Groups perform better than the best individuals on Letters-to-Numbers problems

Laughlin, Patrick R.; Bonner, Bryan L.; Miner, Andrew

doi:10.1016/s0749-5978(02)00003-1

Cited by 209 publications

(187 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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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;Weldon and Bellinger 1997). On the basis of these results, the challenges that a learning task poses to the cognitive capacity of the learner was identified as an important factor determining whether collaborative learning was more effective and efficient than individual learning.…”

Section: Applying Cognitive Load Theory To Collaborative Learning: Adsupporting

confidence: 92%

Making the Black Box of Collaborative Learning Transparent: Combining Process-Oriented and Cognitive Load Approaches

et al. 2010

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Traditional research on collaborative learning employs a "black box" approach that makes it difficult to gain a deeper understanding of the differential effects of collaborative learning. To make the black box transparent, researchers have studied the process of collaboration, in order to establish which interaction features are likely to make learning more effective and efficient for group members. Although cognitive load theory has been developed in the context of individual learning situations, it may provide a promising new way of looking inside the black box, assuming that students working in groups have more processing capacity than students working individually. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the process-oriented and cognitive-load approaches to conducting collaborative learning research, to highlight their respective advantages and disadvantages, and to suggest how they can be combined in order to address new research questions.

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Section: Applying Cognitive Load Theory To Collaborative Learning: Adsupporting

confidence: 92%

Making the Black Box of Collaborative Learning Transparent: Combining Process-Oriented and Cognitive Load Approaches

et al. 2010

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“…Research on group performance in the psychology literature documents that freely interacting groups very rarely exceed and usually fall below the truth wins standard (Davis, 1992, Kerr et al, 1996, however, more recent research conducted by Laughlin and colleagues suggest that in terms of intellective tasks, the absolute performance of groups is superior to the performance of individuals (Laughlin, et al, 2002;Laughlin, et al, 2003;Laughlin, et al, 2006). Specifically, in a series of experiments conducted by Laughlin and colleagues, three, four, and five-person problem-solving groups performed better than the best of an equivalent number of individuals on a difficult intellective task (e.g., letters-to-numbers problems).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Same process, different outcomes: group performance in an acquiring a company experiment

2015

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I EIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. We report that in an Acquiring a Company game, what prevailed when there was disagreement among group members was the median proposal and not the best proposal. This aggregation rule explains why groups underperformed with respect to a "truth wins" benchmark and why they performed better than individuals deciding in isolation in a simple version of the task but worse in the more difficult version. Implications are drawn on when to employ groups rather than individuals in decision making. JEL Classification:C91, C92, D03, D81

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“…When learners had to work with the information elements, relate them to each other, and by doing so find the solution to a problem, groups again outperformed individuals but they also outperformed the nominal group (Laughlin, Bonner, & Miner, 2002;Laughlin, Hatch, Silver, & Boh, 2006). This time, participating in a group facilitated the performance of the individual group member.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual and group-based learning from complex cognitive tasks: Effects on retention and transfer efficiency

Kirschner

Paas

Kirschner

2009

Computers in Human Behavior

212

153

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The effects of individual versus group learning (in triads) on efficiency of retention and transfer test performance in the domain of biology (heredity) among 70 high-school students were investigated. Applying cognitive load theory, the limitations of the working memory capacity at the individual level were considered an important reason to assign complex learning tasks to groups rather than to individuals. It was hypothesized that groups will have more processing capacity available for relating the information elements to each other and by doing so for constructing higher quality cognitive schemata than individuals if the high cognitive load imposed by complex learning tasks could be shared among group members. In contrast, it was expected that individuals who learn from carrying out the same complex tasks would need all available processing capacity for remembering the interrelated information elements, and, consequently, would not be able to allocate resources to working with them. This interaction hypothesis was confirmed by the data on efficiency of retention and transfer test performance; there was a favorable relationship between mental effort and retention test performance for the individual learners as opposed to a favorable relationship between transfer test performance and mental effort for the students who learned in groups. Collaborative learning models are based on the premise that certain types of learning are best achieved interactively rather than through a one-way transmission process (Johnston, James, Lye, & McDonald, 2000;Littleton & Häkkinen, 1999;Slavin, 1983Slavin, , 1995Veerman & Veldhuis-Diermanse, 2001;Weigel, 2002). Although collaborative learning is emerging as a promising educational approach, research on its effects on learning has been highly inconclusive (Kester & Paas, 2005). We believe that these inconclusive results have, among other things, been caused by a lack of attention to the structures constituting human cognitive architecture (Sweller, 1988;Sweller, Van Merriënboer, & Paas, 1998) when designing collaborative learning environments.Research stressing the potential of collaborative learning shows that collaborative learning environments can stimulate and/or enable learners to engage in activities that are valuable for learning. Activities such as self-directed learning, negotiating meaning (Beers, Boshuizen, & Kirschner, 2007;Kirschner, Beers, Boshuizen, & Gijselaers, 2008), verbalizing explanations, justifications and reflections, giving mutual support (Van Boxtel, Van der Linden, & Kanselaar, 2000), and developing arguments about complex problems or propositions (Munneke, Andriessen, Kanselaar, & Kirschner, 2007) have been found to facilitate the learning process. Collaborative learning has also been shown to help learners retain the learned information longer (Morgan, Whorton, & Gunsalus, 2000) and to foster their higher-order skills more than in more traditional lecture-based learning environments (Sloffer, Dueber, & Duffy, 1999). It is important to note that...

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Groups perform better than the best individuals on Letters-to-Numbers problems

Cited by 209 publications

References 21 publications

Making the Black Box of Collaborative Learning Transparent: Combining Process-Oriented and Cognitive Load Approaches

Making the Black Box of Collaborative Learning Transparent: Combining Process-Oriented and Cognitive Load Approaches

Same process, different outcomes: group performance in an acquiring a company experiment

Individual and group-based learning from complex cognitive tasks: Effects on retention and transfer efficiency

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