9422558 Stroh This Doctoral Dissertation Research Support project develops a psychological theory of salience. There are two types of considerations which affect salience, stable considerations (where issues are always on the agenda) and contextual considerations (where media coverage or candidate positions determine whether the issue is on the agenda). Past research demonstrates how the media may influence voter preferences through framing, priming and agenda setting. In this research, other considerations (candidate positioning and the number of candidates) are examined which may influence salience regardless of the amount of media coverage devoted to an issue. Three models are developed to explain why issues are salient to voters: utility difference, similarity, and threshold. The models are tested using survey research (the 1992 National Election Studies Presidential Election pretest) and experimental studies. The research addresses a fundamental question which has not been studied adequately in voting research, namely, what makes issues salient. Searching for possible answers to this question will benefit the study of elections in the future. By identifying possible sources of issue salience, the proposal may offer new explanations of how issues influence elections. ***
