Observing Collaboration in Small-Group Interaction

Abstract

In this study, we define and test measures that capture aspects of collaboration in interaction within groups of three participants performing a task. The measures are constructed upon turn-taking and lexical features from a corpus of triadic task-based interactions, as well as upon demographic features, and personality, dominance, and satisfaction assessments related to the corpus participants. Those quantities were tested for significant effects and correlations they have with each other. The findings indicate that determinants of collaboration are located in measures quantifying the differences among dialogue participants in conversational mechanisms employed, such as number and frequency of words contributed, lexical repetitions, conversational dominance, and in psychological and sentiment variables, i.e., the participants’ personality traits and expression of satisfaction.

Keywords

• collaboration
• group interaction
• turn-taking
• dominance
• personality
• lexical repetition