Synthetic Interaction and focused Activity in Sustainment of the Rational Task-Group.

A control of natural interaction (36 groups), a technique of simple synthetic interactivity (distributed processing - 36 groups), and a technique of synthetic interactivity which focuses individual contribution through facilitated knowledge elicitation (braided - 36 groups) were compared in the collaboration of three-member task-groups facing a complex discovered problem (Getzels, 1982). Additional structure tested factors of coactivity (same vs. separate locations) and communication modality (written vs. oral). The task involved management (public policy) of a simulated city facing the onset of a health epidemic (Doerner, Schaub & Badke-Schaub, 1990). Several measures of group performance were obtained both from raw group output and resulting simulation values. Results indicate: 1.) no important differences between communication modalities or coactivity level, 2.) freely collaborating groups (control) performed similarly to randomized baseline trials of the simulation, and 3.) collaborative structure enabled large performance elevation with braided groups outperforming distributed groups and both techniques outperforming the control.