Group discussion as interactive dialogue or as serial monologue: the influence of group size

Objective Communication Patterns Associated With Team Member Effectiveness in Real-World Virtual Teams

OBJECTIVE

We explore the relationships between objective communication patterns displayed during virtual team meetings and established, qualitative measures of team member effectiveness.

BACKGROUND

A key component of teamwork is communication. Automated measures of objective communication patterns are becoming more feasible and offer the ability to measure and monitor communication in a scalable, consistent and continuous manner. However, their validity in reflecting meaningful measures of teamwork processes are not well established, especially in real-world settings.

METHOD

We studied real-world virtual student teams working on semester-long projects. We captured virtual team meetings using the Zoom video conferencing platform throughout the semester and periodic surveys comprising peer ratings of team member effectiveness. Leveraging audio transcripts, we examined relationships between objective measures of speaking time, silence gap duration and vocal turn-taking and peer ratings of team member effectiveness.

RESULTS

Speaking time, speaking turn count, degree centrality and (marginally) speaking turn duration, but not silence gap duration, were positively related to individual-level team member effectiveness. Time in dyadic interactions and interaction count, but not interaction length, were positively related to dyad-level team member effectiveness.

CONCLUSION

Our study highlights the relevance of objective measures of speaking time and vocal turn-taking to team member effectiveness in virtual project-based teams, supporting the validity of these objective measures and their use in future research.

APPLICATION

Our approach offers a scalable, easy-to-use method for measuring communication patterns and team member effectiveness in virtual teams and opens the opportunity to study these patterns in a more continuous and dynamic manner.

To stay or re-migrate after the pandemic shock? Labor re-migration intention to the coastal areas of Thừa Thiên Huế province in Vietnam

This study applied the extended theory of planned behavior (ETPB) to explore factors that shape the behavioral intention of migrant laborers returning to the coastal region of Thừa Thiên Huế province during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to remigrate. Data collection included 210 interviews with returned migrants aged 18 and above in 4 coastal communes of Thừa Thiên Huế province, in-depth interviews (8 key informants) and a group discussion (5 persons). Exploratory factor analysis and a multivariate linear regression model were applied to analyze the data. Results showed that in addition to individual socio-demographic characteristics (i.e. level of education, age, income level and sex), attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and perceived risk were also determinant factors of migrants' intention to remigrate. This research suggested that in order to build resilience of rural migration workers, related departments should seriously consider the following recommendations: (i) raise awareness and encourage young rural people to complete their education and necessary skills; (ii) organize related psychological training programs for rural laborers; (iii) raise awareness about the necessity to participate in social insurance; (iv) promote rural job creation programs suitable for low education and low-skilled rural laborers; (v) raise awareness for local people, particularly school children, about the value and opportunities of being smart farmers in the context of 4.0 technology and social risks at the destination for low education and low-skilled laborers; (vi) digitalize migration labor management and provide digital information services regarding job opportunities for rural laborers.

Timing of head turns to upcoming talkers in triadic conversation: Evidence for prediction of turn ends and interruptions

In conversation, people are able to listen to an utterance and respond within only a few hundred milliseconds. It takes substantially longer to prepare even a simple utterance, suggesting that interlocutors may make use of predictions about when the talker is about to end. But it is not only the upcoming talker that needs to anticipate the prior talker ending-listeners that are simply following the conversation could also benefit from predicting the turn end in order to shift attention appropriately with the turn switch. In this paper, we examined whether people predict upcoming turn ends when watching conversational turns switch between others by analysing natural conversations. These conversations were between triads of older adults in different levels and types of noise. The analysis focused on the observer during turn switches between the other two parties using head orientation (i.e. saccades from one talker to the next) to identify when their focus moved from one talker to the next. For non-overlapping utterances, observers started to turn to the upcoming talker before the prior talker had finished speaking in 17% of turn switches (going up to 26% when accounting for motor-planning time). For overlapping utterances, observers started to turn towards the interrupter before they interrupted in 18% of turn switches (going up to 33% when accounting for motor-planning time). The timing of head turns was more precise at lower than higher noise levels, and was not affected by noise type. These findings demonstrate that listeners in natural group conversation situations often exhibit head movements that anticipate the end of one conversational turn and the beginning of another. Furthermore, this work demonstrates the value of analysing head movement as a cue to social attention, which could be relevant for advancing communication technology such as hearing devices.

