Title

ABX System

Description

Every communicative act is viewed as a transmission of information, consisting of discriminative stimuli, from a source to a recipient. For present purposes it is assumed that the discriminative stimuli have a discriminable object as referent. Thus in the simplest possible communicative act one person (A) transmits information to another person (B) about something (X). Such an act is symbolized here as AtoBreX.

…The minimal components of the A-BX system, as schematically illustrated in [the figure], are as follows:
1. A's orientation toward X, including both attitude toward X as an object to be approached or avoided (characterized by sign and intensity) and cognitive attributes (beliefs and cognitive structuring).
2. A's orientations toward B, in exactly the same sense. (For purposes of avoiding confusing terms, we shall speak of positive and negative attraction toward A or B as persons, and of favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward X.)
3. B's orientation toward X.
4. B's orientation toward A.

Designer

Newcomb, Theodore M.

Date

1953

Source

"An Approach to the Study of Communicative Acts"

Bibliographic Citation

Newcomb, Theodore M. 1953. "An Approach to the Study of Communicative Acts." Psychological Review, Vol. 60, No 6. Figure 1

is depiction of attribute

English Triangle

has attribute

English Arrow

English Solid Line

depict things of type

English Sequence or Process

English Conceptual