%0 Journal Article
%T Communication and Group Cognitive Complexity
%A Alina Maria Fle£¿tea
%A Andra Diana Coman
%A C£¿t£¿lina O£¿oiu
%A Lucia Ra£¿iu
%A Mara Bria
%A Oana C£¿t£¿lina Fodor
%A Petru Lucian Cur£¿eu
%J Small Group Research
%@ 1552-8278
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1046496419853624
%X This study explores the effects of group size, group composition, and group argument frequency on group cognitive complexity (GCC). We evaluated a sample of 509 students organized into 106 groups who participated in a group cognitive mapping activity. As hypothesized, we found that group argumentation has an inverted U-shaped association with GCC. Group member familiarity did not moderate this relationship. We also found that task-related arguments mediate the relationships between group size and gender diversity on one hand, and GCC, on the other. Moreover, we found that optimal group-level cognitive benefits were observed in group discussions in which the ratio between task-related and nontask-related group arguments was 3 to 1. The discussion focuses on the practical and theoretical implications of these findings
%K group cognitive complexity
%K communication
%K group size
%K gender diversity
%K group arguments
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1046496419853624