Matthew M. Martin

Background/objectives: Cognitive flexibility is the mental skill that allows a person to shift between different ideas or concepts and think about several concepts simultaneously. A commonly used tool to assess cognitive flexibility is the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS). This study focused on translating and validating the CFS into Arabic, given the lack of existing Arabic tools for assessing cognitive flexibility. Methods: Conducted at King Saud University, Riyadh, between April and June 2024, the study employed random sampling and involved 529 participants, including 419 students and 110 patients. Results: The average participant age was 25.8 years, with females making up 56.9% of the sample. Participants completed the Arabic CFS, along with the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), at two time points 3–6 weeks apart. Reliability was evaluated through internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.8) and test–retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.82). Item analysis indicated that removing any single item did not significantly impact overall reliability, and inter-item correlations were strongest between items 4 and 6 (0.55) and items 6 and 7 (0.51). Validity was assessed through face, content, and construct validity, with factor analysis revealing a dominant single component accounting for 34.4% of the variance, confirming the scale’s unidimensionality. Content validity indices for all items exceeded 0.9 in terms of relevance, importance, simplicity, and clarity. The Arabic CFS demonstrated good construct validity, showing significant correlations with the ERQ’s reappraisal and suppression dimensions and the PSS. Conclusion: In conclusion, the Arabic version of the CFS is a valid and reliable tool for assessing cognitive flexibility in Arabic-speaking populations. This tool will be valuable in both clinical and research settings within Saudi Arabia, offering a robust instrument for evaluating cognitive flexibility.

Editor’s Note: This essay reflects the final in our five-part set of essays on the career of Communication Research Reports founding editor, James C. McCroskey. In these previous essays, Levine and Park (2017) offered the opening essay in our series, with a professional and personal rememberance of a scholar deeply impactful on both of their careers. Hickson (2018) commented on McCroskey’s formal and informal mentorship styles, and how others might understand the critical importance of offering oneself to one’s peers. Park, Oh, and Ryu (2018) explained the unique impact of McCroskey’s research on communication scholarship in South Korea, and Frymier (2018) reminded us of McCroskey’s impact as a core scholar for instructional communication research. In this final essay, we reached out to current West Virginia University Department of Communication chair Matthew M. Martin for his thoughts. As McCroskey spent most of his career at WVU (including a 25-year stretch as the department chair, from 1972 to 1997), inviting the current chair of that department for a closing commentary seemed most fitting. We hope that these five essays serve as a memorial to a scholar whose career and influence extends far beyond his publication record.

This study examined the relationships between faculty workplace bullying with graduate students’ burnout and organizational citizenship behaviors. Graduate students (N = 272) completed a self-report questionnaire measuring the degree to which faculty bully them at work (i.e., through belittlement, punishment, managerial misconduct, exclusion) along with reports of their student burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, professional efficacy) and use of organizational citizenship behaviors (i.e., helping, civic virtue, sportsmanship). Results of canonical correlations revealed that faculty bullying was related positively to graduate student burnout and was related inversely to organizational citizenship behaviors.

This report is a validity study involving the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (Martin & Rubin, 1995 Martin , M. M. , & Rubin , R. B. ( 1995 ). A new measure of cognitive flexibility . Psychological Reports , 76 , 623 – 626 . [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar] ). Participants completed an online questionnaire. As predicted, cognitive flexibility was positively related to measures of intellectual flexibility and self-compassion, and negatively related to a measure of dogmatism. The prediction that cognitive flexibility would be negatively related to preference for consistency was not supported.

Visits during office hours, conversations before or after class, and informal meetings on campus are regarded as out-of-class communication (OCC). This study looked at the relationship between students' communication traits and their OCC with their instructors. Students completed measures of their own communication apprehension, Talkaholicism, assertiveness, responsiveness, and flexibility, as well as their overall OCC with their instructors. Results showed that students' OCC was positively related to their cognitive flexibility and negatively related to their communication apprehension.

This study investigated the relationship between scores of college students ( N = 210, 114 women, 95 men, 1 unidentified; M age = 19.3 yr., SD = 2.8) on Machiavellianism and their motives for communicating with their instructors in the classroom. Students' Machiavellianism scores were positively but weakly related to three motives of Functional ( r = .22, p <.01), Excuse-making ( r = .16, p <.05), and Sycophancy ( r = .17, p <.05).

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of instructor in-class communicative behaviors on college student participation in out of class communication (OCC). Participants were 298 students enrolled in an introductory communication course at a Mid-Atlantic university who completed the Communication Functions Questionnaire, the modified Affinity-Seeking Strategy scale, and the Out of Class Interaction scale. Results of stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that student participation in OCC was predicted by perceived instructor use of the ego support and persuasive functional communication skills as well as perceived instructor use of the sensitivity, self-inclusion, inclusion of others, comfortable self, and supportiveness affinity-seeking strategies. Future research should examine if students choose not to participate in OCC based on instructor communicative behaviors and how this choice is reflected in their choice of particular communicative channels.

This study explores the relationship between Machiavellianism and motives for communicating (pleasure, affection, inclusion, relaxation, control and escape) with satisfaction in the work place. Full-time employees (N=319) in a wide-variety of organizations reported their Machiavellianism and their interpersonal communication motives, as well as their satisfaction with their superiors. The study also seeks to answer the question if the motives mediate the influence of Machiavellianism on communication satisfaction with superiors. The results suggest that Machiavellianism shares a negative relationship with the affection motive, whereas escape, relaxation, and control motives share a positive relationship with Machiavellianism. Further analysis reveals that the affection motive mediates Machiavellianism in its relationship to satisfaction with superiors. The affection and pleasure motives share a direct relationship with satisfaction.

This ‐paper introduces the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale and reports on two initial studies that address the reliability and validity of the scale. The Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale is an 18‐item measure of the amount of instructor self‐disclosure. In Study One, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to the student motives of relational, excuse‐making, and sycophancy. In Study Two, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to out‐of‐class communication, the student interest dimensions of meaningfulness and impact, and cognitive learning. Additionally, the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale appears to be a unidimensional, internally reliable measure.