A new research model was developed for examining the gender and power conceptualizations affecting human-computer communications. University students worked on an Apple II computer on which the linguistic output was stereotyped male or female. Potency attributions of the computer were rated on a semantic differential scale. A test of the research model indicated significant differences in potency ratings. There was an interaction between gender-stereotyped linguistic output, user's sex, and user's computer experience (F(1, 19)= 5.10, P < .0343). The human-computer communication research model was demonstrated to be useful. It can be used for examining human-computer communication from both theoretical and applied perspectives.
2. Human-computer interaction research
Much research on the human-computer interaction has focussed on "knob-and-dial ergonomics and on the selection and training of operators" (Rasmussen, 1980, p. 67). Research using the Prisoner's dilemma (PD) mixed motive game focussed on the way in which individuals attribute human characteristics to computers and how this affected their strategies when they played PD with a computer opponent (Orcutt & Anderson, 1974a, b;. Mack et al. (1979) used prior h u m a n -h u m a n research as a basis for looking at human-computer interaction behaviour in the PD game. In comparing human-computer research with h u m a n -h u m a n research