A comparison of individual, subgroup, and total group methods of problem solving

Abstract

Reanalyzed data from 3 previous experiments in an attempt to answer the question: Given a large number of individuals to work on a problem, should they work individually and combine their output, or should they work together in a number of small groups and pool the output of the groups? In 9 contrasts, the pooled number of ideas generated by individuals was larger than the pooled number of ideas generated by groups (p < .01; 2-tailed test). For the group sizes (4-9) and procedures (various forms of brainstorming) considered, it is concluded that the pooled-individual procedure was superior to the pooled-group procedure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)