An Exploration of Internal States in Collaborative Problem Solving

TL;DR

This study examines the emotional states of individuals during collaborative problem solving by analyzing their internal monologues and language patterns, revealing distinct emotional and linguistic patterns associated with CPS.

Contribution

It introduces a mixed-methods approach combining video review and linguistic analysis to explore internal emotional states during CPS, providing new insights into individual experiences.

Findings

Distinct language patterns associated with specific emotions

Identification of key words and phrases linked to emotional states

Semantic analysis reveals emotional dynamics during CPS

Abstract

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is a complex cognitive, social, and emotional process that is increasingly prevalent in educational and professional settings. This study investigates the emotional states of individuals during CPS using a mixed-methods approach. Teams of four first completed a novel CPS task. Immediately after, each individual was placed in an isolated room where they reviewed the video of their group performing the task and self-reported their internal experiences throughout the task. We performed a linguistic analysis of these internal monologues, providing insights into the range of emotions individuals experience during CPS. Our analysis showed distinct patterns in language use, including characteristic unigrams and bigrams, key words and phrases, emotion labels, and semantic similarity between emotion-related words.