Robust Improvements on Reasoning Performance Following Discussion in Japan

Abstract

Group discussion significantly improves performance on intellective problems. However, most experiments have been conducted in Western cultures. Cross-cultural psychology suggests that members of Eastern cultures might be less likely to benefit from group discussion. One experiment in Japan suggested that this was not the case, but this experiment suffered from some limitations. To address these limitations, Japanese participants were asked to solve an intellective task four times: individually (pre-test), in small discussion groups (test), individually again (transfer task, post-test), and individually after a delay (delayed post-test). The results revealed a robust improvement during group discussion. Groups in which at least one member had found the correct answer individually agreed on it during the discussion. Moreover, and in contrast with results obtained in Western cultures, most groups with no such member also found the correct answer. The gains obtained during discussion were maintained in the transfer tasks. This result provides further evidence that the improvement of reasoning performance in group discussion is a universal phenomenon, and provides support for the practice of collaborative learning in Japan.