Electronic Brainstorming And Group Size

Two experiments were conducted concurrently to examine the effects of computer-mediated technology and group size on the productivity of brainstorming groups. At Queen's University Decision Lab in Kingston, Ontario, 120 undergraduates participated in 3 group sizes (2, 4, and 6 members). At the Park Student Center Lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson, 144 undergraduates participated in 2 group sizes (6 and 12 members). Groups used electronic and nonelectronic, verbal brainstorming in a counterbalanced within-group design. The larger groups in both experiments generated more unique ideas and more high-quality ideas, and members were more satisfied when they used electronic brainstorming than when they used verbal brainstorming. There were fewer differences between the 2 techniques for the smaller groups. These results were interpreted as showing that electronic brainstorming reduces the effect of production blocking and evaluation apprehension on group performance, particularly for large groups.