ABSTRACT
The first tasks in developing a study of face-to-face interaction are those of establishing general principles of research design and of data generation (that is, measurement). Before addressing ourselves to the specifics of each of the two studies presented below in Parts II and III, it seems appropriate to consider certain broad principles of design and measurement at this early point in the discussion. There are two reasons for this judgment. First, these broad principles may be said to apply equally to both of the studies presented below, providing a strong element of communality between them, despite their contrasting aims. Second, many of the principles of design and most of the principles of measurement considered in this chapter appear to be quite broadly held among workers in the field commonly referred to as "nonverbal communication," and in related fields. In this sense, many of the elements of the two studies are scarcely unique to them. It is to these broad sources of communality that we now turn our attention.
