A selective review of research highlights the emerging view of groups as information processors. In this review, the authors include research on processing objectives, attention, encoding, storage, retrieval, processing, response, feedback, and learning in small interacting task groups. The groups as information processors perspective underscores several characteristic dimensions of variability in group performance of cognitive tasks, namely, commonality-uniqueness of information, convergence-diversity of ideas, accentuation-attenuation of cognitive processes, and belongingnessdistinctiveness of members. A combination of contributions framework provides an additional conceptualization of information processing in groups. The authors also address implications, caveats, and questions for future research and theory regarding groups as information processors.In this information age, groups increasingly perform cognitive tasks (Galegher, Krant, & Egido, 1990;Salas, Dickinson, Converse, & Tannenbaum, 1992;Walsh & Ungson, 1991;Weick & Roberts, 1993 ). The nature of small-group research has changed correspondingly (see Bettenhausen, 199 l;Guzzo & Shea, 1992;Levine & Moreland, 1990; and Moreland, Hogg, & Halns, 1994, for reviews) to emphasize intellectual and cognitive tasks (e.g., Hinsz, 1990;Sniezek & Henry, 1989;Stasser, Taylor, & Hanna, 1989;Tindale, 1989;and Vollrath, Sheppard, Hinsz, & Davis, 1989). This change resembles a paradigm shift (Ktthn, 1970), albeit not as dramatic, perhaps because no one paradigm dominates small-group performance research (McGrath, 1993). The emerging view of groups as information processors extends methodological and theoretical developments in cognitive psychology to research in small-group performance. In this article, we selectively review relevant research to highlight how taskperforming groups process information. Rather than advocate that small-group research ought to examine groups as information processors, we document how research has already moved in that direction. To integrate our review, we identify several important dimensions of information processing in groups and

This experiment applies signal detection theory and social decision schemes to investigate the potential impact of information pooling, error correction, and effective decision-making processes in the general finding that groups perform better than individuals on memory tasks. Groups and individuals completed a true/false recognition test regarding material presented in a videotaped simulated job interview. Various indexes of memory performance indicated that each of the processes contributed to the superiority of group recognition memory performance. Social decision scheme analyses indicated that the plurality-correct-wins decision scheme was the best summary of the decision process. Subsequent analyses suggested that the confidence that group members held in their initial preferences influenced the group decision process. Discussion emphasized the impact of consensus, correctness, and confidence on group memory performance.

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