ABSTRACT
Introduction
Whenever people think and act, they rely on the vast bodies of knowledge that exist in the outside world. Recently there are interests in the roles of other people as information sources, such as help from friends, consultants, and teachers (Bannon, 1986). The purpose of our research is to find out what kind of structure there is in outside knowledge; and how, and from which sources, people select the information in the social context. For the former question, we have found that in some cases there is an emergent structure that members have their own roles in helping others (Goto & Nojima, 1995).
