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The effects of idea sharing on cognitive processes and performance were assessed in an idea exposure paradigm. Participants generated ideas while being exposed to stimulus ideas that were semantically homogeneous or diverse, and were offered in an organized or a random sequence. As compared to a control condition, participants generated more diverse ideas when exposed to ideas from a wide range of semantic categories, and they generated more ideas per category when exposed to many ideas from only a few categories. The semantic organization of ideas was higher when participants were exposed to ideas that were organized in semantic clusters than when participants were exposed to unorganized ideas. Idea exposure had positive effects in general, because it reduced response latencies for category changes. Implications for information processing in groups are discussed.

This experiment investigated the effect of procedural interdependence on interindividual–intergroup discontinuity (i.e., the tendency within mixed-motive situations for intergroup interactions to be more competitive than interindividual interactions) in Dutch and U.S. college populations. Groups composed of members who were procedurally interdependent, groups composed of members who were procedurally independent, and individuals interacted with a programmed other on three trials of a Prisoner's Dilemma Game. Results across trials indicate that procedurally interdependent group members were more competitive than pooled procedurally independent group members and individuals. The latter two conditions did not differ significantly. No significant effects involving participant nationality were observed. We propose that these findings reconcile diverging perspectives on interindividual–intergroup discontinuity.

Two experiments compared task persistence and productivity for brainstorming individuals and groups of various sizes under conditions without a time limit. We expected that the stop rules people employ in deciding to end a session would have important consequences for the relation between group size, persistence, and productivity. In Experiment I, conducted with individuals, dyads, and four- and six-person groups, it was found that persistence increased linearly with group size. As a result, the productivity loss usual in brainstorming groups was substantially reduced. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, but only under conditions without time pressure. The degree to which a brainstorming topic was perceived as enjoyable did not affect persistence. Findings were consistent with the hypothesis that people stop neither when they are satisfied with their performance nor when they no longer enjoy the task, but when the expected relation between effort and performance falls below a certain cut-off point. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (C) 1999 Academic Press.