonverbal Behavior: NewYork: Springer-Verlag.

Feldman, R.S. (Ed.).(1992). Applications of Nonverbal Behavioral Theories and Research. Hillsdale,N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Feldman, R.S. and Rime, B. (Eds.).(1991). Fundamentals of Nonverbal Behavior. New York:Cambridge University Press.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic Books.Hall, J.A. (1985). Nonverbal Sex Differences: Communication Accuracy and Expressive Style.

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Henley, N. (1977). Body Politics: Power, Sex, and Nonverbal Communication. Englewood Cliffs,

N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Heslin, R. (1982). Nonverbal Behavior and Social Psychology. New York: Plenum.Hickson, M.L. and Stacks, D.W. (1985). Nonverbal Communication: Studies and Applications.

Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.Jones, E.E. (1990) Interpersonal Perception. New York: W.H.Freeman.Knapp, M.L. and Hall, J.A. (1992). Nonverbal Behavior in Human Interaction. Harcourt, Brace,

Jovanovich.Knapp, M.L. and Miller, G.R. (Eds.) (1985). Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Beverly

Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Mayo, C. and Henley, N.M. (Eds.) (1981). Gender and Nonverbal Behavior. New York: Springer-

Verlag.Patterson, M.L. (1983). Nonverbal Behavior: A Functional Perspective. New York: Springer-

Verlag.Rosenthal, R., Hall, J., DiMatteo, M., Rogers, P., and Archer, D. (1979). Sensitivity to Nonverbal

Communication: A Profile Approach to the Measurement of Differential Abilities. Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press.

Scherer, K. and Ekman, P. (Eds.)(1982). Handbook of Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research.New York: Cambridge University Press.

Spitzberg, B.H. and Cupach, W.R. (1984). Interpersonal Communication Competence. BeverlyHills, CA: Sage Publications.

Zebrowitz, L.A. (1990). Social Perception. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks-Cole.

Videotapes

Archer, D. A World of Gestures: Culture and Nonverbal Communication, videotape (28 minutes),1991. (available from Berkeley Media LLC, 2600 Tenth Street, Suite 626, Berkeley, CA 94710;phone: (510) 486-9900; email: [email protected]; http://www.berkeleymedia.com.

Archer, D. The Human Voice: Exploring Vocal Paralanguage, videotape (30 minutes), 1993.(available from Berkeley Media LLC, 2600 Tenth Street, Suite 626, Berkeley, CA 94710;phone: (510) 486-9900; email: [email protected]; http://www.berkeleymedia.com.

Archer, D. and Akert, R.M. The Social Interpretations Task (SIT), videotape (25 minutes), 1974(available from D. Archer or R.M. Akert; Professor of Psychology, Wellesley College,Wellesley, Mass. 02181).

Archer, D. and Costanzo, M. The Interpersonal Perception Task (IPT original), videotape (40minutes), 1988 (available from Berkeley Media LLC, 2600 Tenth Street, Suite 626, Berkeley, CA 94710;phone: (510) 486-9900; email: [email protected]; http://www.berkeleymedia.com.

Rosenthal, R., Hall, J., DiMatteo, M., Rogers, P., and Archer, D. The Profile of NonverbalSensitivity (PONS), film and videotape (45 minutes), 1972 (available through IrvingtonPublishers, 551 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10017).


THE INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK-15 (IPT-15)Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer, Copyright 1993

The videotape you are about to see contains 15 brief scenes and lasts about 20 minutes. There is onequestion on this answer sheet for each of the 15 scenes on the videotape. Before each scene, youshould read the corresponding multiple choice answer options on this sheet.

Please try to answer every question, even if you feel you are merely guessing. Indicate your answerto each question by writing the letter of the answer you believe to be correct in the space provided("a","b", or "c").

_____ 1. Who is the child of the two adults?a) only the little boy.b) only the little girl.c) neither the boy nor the girl is the is the child of the adults.

_____ 2. What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a) they are lovers who have been together for about 10 months.b) they are lovers who have been together for about 3 years.

_____ 3. The two people in the next scene work together. Which person is the other person's boss?a) the man is the boss.b) the woman is the boss.

_____ 4. You will see the same woman in two separate scenes. Which is the lie and which is thetruth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

_____ 5. Who won the game of one-on-one basketball?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

_____ 6. What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a) they are brother and sister.b) they are friends who have known each other for about three months.

_____ 7. In which scene is the woman talking to her boss?a) only in the first scene.b) only in the second scene.

_____ 8. Which man won the racquetball game?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.


_____ 9. Who are the women talking to?a) both women are talking to strangers.b) both women are talking to friends.c) the first woman is talking to a friend, the second woman is talking to a stranger.

_____ 10. Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.


_____ 12. Which man won the fencing bout?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

_____ 13. Who is the woman talking to on the phone?a) her mother.b) a female friend.c) her boyfriend.

_____ 14. Which man is the father of the two little boys?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.c) neither man.

_____ 15. Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is the lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

Age? ___________ Male or Female? ___________

How many questions (0 to 15) do you think you answered correctly? ___________

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

The IPT-15 is distributed by:



THE INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK-15 (IPT-15)Mark Costanzo and Dane Archer, Copyright 1993

***ANSWER KEY***

The correct answers for each question are listed below.

_____ 1. Who is the child of the two adults?a) only the little boy.b) only the little girl.c) neither the boy nor the girl is the is the child of the adults.

_____ 2. What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a) they are lovers who have been together for about 10 months.b) they are lovers who have been together for about 3 years.


_____ 4. You will see the same woman in two separate scenes. Which is the lie and which is thetruth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

_____ 5. Who won the game of one-on-one basketball?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

_____ 6. What is the relationship between the man and the woman?a) they are brother and sister.b) they are friends who have known each other for about three months.

_____ 7. In which scene is the woman talking to her boss?a) only in the first scene.b) only in the second scene.

_____ 8. Which man won the racquetball game?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

A

A

B

B

B

A

B

B


_____ 9. Who are the women talking to?a) both women are talking to strangers.b) both women are talking to friends.c) the first woman is talking to a friend, the second woman is talking to a stranger.

_____ 10. Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is a lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.


_____ 12. Which man won the fencing bout?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.

_____ 13. Who is the woman talking to on the phone?a) her mother.b) a female friend.c) her boyfriend.

_____ 14. Which man is the father of the two little boys?a) the man on the left.b) the man on the right.c) neither man.

_____ 15. Which is the lie and which is the truth?a) the first is the lie, the second is the truth.b) the first is the truth, the second is a lie.c) both are lies.

Age? ___________ Male or Female? ___________

How many questions (0 to 15) do you think you answered correctly? ___________

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!

The IPT-15 is distributed by:


B

A

B

B

C

A

A

the interpersonal perception task-15 (ipt-15)

Documents