Arguments at Odds—Dyadic Turn-Taking and Conflict Development in Consensus-Making Groups

Turn-taking is the most basic sequential process in group interactions. However, few studies have analyzed how turn-taking patterns impact group dynamics and outcomes. Research has shown that turn-taking in group interactions usually takes the form of a dyadic ABA pattern, in which two speakers talk interchangeably. In this paper, we propose that in groups discussing a controversial topic (abortion rights), ABA patterns transmit conflict. It was found that ABA patterns correlate with reciprocal exchanges of contradictory arguments, which, when prolonged, escalate into conflicts marked by heightened negativity, dominance, disagreement, and opinion strength. Content in ABA patterns conveyed later in the conversation becomes more conflictive, compared to non-dyadic ordering. The interacting group members in the ABA pattern were less satisfied with the group, as manifested by a lower level of perceived quality of the discussion, and they gave mutual assessments of influence, dissimilarity, and disagreement.

What are Learner and Instructor Preferences for Group Size and Composition for a Series of Synchronous Online Case Discussions for Upper Extremity Trauma Surgeons?

Small group discussion (SGD) is a well-known educational method to promote active learning. Best practices for running SGDs in face-to-face events are described in the literature; however, little has been reported regarding synchronous online delivery. The aim of this study was to determine learner and instructor preferences for online SGDs in terms of group size and composition and to formulate best practices based on participant and faculty feedback. We designed an 8-module online course for surgeons managing upper extremity trauma. Participants were pre-assigned into 2 types of group: 1 faculty with 5 participants or 2 faculty with 8 participants. We collected feedback from 91 participants and 34 faculty over the 8 weeks in multiple ways. Participants preferred way to run an online SGD is to have 2 faculty with 4–5 participants (80%), rotating to different faculty every week (67%), and interacting with peers from different countries (95%). Pre-course assessment questions and pre-recorded presentations enhanced the online discussions for 82%. From open text comments, we identified that cases/content, faculty, participant engagement, and technical support worked well. The course could be improved by adding more extensive technical and connectivity checks, having a different time scheduling, and integrating more supporting materials.

Does discussion make crowds any wiser?

Does discussion in large groups help or hinder the wisdom of crowds? To give rise to the wisdom of crowds, by which large groups can yield surprisingly accurate answers, aggregation mechanisms such as averaging of opinions or majority voting rely on diversity of opinions, and independence between the voters. Discussion tends to reduce diversity and independence. On the other hand, discussion in small groups has been shown to improve the accuracy of individual answers. To test the effects of discussion in large groups, we gave groups of participants (N = 1958 participants in groups of size ranging from 22 to 212; mean 59) one of three types of problems (demonstrative, factual, ethical) to solve, first individually, and then through discussion. For demonstrative (logical or mathematical) problems, discussion improved individual answers, as well as the answers reached through aggregation. For factual problems, discussion improved individual answers, and either improved or had no effect on the answers reached through aggregation. Our results suggest that, for problems which have a correct answer, discussion in large groups does not detract from the effects of the wisdom of crowds, and tends on the contrary to improve on it.

Network Connectivity Dynamics, Cognitive Biases, and the Evolution of Cultural Diversity in Round-Robin Interactive Micro-Societies

The distribution of cultural variants in a population is shaped by both neutral evolutionary dynamics and by selection pressures. The temporal dynamics of social network connectivity, that is, the order in which individuals in a population interact with each other, has been largely unexplored. In this paper, we investigate how, in a fully connected social network, connectivity dynamics, alone and in interaction with different cognitive biases, affect the evolution of cultural variants. Using agent-based computer simulations, we manipulate population connectivity dynamics (early, mid, and late full-population connectivity); content bias, or a preference for high-quality variants; coordination bias, or whether agents tend to use self-produced variants (egocentric bias), or to switch to variants observed in others (allocentric bias); and memory size, or the number of items that agents can store in their memory. We show that connectivity dynamics affect the time-course of variant spread, with lower connectivity slowing down convergence of the population onto a single cultural variant. We also show that, compared to a neutral evolutionary model, content bias accelerates convergence and amplifies the effects of connectivity dynamics, while larger memory size and coordination bias, especially egocentric bias, slow down convergence. Furthermore, connectivity dynamics affect the frequency of high-quality variants (adaptiveness), with late connectivity populations showing bursts of rapid change in adaptiveness followed by periods of relatively slower change, and early connectivity populations following a single-peak evolutionary dynamic. We evaluate our simulations against existing data collected from previous experiments and show how our model reproduces the empirical patterns of convergence.

Student Perceptions of a Synchronous Online Cooperative Learning Course in a Japanese Women’s University during the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic expanded worldwide, most Japanese universities launched online learning as an emergent measure; hence, securing the quality of online learning remains a challenge. This study aimed to understand reasons behind students’ preferred mode of online learning during the pandemic and to explore the impact of online cooperative learning on students’ class participation by analyzing their voluntary comments. A qualitative content analysis identified three factors that are related to students’ decisions and motivation about participating in synchronous online classes: mutuality resulting from interaction, the impact of COVID-19 on their life and learning, and individual circumstances. This small-scale study was conducted under the unusual circumstance of the pandemic, and the quality of student interaction was excluded from the analysis. However, their enjoyment arising from interaction encouraged their participation in a synchronous class and discussion. They expressed themselves and listened to others attentively, creating a favorable climate for learning. Students’ positive interdependence observed in this study suggests that cooperative learning cultivates a classroom culture where students are willing to contribute without the fear of losing face. This study indicated that participation, cooperation, and active engagement create a positive feedback loop, promoting each aspect even in an online setting.

