Dynamic structure of joint-action stimulus-response activity

Mary Lauren Malone, Ramon D. Castillo, John G. Holden, Heidi Kloos, Michael J. Richardson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference proceeding contributionpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

The mere presence of a co-actor can influence an individual's response behavior. For instance, a social Simon effect has been observed when two individuals perform a Go/No-Go response to one of two stimuli in the presence of each other, but not when they perform the same task alone. Such effects are argued to provide evidence that individuals co-represent the task goals and the to-be-performed actions of a co-actor. Motivated by the complex-systems approach, the present study was designed to investigate an alternative hypothesis-that such joint-action effects are due to dynamical (time-evolving) entrainment processes that perturb and couple the behavior of socially situated actors. To investigate this possibility, participants performed a standard Go/No-Go Simon task in joint and individual conditions. The dynamic structure of recorded response times (RTs) was examined using fractal statistics and instantaneous cross-correlation. Consistent with our hypothesis that participants responding in a shared space would become behaviorally coupled, the analyses revealed that RTs in the joint condition displayed decreased fractal structure (indicative of an interpersonal coupling perturbing and constraining participant behavior) compared to the individual condition, and were more correlated across a range of time-scales compared to the RTs of pseudo-pair controls. Collectively, the findings imply that self-organizing dynamic processes might underlie social stimulus-response compatibility effects and shape joint cognitive processes in general.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCogSci 2013: Cooperative minds: social interaction and group dynamics
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
EditorsMarkus Knauff, Natalie Sebanz, Michael Pauen, Ipke Wachsmuth
Place of PublicationAustin, Texas
PublisherCognitive Science Society
Pages966-971
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9780976831891
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
EventAnnual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (35th : 2013) - Berlin, Germany
Duration: 31 Jul 20133 Aug 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
Volume35
ISSN (Electronic)1069-7977

Conference

ConferenceAnnual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (35th : 2013)
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBerlin
Period31/07/133/08/13

Keywords

  • dynamical systems
  • interpersonal coordination
  • joint action
  • pink noise
  • stimulus-response compatibility

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