This paper explores differences in conversational style among mothers. Although previous research suggests that many aspects of mother speech to the child covary in a way which serves the underlying intention of the mother, it was unclear whether such clusters of conversational behaviour would prove useful in characterizing stylistic differences among mothers across time. An analysis of the functionally-coded speech of 11 mothers showed statistically significant variability among mothers, especially in those behaviours most closely associated with intention. Further, mothers showed stability in these behaviour patterns across two sessions. A typology of mother style, based on the intentions of mothers to direct or converse with their children, is suggested and illustrated by individual cases.

Although questions vary considerably with respect to the responses appropriate to them and the motivations intrinsic to them, little attention has yet been given to the potential effects of these factors on the power of questions to perform turn-allocating and response-eliciting functions. The present study attempts to clarify how such variables as motivation, constraint, difficulty and function may affect the child's responsiveness to mother questions. Results suggest that functionally defined question types are differentiable not only by their relative power to elicit a response from the child, but also by the manner in which they are presented. Implications of these results in the context of mother–child conversation and its effects are considered.

The study of juror judgment in cases of rape has been a staple of social psychology research for nearly 25 years. However, the literature on attribution of responsibility to rape victims has been confusing and contradictory. This literature is first reviewed and then reinterpreted in light of recent advances in social cognition research and theorizing that has been specifically focused on "commonsense" legal judgments. We then offer an extension of the story model (N. Pennington & R. Hastie, 1986Hastie, , 1991 to explain how jurors select stories, termed the empathy-complexity theory of story making.

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