Labor division in joint tasks: Humans maximize use of their individual attentional capacities

In daily life, humans frequently perform visuospatial tasks together (e.g., visual search) and distribute the labor in such tasks. Previous research has shown that humans prefer a left and right labor division in a joint multiple object tracking (MOT) task. Yet, findings from studies investigating individuals' tracking ability suggest attentional capacities may be more maximally used with a top and bottom labor division. We investigated whether co-actors' labor division preference is influenced by how they are seated (neighboring vs. opposite of each other) or how the MOT task is displayed (portrait vs. landscape). We find that pairs attain a higher performance using a top and bottom labor division and preferred this labor division compared to a left and right division. This preference was unaffected by the seating arrangement. For the landscape display, however, we find that participants no longer attain a higher performance for the top and bottom labor division and accordingly participants' preference for this labor division was greatly reduced as well. Overall, we propose that co-actors are sensitive to changes within their environment, which allows them to choose a labor division that maximizes use of their individual attentional capacities.