Three-member groups were formed from students in an introductory college biology course. Each group undertook four problem-solving sessions which were tape-recorded. Transcripts were used to analyze verbal communication behaviors during the sessions. A category system containing four task categories, four negative social emotional categories, and five positive social emotional categories was developed and used to classify the verbal behavior of the groups. The relative proportions of time devoted to evaluation and clarification of the problem information increased with experience. On the average, two-thirds of the verbal activity was directed toward the task, with the remainder being social emotional responses. The groups were not limited to rewards provided by the setting, for interpersonal motivations also existed. Conditions believed to be characteristic of small problem-solving groups were elucidated. (Author/AL)