Observations of relational reasoning and strategic processing in an interdisciplinary team

The purpose of the current study was to determine the extent to which relational reasoning and strategic processing were evident in the discourse of an interdisciplinary team. Emergent patterns in the co-occurrence of these processes and changes in their frequency over the course of collaborative work were analyzed. Audio recordings, transcripts, and field notes were collected from an interdisciplinary team of researchers over the course of four meetings. Reliably coded transcripts identified four forms of relational reasoning and surface- and deep-level strategic processes. Findings revealed that surface-level processing was most frequent in the team’s discourse, often occurring in repeated sequences. Instances of relational reasoning were rare, most often occurring alongside deep-level processing. Observations of deep-level processing were distinct in that observations varied according to team members’ expertise and the immediate task or agenda. Overall, findings extend prior understandings of the interplay between relational reasoning and strategic processing within in vivo contexts involving an interdisciplinary, collaborative team composed of members with varied levels of expertise.