Virtual Small Group Dynamics:a Quantitative Experimental Framework

We present a research framework consisting of a standard chat environment and a set of analytical tools, able to detect some rel- evant characteristics of the group dynamics of interacting people. The analysis is independent of the semantic content of the exchanged mes- sages, and the standardized interface avoids hard-to-detect non-verbal communications, still providing the expression of emotional contents. This study proposes a quantitative approach to the investigation of the cognitive small group dynamics, considering the personal representation of the others, and communication dynamics. We developed a framework for the analysis that merges the complex network theory with concepts from social psychology and sociophysics. The focus of the framework is a quantitatively investigation of how people first explore and then ‘shape‘ e their cognitive representation of the social space. Moreover exploring the role of the task on the structure and dynamical evolution of the group, we investigated the cognitive heuristic used by the subject to ‘explore‘ the virtual environment. Finally, the two regression models which rep- resent the different cognitive heuristics detected within the experiments will be presented, compared and discussed.