Using a computerized conferencing system as a laboratory tool

Computerized Conferencing Systems are a new communications medium which offer an opportunity for geographically dispersed groups of persons to communicate regularly and to interact and make decisions as a group. They also include an embedded language which makes it possible to program and conduct fully automated experiments on group communication processes. The system thereby becomes a "laboratory without walls" which can be transported to the subjects.This paper reviews the methodological aspects of the first of a series of controlled "laboratory" experiments on the effects of the medium on small group communication processes. It focusses on the potentials for use of such systems as a tool for conducting communication experiments. The findings of the experiment itself will be reported more fully elsewhere.