RSS
 

Archive for September, 2010

Intelligent Individuals Don’t Make Groups Smarter

30 Sep

An early effort at defining general intelligence in groups suggests that individual brainpower contributes little to collective smarts.

Instead, it’s social awareness — the ability to pick up on emotional cues in others — that seems to determine how smart a group can be.

“We lack a shared criterion in predicting which groups will perform well and which won’t,” said psychologist Anita Woolley of Carnegie Mellon University. “There’s an underlying factor that seems to drive how individuals perform in multiple domains. I wondered if that was true of groups as well.”

In individuals, general intelligence is a measure of each person’s tendency to perform similarly on different types of cognitive tests, suggesting an underlying — general — intellectual competence. Exactly what produces those smarts, and how they correlate with biological and environmental factors, is controversial. But even if the causes are unclear, the evidence of individual general intelligence remains.

To determine whether something similar also operated in collective minds, Woolley’s team divided 600 test subjects into groups of two to five people, then had each group complete a variety of problem-solving tasks. Afterward the researchers interviewed the groups and each participant. They measured group cohesion and motivation, individual intelligence and personality, and other factors previously associated with group performance.

Their analysis, published Sept. 30 in Science, found several characteristics linked to group performance — and none involved individual intelligence. What mattered instead was the social sensitivity of individual members, the proportion of women (who tend to be more sensitive) in each group, and a balanced participation of conversation.

Gender and social sensitivity are linked, said Woolley, making emotional intelligence and conversation balance the most important factors in group performance. Not only was individual intelligence irrelevant, but group cohesion mattered little. Neither did motivation or happiness — a finding that most workers would find disconcerting.

“Some of our intuitions about how satisfaction and cohesion correlate with performance are a little misguided,” Woolley said. “But it’s not as if happiness and cohesion are bad.

In future research, Woolley plans to study how group intelligence is affected by size, and how the benefits of increased collaboration can reach a point of diminishing returns. She also wants to know how group intelligence changes when collaboration occurs online.

“The way we’re moving now, where everyone is interconnected, it calls into question the whole notion of what intelligence is, whether it’s so relevant what an individual can do by themselves” said Woolley. “It’s good to move the conversation in that direction.”

Image: Michael Cardus/Flickr.

See Also:

Citation: “Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups.” By Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alexander Pentland, Nada Hashmi, Thomas W. Malone. Science, Vol. 329 No. 6000, October 1, 2010.

Brandon Keim’s Twitter stream and reportorial outtakes; Wired Science on Twitter. Brandon is currently working on an ecological tipping point project.

 
 

Chan.gif (GIF Imagen, 304×240 pixels)

30 Sep

Chan.gif (GIF Imagen, 304x240 pixels) - posted by brim_ark - tags:
 
 

Survey: Atheists, Agnostics Know More About Religion Than Religious

28 Sep

A new survey shows that Atheists and Agnostics are more knowledgeable about religion than most practitioners. Close behind in the survey were Jews and Mormons.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

 
 

Awesome jQuery Plugins And Techniques To Create Visually Excellent Websites

28 Sep

Are you looking for some cool and handy jQuery Plugins, you landed at right place. Below we are presenting 45 most useful and handy plugins that you can use in your next project and make it stand out.

jQuery is the most well-known and open source JavaScript library which is being used all around the world because it simplifies the client-side scripting of HTML. You can also create marvelous effects by using these plugins. Enjoy!

You are welcome if you want to share more jQuery Plugins And Techniques that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at  SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.

