Self-Limited and Unlimited Word Usage during Problem Solving in Two Telecommunication Modes

Abstract

Subjects using oral modes of communication generate far more verbiage than do subjects using written (handwritten or typewritten) modes to solve the same problems. This study was designed to provide support for one of two alternative hypotheses that have been proposed to account for this disparity: (1) written modes produce a hard copy of interchanges that can be referred to at any time, thereby compensating for the limitations of short-term memory and reducing the need to repeat information, and (2) talking is so much easier than handwriting or typewriting that there is no incentive to be concise in oral modes. Two-person teams of subjects solved problems cooperatively using either a voice or a teletypewriter mode of communication. Half the teams were given a monetary incentive to use as few words as possible. No such request was made of the control teams. The main finding was that subjects in the brevity condition, regardless of the communication mode, greatly reduced verbiage with no increase in time or decrease in accuracy. Moreover, subjects in the brevity-voice condition used even fewer words than did subjects in the control-teletypewriter condition. These results, then, lend weight to the second hypothesis.