Collaborative vs Individual Problem Solving

In everyday life we come across numerous problem solving situations that we either resolve alone or in collaboration with another person. The aim of the present study was to examine the underlying cognitive mechanisms that are involved in collaborative problem solving using virtual reality technology. Participants worked either individually or in pairs (collaborative condition) to solve a virtual rubik’s cube type puzzle task. The puzzle-task included 9 cubes with different colours on different sides and a solution space with 4 empty cube positions. Participants were instructed to choose the correct cubes among the distractor ones and arrange them within the solution space such that each side of the solution space displayed a single color. In the collaborative condition participants stood opposite to each other, allowing for communication, and each person was represented within the virtual world by a virtual head and a virtual controller. Results showed that participants were faster in solving the task when they were working in pairs compared to individually. Moreover, they employed a strategy of dividing the cube space according to their physical position in space. Our conjecture is that pairs, given their location in space, had access to all relevant information of the problem at a single point in time, compared to individuals. That is, together they could view all sides and all colors of the solution space, whereas individuals had to remember the color of cubes that were not visible from their perspective (i.e. the back side of the solution space). In this interpretation access from multiple perspectives at once, as in the collaborative condition allows for better problem solving. In a follow up experiment, we are currently testing whether collaborative problem solving from adjacent problem solvers is similar to individual performance