COMMUNICATION AND MEMORY OF TEXTS IN FACE-TO-FACE AND COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

In this stud an experiment on communication and memory of text in face-to-face communication and computer-mediated communication was conducted. One group was experienced in computer-mediated communication and one group inexperienced. The theoretical starting point was the contrast between spoken and written communication, which is instantiated in the two media studied. On theoretical grounds there have been arguments in favor of both spoken as well as written communication as far as efficiency of communication is concerned (Hildyard & Olson, 1982). There were few general effects related to medium, though spoken communication had the advantage in certain respects. The dominating pattern of results was that experience level interacted with other variables, which in many cases meant that inexperienced users performed better face-to-face, whereas experienced users performed better in computer-mediated communication. The results were discussed in relation to the problem of ecological validity, and differences between face-to-face and computer-mediated communication with respect to coordination of speaker-listener activities.