Collective Choice, Collaboration, and Communication

This article reviews recent empirical research on collective choice and collaborative problem solving. Much of the collective choice research focuses on hidden profiles. A hidden profile exists when group members individually have information favoring suboptimal choices but the group collectively has information favoring an optimal choice. Groups are notoriously bad at discovering optimal choices when information is distributed to create a hidden profile. Reviewed work identifies informational structures, individual processing biases, and social motivations that inhibit and facilitate the discovery of hidden profiles. The review of collaborative problem-solving research is framed by Larson's concept of synergy. Synergy refers to performance gains that are attributable to collaboration. Recent research has addressed factors that result in groups performing as well as their best member (weak synergy) and better than their best member (strong synergy). Communication dynamics underlying both collective choice and collaborative problem solving are discussed.

The Culture of Professional Self-Realization as a Fundamental Factor of Students’ Internet Communication in the Modern Educational Environment of Higher Education

This article deals with the problem of the culture of professional self-realization of Russian students in the process of university education at the present stage. The role of information and communications technologies is revealed, in particular the interactive technology of self-regulation developed by the authors, as a necessary pedagogical condition for the successful professional self-realization of students. The paper describes the interactive technology of self-regulation formation used in teaching a foreign language in order to improve the educational process. The paper provides an analysis of the current state of the classroom educational environment in teaching a foreign language in order to determine the possibilities of improving the educational process. The main goal of the interactive technology of self-regulation formation is to optimize and intensify the activities of students in the classroom and extracurricular activities. The interactive technology of self-regulation formation in a nonlinguistic university was applied in the proposed work. Special attention was paid to the problem of structuring and the algorithmization of independent work. Ways for increasing interactivity are revealed, and an algorithm for teaching and speech actions in interactive mode was developed. It was established that the introduction of structured algorithmization using the interactive technology of self-regulation formation could be effectively used for teaching poorly prepared students. It has been established that the culture of professional self-actualization for modern students is directly dependent on the quality of online interaction with a university teacher. It was revealed that it is the student’s awareness of the objectives of learning interaction and ways for its implementation that allow him to competently perform his academic work, which in turn contributes to the actualization of personal professional qualities that are required by a university graduate for successful implementation in the future.

Unconditional Kindness to Strangers

Relational science has become an increasingly important paradigm in psychology. Its emphasis on the centrality of interpersonal relationships to psychological processes and its insistence that such relationships are the key to human survival and well-being appear to be the needed antidote to the problems of the individualistic paradigm. Unfortunately, however, even while talking the language of relationships, relational science continues to walk individualistically. Using Levinas' philosophy as the basis, I argue that this problem stems from adopting a conditional understanding of the interpersonal domain; this differs from Levinas's insistence on persons' unconditional obligations to be responsible for others, especially the stranger. I further argue that these unconditional obligations offer the only basis by which sociality can contribute to human survival and well-being. Four implications and a conclusion for an ethical psychology complete the article.

Designing Collaborative Activities to Promote Understanding and Problem-Solving

There are a vast number of studies that examine narrowly focused aspects of collaborative activities. However, rare is the research that synthesizes the findings of these studies and suggests an overall picture of well-designed collaborative activities. Toward this end, this manuscript discusses the characteristics of collaboration related to communication, structure, group composition, and grounding. The design of a collaborative activity should allow for certain types of conversations, feedback, and questions. The structure of a collaborative activity should consider tasks, scripts, and roles. Group size and ability grouping are flexible based on the analyses conducted at the beginning of the design process. The social space should afford grounding by not only allowing for social interaction, but also by stimulating such interaction.

Enactment of one-to-many communication may induce self-focused attention that leads to diminished perspective taking: The case of Facebook

Social networking sites (SNSs) provide users with an efficient interface for distributing information, such as photos or wall posts, to many others simultaneously. We demonstrated experimentally that this type of indiscriminate one-to-many (i.e., monologue) communication may induce self-focused attention and thereby impair perspective taking. The present study used multiple paradigms to explore the link between engaging in online one-to-many communication and a decrease in perspective taking. Experiment 1 revealed that Facebookers who published a personal photo to the public or their friends were less likely to adopt another person’s visual perspective than were those in the control group. Experiment 2 showed that Facebookers who engaged in indiscriminate one-to-many wall posting were more likely than those in the control group to rely heavily on their own perspectives. A state of self-focus, as measured by greater Stroop interference in naming the color of self-relevant versus neutral words, mediated the detrimental effect of indiscriminate one-to-many communication on cognitive perspective taking. These findings suggest that indiscriminate one-to-many communication on SNSs may promote public self-focus, leading to self-referential processing when making social judgments. Online monologue communication may be more harmful to perspective taking than previously understood.

