Cognitive and Tactical Dimensions of Conversational Goal Management

Rationalist depictions of conversational behaviour assume that communicators engage in a good deal of goal-directed thinking and that such thinking guides message production. The current study used a cued-recall method (Cegala et al., 1988) to investigate the composition of conversational cognition and to investigate the relationship between cognitions and tactics. Results indicated that goal-oriented cognition was prominent but that non-strategic thoughts were more frequent. In addition, results indicated that individuals using tactics of low, moderate, and high levels of goal management sophistication had qualitatively different conversational cognitions. Finally, partner tactics appeared to influence the composition of conversational cognition.