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The effects of interpersonal cooperation, competition, and individualization were compared on drill-review, problem-solving, specific-knowledge acquisition, and specific-knowledge retention instructional tasks. Sixty-six fifth graders were included in the study. Males and females were assigned randomly to conditions so that within each condition there were 22 Ss and an equal number of males and females. The results indicate that cooperation generally produced more positive attitudes than did either individualization or competition. Cooperation resulted in higher achievement than did competition and individualization on both the problem-solving and retention tasks, higher achievement than competition and just as high achievement as individualization on the drill-review task, and higher achievement than individualization and just as high achievement as competition on the specific-knowledge-acquisition task.
Johnson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.