Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: In recent years, research in the field of social interactions has focused on the exploration of the coordinative structures that substantiate the performance of joint tasks (Shockley, Santana, & Fowler, 2003;Marsh, Richardson, Baron, & Schmidt, 2006).This project explored the degree and stability of coordinative structures at the joint (interpersonal coordination) and individual (intrapersonal coordination) scales for the performance of a supra-postural task.In detail, this project investigated whether interpersonal and intrapersonal coordination are distinctly affected by changes in supra-postural task constraints, and whether reliable findings for individual performance of supra-postural tasks can be extended to the performance of joint tasks.Participants performed a joint task in which one participant held a stick to which a circle was attached at the top (holding task), while the other held a pointer through the circle without touching its borders (pointing task).Experiment 1 investigated whether interpersonal and intrapersonal coordination, and individual segment variability varied depending on task difficulty (circle size) and the role performed during the task.Results showed that as the difficulty of the task was increased, interpersonal and intrapersonal coordination increased in degree and stability, and individual postural sway variability decreased in the medial-lateral (ML) sway direction.Experiment 2 employed the same basic paradigm, but participants were asked to perform the task alone (single task) and with another person (joint task).Participants showed increased shared interpersonal coordination patterns, increased intrapersonal coordination, and more postural sway variability for joint compared to single performance.Task difficulty effects were found for joint but not single performance replicating the results of Experiment 1. Data obtained in Experiment 2 was analyzed using Principle Component Analysis (PCA), which indicated that, in general, joint performance involved fewer coordination modes than single performance.Overall, the results of this project suggest that both joint and individual coordinative structures are affected by the nature of the task performed and the constraints it places on joint and individual performance.
Author: Verónica C. Ramenzoni
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2596854506