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What effects do factors that impair or enhance performance in individuals have when these individuals act in groups? We provide a framework, called the GIE ("Effects of Grouping on Impairments and Enhancements") framework, for investigating this question. As prominent examples for individual-level impairments and enhancements, we discuss sleep deprivation and caffeine. Based on previous research, we derive hypotheses on how they influence performance in groups, specifically process gains and losses in motivation, individual capability, and coordination. We conclude that the effect an impairment or enhancement has on individual-level performance is not necessarily mirrored in group performance: grouping can help or hurt. We provide recommendations on how to estimate empirically the effects individual-level performance impairments and enhancements have in groups. By comparing sleep deprivation to stress and caffeine to pharmacological cognitive enhancement, we illustrate that we cannot readily generalize from group results on one impairment or enhancement to another, even if they have similar effects on individual-level performance.

Original publication

DOI

10.1177/1088868315609487

Type

Journal article

Journal

Pers Soc Psychol Rev

Publication Date

02/2017

Volume

21

Pages

3 - 28

Keywords

caffeine, enhancement, group performance, group processes, impairment, neuroenhancement, pharmacological cognitive enhancement, process gains, process losses, sleep deprivation, stress, Caffeine, Group Processes, Humans, Motivation, Psychomotor Performance, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation