Performance similarities predict collective benefits in dyadic and triadic joint visual search

When humans perform tasks together, they may reach a higher performance in comparison to the best member of a group (i.e., a collective benefit). In this study, we investigated collective benefits for joint visuospatial tasks. We tested whether dyads and triads reach a collective benefit when they are forbidden to exchange any information while performing the task and whether interindividual performance similarities predict collective benefits.
We found that dyads reached a collective benefit. Triads did outperform their best individual member and dyads – yet, they did not outperform the best dyad pairing within the triad. In addition, similarities in performance significantly predicted the collective benefit for dyads and triads.