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Evaluating the Dynamics of Unintended Interpersonal Coordination
Abstract
Past research has shown that interpersonal interactions are characterized by a tacit coordination of motor movements of the participants and has suggested that the emergent synchrony might be explained by a coupled oscillator dynamic. This study investigates whether unintended between-person coordination can be demonstrated in a laboratory task that will allow an evaluation of whether such dynamical processes are involved. Ten pairs of participants performed a simple rhythmic task in which they had visual information about each other's movements but had no goal to coordinate. A cross-spectral analysis of the movements revealed higher coherence and a distribution of relative phase angles that was dominated by values near 0° and 180°. These results support the hypothesis that dynamical organizing principles are involved in natural interpersonal synchrony.
... Synchronicity of rhythmic movements acts as an interactional (social) baseline for the performance behaviour. This is true between partners (cooperative actions), as occurring between the rhythmic limb movements of two interacting individuals (Schmidt, Carello & Turvey, 1990), either intentionally or unintentionally (Schmidt & O'Brien, 1997;Richardson, Marsh, Isenhower, Goodman & Schmidt, 2007). But it also holds between opponents (competitive actions): Shimizu & Okada (2021) investigated the coordination of expert break dancers in battle scenes, measuring their rhythmic movements. ...
This theoretical paper develops the social dimension of the constraints model in relation to skill acquisition and sports performance. First, it presents the evolution of the constraints model since the original proposal by Newell (1986), later
developed and applied to physical activities and sport by ecological dynamics. The underrepresentation and misplacement of the social dimension within the constraints model so far, leads to the proposal of a novel analysis, taking into account
both the constitutive (S) and interactive (s) facets of the social. Such an analysisnot only detects the social dimension of performer, task, environmental and informationalconstraints, but also helps to suggest two new kinds of constraints: volitionaland semiotic. The paper then suggests a new enhanced model of constraintsthat helps to gain new insights into the question of agency in relation to the processof decision-making during the dynamic interactions of subject-environment.
... The main intuition behind the interaction theory of social cognition can be introduced by way of an experiment conducted by Schmidt and O'Brien (1997). In this experiment, two participants were asked to swing a pendulum in a rhythm that is comfortable for them without looking at each other. ...
The body is one of the main themes in Staubmann’s Sociology in a New Key : Staubmann wants to establish a sociology that is grounded in the body and that does justice to the bodily dimension of sociality. In what follows, I will examine Staubmann’s theory of the body from a philosophical viewpoint. I will discuss his main claims and relate them to recent developments in philosophy.
First, I will outline Staubmann’s position. Then, I will explore the similarities between this position and the interaction theory of social cognition, as developed by Gallagher, De Jaegher, Fuchs, and other philosophers. My main focus, however, will be on the relation between Staubmann’s theory of the body and that of Thompson and Merleau-Ponty: I will point out the differences between their approaches but also highlight their similarities. In the end, I will make a plea for a non-reductive conception of life, which, I believe, is very much in line with Staubmann’s Sociology in a New Key .
... Humans exhibit a compelling tendency to synchronize rhythmic movements with one another. [1][2][3][4] As soon as two individuals exchange information via one or multiple sensory channels, 5 such phenomenon may occur spontaneously and even against the intention to ignore the other. 6 Visually mediated interactions, in particular, are governed by attractor dynamics 7,8 which stabilize dyadic behavior in recurrent and stable coordinative patterns, and are characterized by a dynamic balance between the pursuit of individual behavioral trajectories (competition process) and the attraction into coupled behavior (cooperation process). ...
Humans exhibit a strong tendency to synchronize movements with each other, with visualperspective potentially influencing interpersonal synchronization. By manipulating the visualscenes of participants engaged in a joint finger-tapping task, we examined the effects of 1stand 2nd person visual perspectives on their coordination dynamics. We hypothesized thatperceiving the partner's movements from their 1st person perspective would enhancespontaneous interpersonal synchronization, potentially mediated by the embodiment of thepartner's hand. We observed significant differences in attractor dynamics across visualperspectives. Specifically, participants in 1st person coupling were unable to maintain de-coupled trajectories as effectively as in 2nd person coupling. Our findings suggest that visualperspective influences coordination dynamics in dyadic interactions, engaging error-correction mechanisms in individual brains as they integrate the partner's hand into theirbody representation. Our results have the potential to inform the development ofapplications for motor training and rehabilitation.
... While the human mirroring mechanisms range from intentional to prereflective (automatic), here I will focus on the prereflective tendency of humans to synchronise their bodily behaviours with those of each other. Such spontaneous synchrony has been observed, for example, when pairs of people walk (Zivotofsky & Hausdorff, 2007), swing pendulums (Schmidt & O'Brien, 1997), or sit in rocking chairs . Prereflective mirroring mechanisms have been shown to exist already early in infancy (e.g., Condon & Sander, 1974). ...
This indispensable sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.
This indispensable sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.
This indispensable sourcebook covers conceptual and practical issues in research design in the field of social and personality psychology. Key experts address specific methods and areas of research, contributing to a comprehensive overview of contemporary practice. This updated and expanded second edition offers current commentary on social and personality psychology, reflecting the rapid development of this dynamic area of research over the past decade. With the help of this up-to-date text, both seasoned and beginning social psychologists will be able to explore the various tools and methods available to them in their research as they craft experiments and imagine new methodological possibilities.
