Final answer:
Visual cues, alongside vocal cues, form the two types of non-verbal codes in communication. The answer is c) Visual. Understanding and interpreting these cues depend heavily on one's cultural knowledge and can vary widely in meaning across different cultures.
Step-by-step explanation:
Within the communication process, non-verbal code consists of two types of non-language symbols: visual cues and vocal cues. The correct answer to the student's question is c) Visual. Non-verbal communication is heavily reliant on visual cues, including body movements and facial expressions, which vary across cultures and individual situations. For instance, a gesture such as a thumbs-up can be seen as positive reinforcement in some cultures but might be offensive in others like Russia and Australia.
Vocal cues, also known as paralanguage, include inflections, tone, volume, and speech rate, which are not about the words themselves but how they are said. Gestural communication, a subset of visual cues, encompasses all kinds of body language, including facial expressions and movements. In contrast, vocal cues are part of how we express ourselves with our voices beside the actual words.
Cultural knowledge is essential for correctly interpreting these nonverbal signals, as variations in body language, gestures, and paralanguage can lead to different interpretations based on one's cultural background.