Studies in Interactive Communication: I. The Effects of Four Communication Modes on the Behavior of Teams During Cooperative Problem-Solving

TLDR

The study compared four communication modes—typewriting, handwriting, voice, and unrestricted natural communication—by having experienced and inexperienced typists use typewriting, and evaluated performance on solution time, activity behavior, and linguistic metrics. Analysis revealed significant differences among communication modes across all dependent variables, with 34–35 statistically significant ANOVA terms (27–26 practically significant), underscoring the impact of communication mode on team behavior.

Abstract

Two-man teams solved credible, “real-world” problems for which computer assistance has been or could be useful. Conversations were carried on in one of four modes of communication: (1) typewriting, (2) handwriting, (3) voice, and (4) natural, unrestricted communication. Two groups of subjects (experienced and inexperienced typists) were tested in the typewriting mode. Performance was assessed on three classes of dependent measures: time to solution, behavioral measures of activity, and linguistic measures. Significant and meaningful differences among the communication modes were found in each of the three classes of dependent variable. This paper is concerned mainly with the results of the activity analyses. Behavior was recorded in 15 different categories. The analyses of variance yielded 34 statistically significant terms of which 27 were judged to be practically significant as well. When the data were transformed to eliminate heterogeneity, the analyses of variance yielded 35 statistically significant terms of which 26 were judged to be practically significant.