Social and communicative processes in computer-based problem solving

This paper overviews the results of four studies designed to investigate the effects of collaborative modes of computer use upon children's performance and learning. All used the same type of problem solving task, couched within an adventure game format. The first of these studies provides a striking illustration of how children who work in pairs on a route planning task can show better learning outcomes than children who work on the same problem individually. The possible psychological processes mediating this effect are considered. The second study extends this consideration further and seeks to identify those aspects of verbal interaction that underpin productive paired interaction. The third study includes consideration of the efficacy of pairing as a function of the relative ability of pair members. The fourth study focuses upon the effects of working in the presence of others, even in the absence of interaction. Taken together, the results of the third and fourth studies highlight the importance of paying closer attention to the ways in which children construe the particular experimental conditions we create and their own position in relation to them.