Response Coordination Emerges in Cooperative but Not Competitive Joint Task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Neuroscience
• Human Interaction

Background:

• Effective social interaction requires attunement to others.
• Shared representations, indicated by the Joint Simon effect (JSE), may stem from interpersonal coordination.
• The relationship between coordination and JSE in different social contexts is underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate interpersonal coordination in cooperative and competitive joint tasks.
• To examine how cooperation and competition influence response coordination and the JSE.
• To determine if interpersonal coordination is necessary for the JSE.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments using a go/no-go Simon task.
• Participants performed tasks individually and with a co-agent under cooperative and competitive conditions.
• Response coordination was measured using instantaneous cross-correlation.

Main Results:

• Social presence affected the JSE differently in cooperative versus competitive settings.
• Cooperative tasks showed increased interpersonal coordination in joint conditions compared to individual.
• Competitive tasks did not show a difference in response coordination between individual and joint conditions.
• Interpersonal coordination was found to imply the emergence of the JSE.

Conclusions:

• Shared representations appear necessary, but not sufficient, for interpersonal coordination.
• Cooperation enhances interpersonal coordination, facilitating shared representations and the JSE.
• Competition does not similarly enhance coordination or shared representations.