Previous research shows that synchronous text discussion through group support systems (GSS) can improve the exchange of information within teams, but this improved information exchange usually does not improve decisions because participants fail to process the new information they receive. This study examined one potential cause for this failure: Dual-task interference caused by the need to concurrently process new information from others while also contributing one's own information to the discussion. Although prior research argues that dual-task interference should be minimal, we found that it significantly reduced participants' information processing and led to lower decision quality. The effect sizes were large, suggesting that dual-task interference is one of a handful of major factors that exert the greatest influence on information processing and decision-making performance. We believe that these results call for an increased emphasis on and understanding of the cognitive underpinnings of GSS and virtual team decision making.
There are many ways in which a group support system (GSS) can be used to support group brainstorming. This paper reports the results of an experiment that manipulated task structure and time structure. Groups electronically brainstormed on intact tasks (where all parts of the task were presented simultaneously) or on partitioned tasks (where three subcategories of the task were presented to the groups). The time periods in which groups worked were either one 30-minute time period or three 10-minute periods separated by two-minute breaks. Groups in the partitioned task treatment generated 40% more ideas, but there were no time effects. These differences are attributed to the ability of the partitioned task to refocus members' attention more evenly across the entire solution space.