This study examined age differences in collaborative inhibition and the role of inter-subjectivity, collective information sampling (CIS) and collaborative inhibition for the collaborative recall of shared and unshared information in groups of 7- and 9-year-old children. Three-hundred and thirteen 7- and 9-year-old children recalled memorized wordlists either in real or nominal groups of three. All group members either recalled the same items, or each group member was given some unique items. Nine-year-olds, but not 7-year-olds, recalled significantly more items in nominal than real groups, a phenomenon called collaborative inhibition. Groups whose interactions were characterized by higher numbers of inter-subjective exchanges recalled fewer words than groups low in inter-subjectivity. In both age groups, a higher proportion of shared compared with unshared information was recalled consistent with processes of CIS. However, 7-year-olds recalled more unshared items than predicted, suggesting that collaborative inhibition additionally contributes to the recall of shared and unshared items.

Group decision making should be particularly beneficial when group members share unique information, because then a group can make a better decision than each group member alone. This study examined how elementary-school children share unique information during group decision making. Seventy-nine groups of 3 same-sex and same-age 7- and 9-year-old children (N = 237) had to decide which 1 of 2 hypothetical candidates should play the lead role in a school musical. When information was unshared, group members had to exchange their uniquely held information to identify the best candidate. Only a minority of groups picked the best candidate when information was unshared. Yet, groups of 7-year-old children were better at identifying the best candidate and were less likely to focus on the discussion of shared information than groups of 9-year-olds. These findings are interpreted with reference to processes underlying information sharing in groups, namely collective information sampling, preference-consistent evaluation, and collaborative inhibition/intersubjectivity.