Trained Helping Behaviors and Group Performance

96 students assigned to 32 groups were trained in seeking information to judge whether particular helping behaviors would increase application of the behavior found positively correlated with performance. Three-person groups worked crossword puzzles which decreased in difficulty over two trials. Training significantly increased seeking behaviors and performance (reduced errors). Helping behaviors were also more useful when the task was difficult and not helpful when the task was easy, which supports the notion that helping behaviors may even be debilitating under certain circumstances. More research is needed to establish a functional definition of helping behaviors and to investigate the use of helping behaviors on tasks requiring interdependence among group members.