Task and Interaction Regulation in Controlling a Traffic Simulation

Abstract : In collaborative problem solving, metacognition not only covers strategic reasoning related to the task but also reasoning related to the interaction itself. The hypothesis underlying this work states that regulation of the interaction and regulation of the task are closely related mechanisms and that their co-occurrence facilitates collaborative problem solving. These assumptions are tested experimentally with a traffic simulator. The results show that co-occurrence of task and interaction regulation allow quicker solving of the problem, thus better performance. The experimental treatment aims at observing the effects of interaction meters on the accuracy of subjects' estimation of their participation. Interaction meters are visualization tools that represent the number of contributions related to the discussion and to the implementation of the solution.