Relationship between individual proficiency and team performance and efficiency.

Using 64 pairs of college students doing jigsaw puzzles, team and individual performance was compared. They could work the puzzles better alone than when doing it in pairs cooperatively, however, relatively poor prediction is obtained from measures of individual proficiency. The performance of the most efficient member of a team, however, predicted slightly better both team performance and team efficiency. "The more similar the two members of a team were in individual proficiency, the more likely they were to form a proficient and effective team." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)