Cooperative peer interaction versus individual competition and individualistic efforts: Effects on the acquisition of cognitive reasoning strategies.

Compared the relative effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures on (a) achievement and (b) the acquisition of high-level cognitive reasoning strategies. Reasoning strategies involved in categorization and retrieval, language development, and mathematical tasks were examined. In the cooperative condition, Ss worked with peers of equal or diverse abilities. In the competitive condition Ss competed with peers of equal or diverse abilities. 86 1st-grade children were randomly assigned to conditions stratified by sex and academic ability. Results indicate that cooperative interaction, compared with competitive and individualistic learning, promoted higher achievement and the discovery of superior cognitive reasoning strategies. No differential effects were found concerning whether Ss were cooperating or competing with peers of equal, lower, or higher ability. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of cooperative, competitive, and individualistic goal structures on achievement: A meta-analysis.

Reviewed 122 studies (listed in an appendix) and compared the relative effectiveness of cooperation, cooperation with intergroup competition, interpersonal competition, and individualistic goal structures in promoting achievement and productivity in North American samples. These studies yielded 286 findings. Three meta-analysis procedures were used: voting method, effect-size method, and z-score method. Results indicate that (a) cooperation is considerably more effective than interpersonal competition and individualistic efforts, (b) cooperation with intergroup competition is also superior to interpersonal competition and individualistic efforts, and (c) there is no significant difference between interpersonal competitive and individualistic efforts. Through multiple regression, a number of potentially mediating variables for these results are identified. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)