Group heterogeneity increases the risks of large group size: a longitudinal study of productivity in research groups

Heterogeneous groups are valuable, but differences among members can weaken group identification. Weak group identification may be especially problematic in larger groups, which, in contrast with smaller groups, require more attention to motivating members and coordinating their tasks. We hypothesized that as groups increase in size, productivity would decrease with greater heterogeneity. We studied the longitudinal productivity of 549 research groups varying in disciplinary heterogeneity, institutional heterogeneity, and size. We examined their publication and citation productivity before their projects started and 5 to 9 years later. Larger groups were more productive than smaller groups, but their marginal productivity declined as their heterogeneity increased, either because their members belonged to more disciplines or to more institutions. These results provide evidence that group heterogeneity moderates the effects of group size, and they suggest that desirable diversity in groups may be better leveraged in smaller, more cohesive units.

Audience design through social interaction during group discussion

This paper contrasts two accounts of audience design during multiparty communication: audience design as a strategic individual-level message adjustment or as a non-strategic interaction-level message adjustment. Using a non-interactive communication task, Experiment 1 showed that people distinguish between messages designed for oneself and messages designed for another person; consistent with strategic message design, messages designed for another person/s were longer (number of words) than those designed for oneself. However, audience size did not affect message length (messages designed for different sized audiences were similar in length). Using an interactive communication task Experiment 2 showed that as group size increased so too did communicative effort (number of words exchanged between interlocutors). Consistent with a non-strategic account, as group members were added more social interaction was necessary to coordinate the group's collective situation model. Experiment 3 validates and extends the production measures used in Experiment 1 and 2 using a comprehension task. Taken together, our results indicate that audience design arises as a non-strategic outcome of social interaction during group discussion.

The key to cultural innovation lies in the group dynamic rather than in the individual mind

Vaesen infers unique properties of mind from the appearance of specific cultural innovation – a correlation without causal direction. Shifts in habitat, population density, and group dynamics are the only independently verifiable incentives for changes in cultural practices. The transition from Acheulean to Late Stone Age technologies requires that we consider how population and social dynamics affect cultural innovation and mental function.

Experimental semiotics: a review

In the last few years a new line of research has appeared in the literature. This line of research, which may be referred to as experimental semiotics (ES; Galantucci, 2009; Galantucci and Garrod, 2010), focuses on the experimental investigation of novel forms of human communication. In this review we will (a) situate ES in its conceptual context, (b) illustrate the main varieties of studies thus far conducted by experimental semioticians, (c) illustrate three main themes of investigation which have emerged within this line of research, and (d) consider implications of this work for cognitive neuroscience.

Syntactic alignment and participant role in dialogue

We report three experiments that investigated whether the linguistic behavior of participants in a dialogue is affected by their role within that interaction. All experiments were concerned with the way in which speakers choose between syntactic forms with very similar meanings. Theories of dialogue assume that speakers address their contributions directly to their addressees, but also indirectly to side participants. In Experiments 1 and 2, speakers produced picture descriptions that had the same syntactic structure as a previous speaker's descriptions which had been addressed to a third person. This indicated that syntactic alignment is not limited to speaker-addressee dyads. However, the prior participant role of the current speaker affected alignment: prior addressees aligned more than prior side-participants. In contrast, Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that alignment was unaffected by the prior participant role of the current addressee. We interpret these findings in terms of depth of processing during encoding.

On the formation of collective memories: The role of a dominant narrator

To test our hypothesis that conversations can contribute to the formation of collective memory, we asked participants to study stories and to recall them individually (pregroup recollection), then as a group (group recounting), and then once again individually (postgroup recollection). One way that postgroup collective memories can be formed under these circumstances is if unshared pregroup recollections in the group recounting influences others' postgroup recollections. In the present research, we explored (using tests of recall and recognition) whether the presence of a dominant narrator can facilitate the emergence of unshared pregroup recollections in a group recounting and whether this emergence is associated with changes in postgroup recollections. We argue that the formation of a collective memory through conversation is not inevitable but is limited by cognitive factors, such as conditions for social contagion, and by situational factors, such as the presence of a narrator.

Automatic analysis of multimodal group actions in meetings

This paper investigates the recognition of group actions in meetings. A framework is employed in which group actions result from the interactions of the individual participants. The group actions are modeled using different HMM-based approaches, where the observations are provided by a set of audiovisual features monitoring the actions of individuals. Experiments demonstrate the importance of taking interactions into account in modeling the group actions. It is also shown that the visual modality contains useful information, even for predominantly audio-based events, motivating a multimodal approach to meeting analysis.