Not to Change the Topic But …: A Cognitive Approach to the Management of Conversation

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Abstract
A cognitive approach to the management of conversation is sketched and exemplified in a series of three studies of topic change strategies. The first study establishes that naive subjects can reliably identify topic changes in conversations. In the second study, the cognitive function of information integration serves as an organizing scheme for deriving a typology of topic change strategies and predictions about their relative competence. These predictions are tested and generally supported. The third study provides evidence for the psychological reality of the distinctions that underlie the typology by demonstrating that they are perceived directly, in addition to being related to competence judgments. The potential importance of this research for studying the structure of conversation, for training competent communicators, and for theory building are discussed.