URBANA, Ill., April 24 (UPI) -- Groups of three, four or five perform better on complex problem-solving than an equivalent number of individuals, says a U.S. study.
The finding may change the way scientific research teams and classroom problem-solving is done, according to study author Patrick Laughlin, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"We found that groups of size three, four, and five outperformed the best individuals and attribute this performance to the ability of people to work together to generate and adopt correct responses, reject erroneous responses, and effectively process information," said Laughlin.
Moreover, groups of two performed at the same level as the best of two individuals, suggesting that this group size was too small to introduce the necessary dynamics for optimal problem-solving, according to Laughlin.
That groups of three or more perform better than the best of the same number of individuals may indicate that scientific research teams perform better than their top member would perform alone, found the study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
