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  Are You Listening? Small Flames Wh0’s Who at UK
. How well do you listen? A study at UK Any teenager who has ever set an old W}zo’s Who Among Students in American
1 1 indicates that we recall only some 25 term paper aflame can tell you that pa- Unz`ver.vilies and Colleges for the 1987 edi-
1 l percent of the factual data we hear. per burns faster when lit at the edge. tion includes the names of 55 students
1 , "Sometimes listeners listen poorly Now, three University of Kentucky en- from the University of Kentucky.
. ` because they have a bad attitude about gineering professionals are studying The students selected are considered
1 the speaker," says Robert Bostrom, a this small example to help establish fire the nation’s outstanding student leaders
3 professor of communication at UK. safety codes. and are chosen by campus nominating
"But some listeners have real problems The edge of the paper is in a position committees and editors of Wh0)J Who.
. E with the listening process." to receive heat from the flame that Students are chosen from more than
‘ ; Bostrom and his colleagues have been wraps around it as well as from the 1,400 institutions of higher learning in
Q   conducting listening research for the flame on the surface area close to the all 50 States, the District of Columbia
  past 10 years, trying to find out why we edge, says UK Associate Professor and several foreign nations.
; · listen the way we do. Kozo Saito. Students were chosen on the basis of
— "People listen differently in different "If we understand this phenomenon, their academic achievement, service to
` situations," says Bostrom. "A good lis- then we can expand it to larger fires," the community, leadership in extracur-
é tener in a conversation might not be a Saito says. The knowledge will be used ricular activities and potential for con-
Y good listener in a lecture or a sermon." to form fire codes that consulting engi- tinued success.
V   Furthermore, good readers are not neers and architects must follow when Students named this year from UK
if necessarily good listeners, he says. designing buildings. The codes include are:
Gender of the listener can mean adif— Hammability information on different Stan Able, jill Ackerman, Kenny
ference in how well the message is ac- materials. Arington, Dale Baldwin, Anthony
L cepted, the UK study indicates. Males Saito, UK Professor Robert Alten- Barnes, Winston Bennett, Scott Brid-
V listen better to messages on audio tape kirch and UK Research Associate M. ges, Dina Brockman, Susan Brothers,
_   or delivered face-to-face and females do Vedha-Nayagam are working with a Cornell Burbage, Bridgett Callaway,
  better with messages on videotape. Princeton University professor and a Scott Cave, john Albert Clements,
g "Notetaking doesn’t always help," member of the Center for Fire Research Angie Collier, Catherine Daugherty,
  says Bostrom. "With some good lis- to collect this information associated Cynthia Denker, Mary Devries,_]uani-
  · teners taking notes hinders their per- with fire safety. ta Drinnon, Linda Durhamn, john
i formance." This is the first time anyone has stud- England, Decia Flege, Christa Gaynor,
  Good listeners sometimes perform ied a flame spreading on exposed paper Tom Gillespie, Paul Flowers, Donna
    well because they are skilled at semantic edges, Saito says. In the past, the paper Greenwell, Jody Hanks, Frank
S i encoding—relating words to one anoth- has been insulated on both edges, which Hestand, jeff Hester, and Richard
  er—and sometimes because of good does not create the angle they are study- johnson.
  memory skills. The two are not always ing. The completed angle formula will And also included are Ron _]uanso,
l the same, says Bostrom. calculate the speed of the flame. Mitchell Know, Ken Lange, Laura
l One way to improve our listening is Lovelace, Matt Lucas, Mindy Martin,
to listen to "hidden messages in tone of Sarah Minor, jennifer McDowell, Peg-
‘ voice, nonverbal cues and inHection," gy Noe, Shiela Owen, Tina Payne, _]im
; he says. "Often, persons say one thing Russell Proffitt, jim Rannes, William
l and mean something else quite dif- K. Ransdell, Laurie Read, Denise
ferent." Reteneller, Carrie Roberts, Molly
I One product of the UK communica- Schrand, jim Stein, Fran Stewart,
tion research is the Kentucky Compre- Leigh Ellen Wallace, Scott Ward, Tra-
; hensive Listening Test, a standardized cy Webb, Anne Wesley, Cynthia Marie
  test which is now in use around the Weaver, and Tom Wilkins.
i country as a research instrument and
gauge of diagnostic skills.
` Several consultants for business and
industry have used the test experimen-
tally as a tool with which to assess their
personnel for listening skills, says
Bostrom.
_ UK 3