ABSTRACT
Many tasks can assume different states. This means that the stimuli and situations presented to a person confronting the task vary from one time to another, either because of external factors or because of his own actions. Tasks may be classified according to whether their states are steady or variable. A person's ability to make inferences about his distribution of outcomes will be improved to the degree that he has the power to determine the states that the task will take. The operation of social reality depends upon such factors as importance of the task and the nature of the relationship with persons who provide opinion support, but it begins with an attribute of the person-task matrix, namely, the homogeneity of outcomes. Tasks which make conjunctive requirements of members' behavior may place groups at a disadvantage in comparison with individuals.
