GROUPCOM: VAX-based software for conducting small-group research

Abstract

Levine and Stein (1978) described a computer program (GROUPCOM) for conducting on-line social psychological research. The original version of the program was written for the Experimental Time-Sharing System (ETSS) of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh (Fitzhugh & Glaser, 1975). Because ETSS was a unique system, many potential users could not easily implement GROUPCOM. In order to make GROUPCOM available to more investigators, we have recently rewritten the program to run on a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) VAX-II /780 system. The purpose of this paper is to review briefly the capabilities of GROUPCOM and to describe how investigators can obtain the program and related documentation. GROUPCOM is an extremely flexible program designed to facilitate research on a variety of social psychological phenomena, including social influence, social comparison, group decision making, impression management and leadership. Among the advantages of the program are the following: Subjects can interact with either or simulated others; data can be collected from several subjects at once; different subjects can be run simultaneously in different conditions; lengthy written messages, as well as brief responses, can be presented and collected; on each trial, the experimenter can control a number of important parameters (e.g., response order, response type, display format); and very little experimenter effort is required at run time to present experimental trials or to record subjects' responses. Program Options. A given experimental condition can contain up to 200 real and/or trials, interspersed in any order. On trials, two to six subjects can with one another by entering responses on their terminal keyboards. These responses then appear on the screen of each terminal. On fake trials, one to six subjects can communicate with one to nine simulated others. After entering responses on their keyboards, subjects see predetermined responses allegedly entered by other (simulated) subjects. Because the information presented to each subject on fake trials is controlled independently, subjects can receive different