In a laboratory experiment subjects worked on two case problems
using one of five different strategies. The first problem required
subjects to generate ideas to solve the problem (idea generation
phase), whereas subjects were given a standardized set of alterna
tives to solve the second case and asked to select the best alterna
tives (idea evaluation phase). Results suggested that the more the
problem-solving strategy approached one of an individual work
ing alone, the greater the number of "good" ideas generated. In
idea evaluation, the interactive strategies did not differ from each
other in terms of decision quality. Group performance was inferior
to the best individual working alone and approximated the level of
the average individual working alone. Reasons for process losses
were discussed.
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