Individual-to-group and group-to-individual transfer in problem solving.

Abstract

Individual-to-group (IG), group-to-individual (GI), individual-to-individual (II), and group-to-group (GG) transfer were compared in two experiments. In Experiment 1, groups had fewer instances to solution than individuals on training problems, and the pattern of instances on the transfer problems was (IG = GG) < (GI = II). Experiment 2 replicated both findings with more difficult problems. Thus, previous individual experience did not influence subsequent group performance, and previous effective performance in groups did not transfer to subsequent individual performance. Rather, groups performed better than individuals regardless of the temporal order of individual and group problem-solving experience.The effect of previous individual problemsolving experience upon subsequent group problem solving and of previous group problem-solving experience upon subsequent individual problem solving is a fundamental question in both experimental psychology and educational and social policy. However, to our knowledge, surprisingly few studies have addressed either of these questions. Two experiments (Dunnette, Campbell, & Jaastad, 1963;Perlmutter & de Montmollin, 1952) compared the temporal order of individual and group experience for the same subjects working both alone and in groups, concluding that the group first-individual second (GI) order resulted in better individual performance than the individual firstgroup second (IG) order. However, their conclusion that previous group problemsolving experience facilitates subsequent individual problem solving is only suggestive because neither study included either individual-to-individual (II) or group-to-

Cognitive synergy in groups and group-to-individual transfer of decision-making competencies

“…G-I transfer of learning describes the extent to which individual group members improve their specific knowledge, problem solving, or decision-making competencies after engaging in collaborative tasks (Laughlin and Sweeney, 1977). In the G-I transfer literature, researchers typically compare subsequent individual performance for participants who first performed tasks (decision-making or problem solving) individually versus in teams.…”

“…The current study builds on the group-to-individual learning transfer literature (Laughlin and Sweeney, 1977; Olivera and Straus, 2004; Laughlin et al, 2008; Schultze et al, 2012) to argue that social and cognitive factors influence group-to-individual learning transfer and in particular the development of individual decision-making competencies. Groups are multi-level social systems with cognitive and emotional emergent properties (Barsade and Gibson, 1998; Curşeu, 2006; Woolley et al, 2010; Hinsz, 2015).…”

When two is too many: Collaborative encoding impairs memory

“…Although most research has shown that collaborative groups outperform individuals during the learning task itself, this benefit does not always carry over to later individual memory performance (Krause, Stark, & Mandl, 2009;Laughlin & Sweeney, 1977). During learning, for example, groups consistently created more detailed and higher quality concept maps (a schematic diagram of the interrelationships among concepts and ideas; Kwon & Cifuentes, 2009) than did individuals.…”

Effects of Professional Experience and Group Interaction on Information Requested in Analyzing IT Cases

“…Researchers have studied knowledge transfer on subsequent tasks (e.g., Beane & Lemke, 1971;Hollingshead, 1998Hollingshead, , 2000Laughlin & Barth, 1981;Laughlin & Sweeney, 1977;Lehmann, Heagy, & Willson, 2006, Olivera & Straus, 2004. Lehmann et al sug-gested that novices show performance improvement in problem representation after interaction with established groups.…”