Multi-scale interactions in interpersonal coordination

Submovement interpersonal coupling is associated to audio-motor coordination performance

Acting in concert with others, a key aspect of our social life, requires behavioral coordination between persons on multiple timescales. When zooming in on the kinematic properties of movements, it appears that small speed fluctuations, called submovements, are embedded within otherwise smooth end-point trajectories. Submovements, by occurring at a faster timescale than that of movements, offer a novel window upon the functional relationship between distinct motor timescales. In this regard, it has previously been shown that when partners visually synchronize their movements, they also coordinate the timing of their submovement by following an alternated pattern. However, it remains unclear whether the mechanisms behind submovement coordination are domain-general or specific to the visual modality, and whether they have relevance for interpersonal coordination also at the scale of whole movements. In a series of solo and dyadic tasks, we show that submovements are also present and coordinated across partners when sensorimotor interactions are mediated by auditory feedback only. Importantly, the accuracy of task-instructed interpersonal coordination at the movement level correlates with the strength of submovement coordination. These results demonstrate that submovement coordination is a potentially fundamental mechanism that participates in interpersonal motor coordination regardless of the sensory domain mediating the interaction.

multiSyncPy: A Python package for assessing multivariate coordination dynamics

In order to support the burgeoning field of research into intra- and interpersonal synchrony, we present an open-source software package: multiSyncPy. Multivariate synchrony goes beyond the bivariate case and can be useful for quantifying how groups, teams, and families coordinate their behaviors, or estimating the degree to which multiple modalities from an individual become synchronized. Our package includes state-of-the-art multivariate methods including symbolic entropy, multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis, coherence (with an additional sum-normalized modification), the cluster-phase 'Rho' metric, and a statistical test based on the Kuramoto order parameter. We also include functions for two surrogation techniques to compare the observed coordination dynamics with chance levels and a windowing function to examine time-varying coordination for most of the measures. Taken together, our collation and presentation of these methods make the study of interpersonal synchronization and coordination dynamics applicable to larger, more complex and often more ecologically valid study designs. In this work, we summarize the relevant theoretical background and present illustrative practical examples, lessons learned, as well as guidance for the usage of our package - using synthetic as well as empirical data. Furthermore, we provide a discussion of our work and software and outline interesting further directions and perspectives. multiSyncPy is freely available under the LGPL license at: https://github.com/cslab-hub/multiSyncPy , and also available at the Python package index.

On enhancing students' cognitive abilities in online learning using brain activity and eye movements

The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted education institutions in over 150 nations, affecting billions of students. Many governments have forced a transition in higher education from in-person to remote learning. After this abrupt, worldwide transition away from the classroom, some question whether online education will continue to grow in acceptance in post-pandemic times. However, new technology, such as the brain-computer interface and eye-tracking, have the potential to improve the remote learning environment, which currently faces several obstacles and deficiencies. Cognitive brain computer interfaces can help us develop a better understanding of brain functions, allowing for the development of more effective learning methodologies and the enhancement of brain-based skills. We carried out a systematic literature review of research on the use of brain computer interfaces and eye-tracking to measure students' cognitive skills during online learning. We found that, because many experimental tasks depend on recorded rather than real-time video, students don't have direct and real-time interaction with their teacher. Further, we found no evidence in any of the reviewed papers for brain-to-brain synchronization during remote learning. This points to a potentially fruitful future application of brain computer interfaces in education, investigating whether the brains of student-teacher pairs who interact with the same course content have increasingly similar brain patterns.

Reaction time coupling in a joint stimulus-response task: A matter of functional actions or likable agents?

Shaping one owns actions by observing others’ actions is driven by the deep-rooted mechanism of perception-action coupling. It typically occurs automatically, expressed as for example the unintentional synchronization of reaction times in interactive games. Theories on perception-action coupling highlight its benefits such as the joint coordination of actions to cooperatively perform tasks properly, the learning of novel actions from others, and the bonding with likable others. However, such functional aspects and how they shape perception-action coupling have never been compared quantitatively. Here we tested a total of hundred-fifteen participants that played a stimulus-response task while, in parallel, they observed videos of agents that played the exact same task several milliseconds in advance. We compared to what degree the reaction times of actions of agents, who varied their behavior in terms of functionality and likability in preceding prisoner dilemma games and quizzes, shape the reaction times of human test participants. To manipulate functionality and likability, we varied the predictability of cooperative behavior and correctness of actions of agents, respectively, resulting in likable (cooperative), dislikable (uncooperative), functional (correct actions), and dysfunctional (incorrect actions) agents. The results of three experiments showed that the participants’ reaction times correlated most with the reaction times of agents that expressed functional behavior. However, the likability of agents had no effects on reaction time correlations. These findings suggest that, at least in the current computer task, participants are more likely to adopt the timing of actions from people that perform correct actions than from people that they like.

