The Effects of Four Communication Modes on the Structure of Language Used During Cooperative Problem Solving

Summary

This paper reports the analysis of the verbal output of 20 two-man teams of high school boys who communicated through four different channels to solve problems cooperatively. Each word of the protocols was assigned to one of six linguistic classes based on Fries's analysis of the structure of English. Results indicate significant shifts in the relative proportions of the different classes of words as a function of mode of communication. Ss communicating by voice on the average used more pronouns and more function words than did Ss who communicated via handwriting or typewriting. Ss who used handwriting on the average used fewer pronouns and fewer verbs and verb derivatives than did Ss in all other modes of communication.