(40 minutes)
A video by Dane Archer and Mark Costanzo
The INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION TASK (IPT) is a videotape
about nonverbal communication and social perception.
Unlike most videotapes, the IPT gives viewers an opportunity
for active participation. Viewers are asked to guess
or "decode" something about each of the IPT scenes. Viewers see
30 brief scenes, each 30 to 60 seconds long. After each
scene, there is an opportunity to answer a question.
In one scene, the viewer sees a woman talking on the telephone.
Immediately after this scene, the IPT video asks the viewer whether
the woman is talking to (a) her mother, (b) a close female friend,
or (c) her boyfriend.
In another scene, the viewer sees two men who have just
played basketball; the viewer is asked to decide which
man won the basketball game. In a third scene, the viewer
sees a woman giving two descriptions of her childhood;
the viewer is asked to decide which description is a lie.
The 30 IPT scenes depict five common types of social judgments--
intimacy, competition, deception, kinship, and status.
After each scene, the viewer has a chance to "decode"
something important about what he or she has just seen.
The viewer can try to determine the correct answer by "reading"
nonverbal behavior--perhaps a facial expression, tone of voice,
gesture, touch, glance, or hesitation.
The 30 IPT scenes contain a full range of spontaneous
nonverbal behaviors in context. For each scene, there is
an OBJECTIVELY correct answer.
The IPT comes with a 15-page GUIDE FOR INSTRUCTORS AND RESEARCHERS,
blank answer sheets, a "key" containing the correct answers,
and a list of references concerning nonverbal communication research.
The IPT is a valuable tool for research on nonverbal communication
and also provides an excellent demonstration videotape
for classes in a wide variety of fields: psychology, sociology,
anthropology, communication, education, linguistics, and mass media.
What reviewers are saying about the INTERPERSONAL PERCEPTION
TASK:
- "This is a unique, high-quality videotape which can be
used productively in both research and teaching....
I've found that the testing format of the tape challenges my
students and they are eager to discuss and analyze the
various verbal and nonverbal signals associated with the different
messages (lying, power, status, intimacy and kinship) and
the different modes of interaction (telephone, face-to-face,
and face-to-camera). The IPT will be a valuable
resource for anyone whose work focuses on the subtleties of social
perceptions. Thus, researchers and teachers in communication,
psychology, sociology, nonverbal behavior, ethology, semiotics,
anthropology, medicine and discourse analysis will find this videotape of
great value."
- --Mark L. Knapp, University of Texas, co-author of NONVERBAL
COMMUNICATION IN HUMAN INTERACTION
- "It's a real boon to nonverbal researchers to have a test of
nonverbal ability that (a) presents both women and men, (b) in
real-life situations, (c) in a good quality production, in color,
and in such an accessible medium as videotape...The
choices on the answer sheet are straightforward and plausible,
and the questions it asks are of the type we think about every
day."
- --Nancy Henley, University of California at Los Angeles, author of
BODY POLITICS
- "I like to use the test in class as a starting point
for discussions of issues such as (a) different approaches
to the measurement of nonverbal sensitivity, (b) determining
which cues really are cues to intimacy, status, deception,
etc., and (c) the distinction between actual and perceived
cues to (say) deception....My students have
always enjoyed it."
- --Bella M. DePaulo, University of Virginia, author of "Telling
Lies"