Collaborative Problem Solving in Mixed Reality: A Study on Visual Graph Analysis - Replication data

Abstract

This dataset contains the supplementary materials to our publication "Collaborative Problem Solving in Mixed Reality: A Study on Visual Graph Analysis", where we report on a study we conducted. Please refer to publication for more details, also the abstract can be found at the end of this description. The dataset contains:

1. The collection of graphs with layout used in the study

2. The final, randomized experiment files used in the study

3. The source code of the study prototype

4. The collected, anonymized data in tabular form

5. The code for the statistical analysis

6. The Supplemental Materials PDF

Paper abstract: Problem solving is a composite cognitive process, invoking a number of systems and subsystems, such as perception and memory. Individuals may form collectives to solve a given problem together, in collaboration, especially when complexity is thought to be high. To determine if and when collaborative problem solving is desired, we must quantify collaboration first. For this, we investigate the practical virtue of collaborative problem solving. Using visual graph analysis, we perform a study with 72 participants in two countries and three languages. We compare ad hoc pairs to individuals and nominal pairs, solving two different tasks on graphs in visuospatial mixed reality. The average collaborating pair does not outdo its nominal counterpart, but it does have a significant trade-off against the individual: an ad hoc pair uses 1.46 more time to achieve 4.6 higher accuracy. We also use the concept of task instance complexity to quantify differences in complexity. As task instance complexity increases, these differences largely scale, though with two notable exceptions. With this study we show the importance of using nominal groups as benchmark in collaborative virtual environments research. We conclude that a mixed reality environment does not automatically imply superior collaboration. (2024)