James D. Ivory

Emergency department (ED) waiting rooms have complex soundscapes where nurses sometimes perform triage and documentation amid task-irrelevant sounds. This study examined whether auditory distraction affects documentation accuracy across noise types and interval patterns. Thirty-two ED nurses completed simulated triage in the Tesseract, an immersive multimodal simulation environment, across four Noise Types (alarms, infant crying, conversations, quiet baseline) and two Noise Intervals (continuous or intermittent). A behaviorally anchored error-coding framework with strong interrater reliability was used to assess severity-weighted documentation errors and free-text entry error counts. Noise conditions produced no significant effects on cumulative severity-weighted errors over quiet baseline. Free-text entry errors showed a significant Noise Type × Noise Interval interaction effect, χ ² (2) = 12.92, p = .002. Conversations produced the highest error counts under continuous and infant crying under intermittent noise interval. Findings suggest noise-related errors can be dependent on the momentary soundscape, and documentation processes are vulnerable to disruption.

Increasing awareness of the “replication crisis” has prompted discussion about replicability and reproducibility in social and behavioral science research, including in communication. As with other fields, communication has seen discussion about concerns with the interpretation of existing research. One response has been the piecemeal adoption of “open science” practices in communication to reduce selectivity in analysis, reporting, and publication of research. Calls for further adoption of such practices have, in turn, been met with criticisms and concerns about the negative consequences of their adoption. Amidst disparate perspectives regarding solutions to replicability and reproducibility issues in communication science, difficulties building consensus and caution about negative outcomes are understandable, but they also present the risk of a status quo bias that could stall the improvement of the replicability and reproducibility of communication research. The urgency of the replication crisis for communication and the cost of inaction are presented here along three exemplifying dimensions perhaps of particular importance in communication research: (a) responsibility to the public, (b) stewardship of resources, and (c) membership in a community of scholars. While debate over solutions will continue, we would do well to keep in mind that problems with replicability and reproducibility in communication research are indeed a crisis needing immediate attention.

This article presents a synthesis and interpretation of research on character portrayals in digital game content using a systematic review of existing studies (N = 30) based on a larger database search (N = 1,127). Character sex and gender has been the most frequently studied dimension, followed by character sexualization and character race and ethnicity. Other characteristics studied include characters from the LGBTQ community, body size, age, and mental well-being, along with character behaviors such as violence, profanity, and gambling. Overall, studies consistently observe that portrayals under-represent female and nonwhite characters and include problematic depictions. Methodological recommendations are provided.

Among the range of approaches and topic areas encompassed by the broad and interdisciplinary field of communication, research on the effects of communication technology is prominent and long-standing. Given the attention that research on the effects of communication technology receives from the scholars, the public, and policymakers, it is imperative that the accuracy, validity, replicability, and reproducibility of that research is a priority. This essay suggests five points, informed by research related to open science, that the community of researchers studying effects of communication technology might bear in mind to protect and promote the most accurate body of knowledge possible.

While there is extensive literature exploring the possible negative effects of video games, and many such studies using college student samples, there is little research on how video game use impacts the unique risk environment of college students. This study focuses on the unique risk aspects of the college and university environment with a preregistered survey comparing three competing models of video games’ possible role (games as risk, incapacitation, or inconsequential) in predicting alcohol and substance use, sexual risk, interpersonal violence, bullying victimization, suicide, disordered eating, and exercise to provide a baseline measure of what role, if any, video games play in the college and university risk environment. Video game play was most consistently associated with outcomes related to suicide and interpersonal violence, and more sporadically associated with some other outcomes.