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Redundancy in Task Assignments and Group Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2025

Robert B. Zajonc  and
William H. Smoke
Robert B. Zajonc
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
William H. Smoke
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Abstract

The problem of combining abilities of group members to maximize the performance of the group as a whole is examined in terms of redundancy in task assignments. In particular, ways of distributing a given number of items of information among a given number of individuals to obtain the maximum probability of each item being recalled by at least one individual are studied. It is shown that there exists an optimal distribution scheme which is independent of the amount of material originally given, the size of the group, and individual differences in ability.

Type
Original Paper
Information
Psychometrika , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , December 1959 , pp. 361 - 369
Copyright
Copyright © 1959 The Psychometric Society

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Footnotes

*

This work was done under the sponsorship of the Behavioral Sciences Division, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Contract AF 49(630)-33.

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