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Groups perform better than the best individuals on letters-to-numbers problems: Effects of group size.
Abstract
Individuals and groups of 2, 3, 4, or 5 people solved 2 letters-to-numbers problems that required participants, on each trial, to identify the coding of 10 letters to 10 numbers by proposing an equation in letters, receiving the answer in letters, proposing a hypothesis, and receiving feedback on the correctness of the hypothesis. Groups of 3, 4, and 5 people proposed more complex equations and had fewer trials to solution than the best of an equivalent number of individuals. Groups of 3, 4, and 5 people had fewer trials to solution than 2-person groups but did not differ from each other. These results suggest that 3-person groups are necessary and sufficient to perform better than the best individuals on highly intellective problems.
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“These findings are consistent with previous research on group versus individual learning which showed that group learning is superior to individual learning for relatively complex problem-solving tasks (Laughlin et al. 2002;Laughlin et al. 2006) and that individual learning is superior to group learning for relatively simple recall tasks (e.g., Andersson and Rönnberg 1995;Meudell et al. 1992;Weld”
From Making the Black Box of Collaborative Learning Transparent: Combining Process-Oriented and Cognitive Load Approaches (2010) · cites this paper as Laughlin et al. 2006
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Metadata
- Authors
- Laughlin, P. R., Hatch, E. C., Silver, J. S., & Boh, L.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2006
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 644-651
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2125970110
- Cited by
- 390
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 21 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 13.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Team Dynamics and Performance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- group problem solving, group size, hypothesis testing, feedback, group versus individual performance
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Cooperative Behavior, Group Processes, Humans, Illinois, Problem Solving
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