Behavioural synchronization presents various cognitive properties. First, motor response to a perceived action can be interfered or inhibited, if the action observed is different from the action performed for instance. Behavioural response also depends on the sensory modalities of action perception (visual, auditory, or haptic perception of the action). Behavioural synchronization between agents is also associated with interbrain neural synchronization, i.e., the synchronization of the neuronal activity of the interacting partners. Finally, behavioural synchronization is modulated by the reward- and stress-related hormones, it triggers activation of the reward system and the mutual social attention system. The cognitive properties of behavioural synchronization are presented together for the first time, bringing together the insights revealed through experimental approaches and demonstrating their extent.
Humans interact with each other through actions that are implemented by sensory and motor processes. To investigate the role of interbrain synchronization emerging during interpersonal action coordination, electroencephalography data from 13 pairs of pianists were recorded simultaneously while they performed a duet together. The study aimed to investigate whether interbrain phase couplings can be reduced to similar bottom‐up driven processes during synchronous play, or rather represent cognitive top‐down control required during periods of higher coordination demands. To induce such periods, one of the musicians acted as a confederate who deliberately desynchronized the play. As intended, on the behavioral level, the perturbation caused a breakdown in the synchronization of the musicians’ play and in its stability across trials. On the brain level, interbrain synchrony, as measured by the interbrain phase coherence (IPC), increased in the delta and theta frequency bands during perturbation as compared to non‐perturbed trials. Interestingly, this increase in IPC in the delta band was accompanied by the shift of the phase difference angle from in‐phase toward anti‐phase synchrony. In conclusion, the current study demonstrates that interbrain synchronization is based on the interpersonal temporal alignment of different brain mechanisms and is not simply reducible to similar sensory or motor responses.
A model of a pair of coupled limit cycle oscillators is presented in order to investigate the extent of, and the transition between, 11 and 21 phase entrainment, a phenomenon exhibited by numerous diverse biological systems. The mathematical form of the model involves a flow on a phase torus given by two coupled first order nonlinear ordinary differential equations which govern the oscillators' phase angles (i.e. their respective positions around their limit cycles). The regions corresponding to 11 and 21 phase entrainment in an appropriate parameter space are determined analytically and numerically. The bifurcations occurring during the transition from 11 to 21 phase entrainment are discussed.
Do interlimb rhythmic coordinations between individuals exhibit the same relations among the same observable quantities as interlimb rhythmic coordination within an individual? The 1∶1 frequency locking between the limbs of two people was investigated using a paradigm in which each person oscillated a hand-held pendulum, achieving and maintaining the mutual entrainment through vision. The intended coordination was antiphase, φ=π, and the difference between the uncoupled eigenfrequencies, Δω, was manipulated through differences in the lengths of the two pendulums. The mean phase relation and its variance for visually coupled coordinations differing in Δω were predicted by an order parameter equation developed by Haken et al. (1985) and Schöner et al. (1986) for the relative phase of correlated movements of limb segments. Specifically, the experiment revealed that: (1) the deviation of φ from π increased with increasing deviation of Δω from 0; and (2) fluctuations in φ increased with increasing deviation of Δω from 0. With deviations of Δω from 0, new peaks were added at higher harmonics in φ's power spectrum. These results were in agreement with previous research on the stable states of interlimb coordination within a person, mediated by mechanoreceptive rather than photoreceptive mechanisms. Additionally, they were in agreement with previous research on phase transitions in interlimb coordination which have been shown to conform to the same order parameter dynamics whether the coupling be mechanoreceptively or photoreceptively based. It was suggested that phase entrainment in biological movement systems may abide by dynamical principles that are indifferent to the details of the coupling.
Unlike many approaches that use the relative timing invariance of skilled movements to invoke central, represented templates, the dynamical framework adopted here views relative timing as one (but not the only) entry-point that captures the cooperative processes underlying spatiotemporal organization of action. The study of temporal stability and loss of stability in bimanual movement patterns reveals the intrinsic dynamics of interlimb coordination. The adaptive mechanisms of the system, such as perceptual-motor coordination, entrainment, and learning, can be addressed operationally in terms of the interplay between these intrinsic dynamics and the behavioral constraints (e.g., environmental, intentional). Such dynamical principles are ultimately at the origin of behavioral stability and change at different levels of analysis and are active on several different time scales.
Findings on the direct perception of action in the behavior stream are reviewed in light of Asch's (1952) hypothesis that actions are gestalten in the behavior stream. Five analyses of the surface structure of seven action sequences and four interactions are reported. Results confirm that the surface structure of behavior, both in actions and interactions, consists of wave-like structures, and that interaction consists of the maintenance of a constant phase relation between the behaviors of the participants.
High school students in 19 teaching dyads were measured for their degree of interpersonal coordination and rapport. Two types of movement coordination were identified and rated by a group of untrained judges: the degree of perceivedmovement synchrony, and the extent ofbehavior matching. Ratings of movement synchrony in true interactions were significantly greater than similar ratings in pseudo interaction control clips (i.e., video clips that appeared to be of the teacher and student interacting but were, in fact, a combination of video clips of each interactant recorded fromdifferent points within their interaction). Self-ratings collected from interactants indicated a strong relationship between participants'' rapport and the degree of movement synchrony perceived by raters. This relationship remained even after observer ratings of each interactant''s friendliness, a possible confound, were partialled out. This result provided empirical evidence for the hypothesized relationship between rapport and interpersonal coordination (Tickle-Degnen & Rosenthal, 1987). Ratings of behavior matching did not differ significantly between the true interactions and pseudo interaction control clips. Behavior matching failed to correlate significantly with dyadic rapport. It was, however, significantly predictive of self-reported anxiety.