Prediction of Design Team Performance on a Conceptual Design Task Using an Automatable, Topic-Independent Analysis of Language Use

In this research, starting with an established metric called the Language Style Matching (LSM) measure [1] we show that some new LSM-based measures can predict team performance on an open-ended design task. We call these Style Entrainment Signal (SES) measures. Using them, two conversational patterns are newly identified, which we call “dwelling” and “forward-moving.” We show that a forward-moving pattern is associated with better-rated results produced by teams in 30-minute long conceptual design meetings with significant brainstorming activity. Through this, we gain insight into some of the interpersonal dynamics that contribute to a design team’s success. These results are founded on previous work in psycholinguistics, where it has been shown that analysis of language use can be used in several ways to predict a team’s performance on short, well-defined tasks. By expanding the research to more open-ended design tasks, and identifying two newly-measurable conversational patterns, we contribute back to psycholinguistic theory. The analysis developed for this work is automatable and topic-independent, and so it has potential to be applied widely.