On the passage of time: Temporal differences in video-mediated and face-to-face interaction

This paper examines team work over time in video-mediated non-collocated and traditional face-to-face same-room teams. In a longitudinal between-groups design, 22 three-person teams were tested in 4 1-h test sessions at 2-week intervals. A paper-folding task was designed for the experiment that had the potential to induce differences in team work under different communication environments. Results showed that near the end of the experiment, initial differences between groups on cooperative task performance in favour of the face-to-face teams had disappeared. These findings are explained in terms of a technological adaptation effect, which occurs when people learn how to use the technological tools available despite technological limitations. No differences were found between groups on cohesion and satisfaction. Likewise, cohesion did not increase over time as participants gained experience. In comparison, satisfaction did increase over time for both groups as teams gained experience with fellow team members and the task at hand. In contrast to what was expected, mental effort was higher for face-to-face teams than for video-mediated teams. Furthermore, initial differences between groups on mental effort did not disappear as participants gained experience. This paper concludes with a discussion of the results in terms of their implications for natural work teams, the design of video-communication technologies and suggestions for future research.