Playing together beats playing apart, especially for girls

This paper describes studies focusing on how gender and grouping affects performance and attitudes of children playing a puzzle solving game called The Incredible Machine. We found that children playing together on one machine solved significantly more puzzles than children playing alone on one machine. Female/Female pairs playing together on one machine, on average, completed significantly more puzzles than Female/Female pairs playing side-by-side on two computers. In addition, the level of motivation to continue playing the game was affected by the opportunity to play with a partner, and success in the game.