INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP-PERFORMANCE ON AN ANAGRAMS TASK

Two experiments were performed to investigate the critical determinants of group performance on a multiple-solution anagrams task. In both experiments, subjects were required to make 5 or-more-letter words out of a set of 12 letters. In the 1st experiment, the subjects were male American college students who worked either alone or in 2 member groups or in 3-member groups. While 2 member groups produced more words and did not differ on errors from individuals, 3-member groups did not differ from 2-member groups. In the case of both 2-member and 3-member groups, nominal groups (formed by pooling the work of individuals working alone) produced more errors than real groups, but there was no difference on words. In the 2nd experiment, with female American college students as subjects, 2-member nominal group, quasi groups (made up of members working for a common goal but not allowed to communicate with each other), and real groups were compared with reference to 2 task conditions (set and nonset). Five words were presented to the subjects in the set condition (unlike in the nonset condition) to channelize their problem-solving activity in particular directions. The groups did not differ on words in any task condition. Real and quasi groups made fewer errors than nominal groups in the nonset condition but not in the set condition.