The pooling of abilities or nominal groups technique was used in the present experiment to compare individuals with two-person groups on a picture-puzzle task. When size of the task was limited to a part (one-fourth) of the puzzle or the duration of the task was restricted to a few (four) trials, no difference between individuals and groups was evident. However, as task size and number of trials increased, groups performed at a significantly higher level than individuals. The difference was discussed in terms of information available to group members and the time required for group formation.
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