HoverFade

Demo | Download

jQuery-Notes 1.0.2

Demo | Download

gMap – Google Maps Plugin For jQuery

Demo | Download

jQuery Menu Style

Demo | Download

Contextual Slideout Tips With jQuery & CSS3

Demo | Download

Growl

Demo | Download

Animate Panning Slideshow with jQuery

Demo | Download

jQuery Masonry

Demo | Download

jQuery Quicksand

Demo | Download

Jquery Plugin MopSlider 2.4

Demo | Download

jQuery color plugin xcolor

Demo | Download

jQuery Image Scroller

Demo | Download

Auto-Playing Featured Content Slider

Demo | Download

Horinaja

Demo | Download

Slide Deck

Demo | Download

Automatic Image Slider w/ CSS & jQuery

Demo | Download

Create a Slick and Accessible Slideshow Using jQuery

Demo | Download

Fancy Thumbnail Hover Effect w/ jQuery

Demo | Download

Coda Slider Effect

Demo | Download

Micro Image Gallery: A jQuery Plugin

Demo | Download

Image Highlighting and Preview with jQuery

Demo | Download

Textarea Words, Characters counter and maxlength plugin

Demo | Download

GOOGLE CHARTS

Demo | Download

IdmgAreaSelect

Demo | Download

jQuery Bookmark

Demo | Download

Poshy Tip

Demo | Download

jqPlot Charts and Graphs for jQuery

Demo | Download

jQuery MegaMenu Plugin

Demo | Download

FullCalendar – Full-sized Calendar jQuery Plugin

Demo | Download

jQuery Canvas Loader

Demo | Download

Meerkat

Demo | Download

jQuery PhotoShoot Plugin 1.0

Demo | Download

jqFancyTransitions

Demo | Download

jQuery Slider plugin (Safari style)

Demo | Download

jTextTranslate: A jQuery Translation Plugin

Demo | Download

xBreadcrumbs (Extended Breadcrumbs) jQuery Plugin

Demo | Download

Get TopUp!

Demo | Download

FireQuery – Firebug extension for jQuery development

Demo | Download

ImagineMenu

Demo | Download

Jquery AjaxSuggest

Demo | Download

Ajax File Uploader

Demo | Download

3d Tag Sphere

Demo | Download

(MB)Extruder

Demo | Download

jQuery Simple Multi-Select

Demo | Download

Fancy Box

Demo | Download

ou are welcome if you want to share more beautiful examples of traditional or digital watercolor paintings that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at  SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.

Brought To You By

Premier Survey
Do you want to advertise here? Click to get more info…

 
 

Line Up The Tangles

28 Sep

The problem addressed in the Line Block Cable is so true to home, it’s the one most of us face when we hook up too many gadgets in one area. Not that we can help it, it’s ideal to have the TV, CD player and the music housed together. As a result, their cables leading up to the socket can get messy and unsightly. Line Block cables are constructed in such a way that they can tag 2 or more wires in a piggy-back fashion. Essentially this means that if the gadgets have this unique structured cable, they line up one-atop-the-other and split out only near the socket, to give a neat finish.

This also means a whole new perspective to the wire and cables industry!

Designers: Lee Ji Eun, Yi-Seo Hyeon, Heo-Hyeoksu & Jeong Minhui

----------

Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store - We are about more than just concepts. See what's hot at the YD Store!

 
 

We won’t reach Alpha Centauri until the 24th century…unless we have an energy breakthrough [Mad Science]

27 Sep
If you take humanity's current energy and technological capacity and project a steady increase into the future, the chances of us reaching the stars any time soon look bleak. Even our nearest stellar neighbor is at least 300 years away. More »
 
 

Pi Necklace

27 Sep

Cute Kawaii Stuff - Pi Necklace

Most of us only know pi to two, maybe three decimal places. This necklace ensures your nerd status even if you can’t rattle off all those pesky random numbers by heart. You will also melt nerd hearts everywhere you go, and as we all know, nerd hearts are the sweetest.

Available at: RGB-works Via: The Daily What


 

Combine Walnut Keyboard Trays

27 Sep
The industrial aluminum and glass designs of Apple's products got you wishing for a bit of nature in your office setup? Try burying your keyboard, trackpad, and even remote inside...

Visit Uncrate for the full post.
 
 

Freelance Freedom #175: Client Types

27 Sep

 
 

Goodbye Summer: A Textural Tribute

26 Sep

So it's official: Summer 2010 is over. The leaves on the trees will soon start to brown and fall to the ground as we usher in the cold months. But before that happens I wanted to make a sort of texture tribute to Summer and all the fond memories it's provided. In the following ten textures I tried to encompass what I feel summer is all about: easy living, vacations, and just general chill times. To me, these are more than textures... they tell the stories I've formed this summer.

Click on the textures below to download the high-res version or download them all in a zip file at the bottom of the post. Enjoy!

Goodbye Summer: A Textural Farewell