Adopting the position, expressed by A. P. Bochner in his critique of small group communication research, that placing measurement in a secondary role increases the danger of accepting the claims of experiments with excessive error, this paper examines nine current quantitative small-group communication studies. Using a schema developed by J. F. Cragan and D. W. Wright outlining three major lines of small group research--original criticism and traditional and new lines of research--the paper examines the studies in terms of their objectives, estimation of experimental effects, and reliability measurement. The paper reports that research objectives and utilization of the task dimension remain unclear in current small group communication research while methods of computation are improved. It concludes that the Cragan and Wright schema is useful in providing a direction for future research. (Author/FL)