Empirical Evidence for Extended Cognitive Systems

We present an empirically supported theoretical and methodological framework for quantifying the system‐level properties of person‐plus‐tool interactions in order to answer the question: “Are person‐plus‐tool‐systems extended cognitive systems?” Nineteen participants provided perceptual judgments regarding their ability to pass through apertures of various widths while using visual information, blindfolded wielding a rod, or blindfolded wielding an Enactive Torch—a vibrotactile sensory‐substitution device for detecting distance. Monofractal, multifractal, and recurrence quantification analyses were conducted to assess features of person‐plus‐tool movement dynamics. Trials where people utilized the rod or Enactive Torch demonstrated stable “self‐similarity,” or indices of healthy and adaptive single systems, regardless of aperture width, trial order, features of the participants’ judgments, and participant characteristics. Enactive Torch trials exhibited a somewhat greater range of dynamic fluctuations than the rod trials, as well as less movement recurrence, suggesting that the Enactive Torch allowed for more exploratory movements. Findings provide support for the notion that person‐plus‐tool systems can be classified as extended cognitive systems and a framework for quantifying system‐level properties of these systems. Implications concerning future research on extended cognition are discussed.

Easier Said Than Done? Task Difficulty's Influence on Temporal Alignment, Semantic Similarity, and Complexity Matching Between Gestures and Speech

Gestures and speech are clearly synchronized in many ways. However, previous studies have shown that the semantic similarity between gestures and speech breaks down as people approach transitions in understanding. Explanations for these gesture–speech mismatches, which focus on gestures and speech expressing different cognitive strategies, have been criticized for disregarding gestures’ and speech's integration and synchronization. In the current study, we applied three different perspectives to investigate gesture–speech synchronization in an easy and a difficult task: temporal alignment, semantic similarity, and complexity matching. Participants engaged in a simple cognitive task and were assigned to either an easy or a difficult condition. We automatically measured pointing gestures, and we coded participant's speech, to determine the temporal alignment and semantic similarity between gestures and speech. Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis was used to determine the extent of complexity matching between gestures and speech. We found that task difficulty indeed influenced gesture–speech synchronization in all three domains. We thereby extended the phenomenon of gesture–speech mismatches to difficult tasks in general. Furthermore, we investigated how temporal alignment, semantic similarity, and complexity matching were related in each condition, and how they predicted participants’ task performance. Our study illustrates how combining multiple perspectives, originating from different research areas (i.e., coordination dynamics, complexity science, cognitive psychology), provides novel understanding about cognitive concepts in general and about gesture–speech synchronization and task difficulty in particular.

Infant-adult synchrony in spontaneous and nonspontaneous interactions

Infant-adult synchrony has been reported through observational and experimental studies. Nevertheless, synchrony is addressed differently in both cases. While observational studies measure synchrony in spontaneous infant-adult interactions, experimental studies manipulate it, inducing nonspontaneous synchronous and asynchronous interactions. A still unsolved question is to what extent differ spontaneous synchrony from the nonspontaneous one, experimentally elicited. To address this question, we conducted a study to compare synchrony in both interactional contexts. Forty-three 14-month-old infants were randomly assigned to one of two independent groups: (1) the spontaneous interaction context, consisting of a storytime session; and (2) the nonspontaneous interaction context, where an assistant bounced the infant in synchrony with a stranger. We employed an optical motion capture system to accurately track the time and form of synchrony in both contexts. Our findings indicate that synchrony arising in spontaneous exchanges has different traits than synchrony produced in a nonspontaneous interplay. The evidence presented here offers new insights for rethinking the study of infant-adult synchrony and its consequences on child development.

Interpersonal Coordination Dynamics in Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review

Background

The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of interpersonal coordination (i.e., covariation over time) in different modalities (e.g., physiology, language) during psychotherapy and their importance for understanding the dynamics of psychotherapeutic interaction and efficacy.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of all studies examining some form of interpersonal coordination in a psychotherapeutic context.

Results

We first summarize details of the included studies such as gender composition, therapy types, and methods used. The collation of these studies provided evidence that, during psychotherapeutic contexts, interpersonal coordination occurs in physiology, movements, interpersonal displays, and language/vocalizations. Further, it also showed that movement coordination was most frequently associated with psychotherapy outcomes, physiological coordination was most frequently associated with empathy, and coordination in a variety of modalities including language/vocalizations were most frequently associated with therapeutic alliance.

Conclusions

We discuss these results, shortcomings with the current literature, and highlight three crucial questions for future research. Research on interpersonal coordination in psychotherapy has potential to advance the both the research and practice of psychotherapy.

Coenhabiting Interpersonal Inter-Identities in Recurrent Social Interaction

We propose a view of identity beyond the individual in what we call interpersonal inter-identities (IIIs). Within this approach, IIIs comprise collections of entangled stabilities that emerge in recurrent social interaction and manifest for those who instantiate them as relatively invariant though ever-evolving patterns of being (or more accurately, becoming) together. Herein, we consider the processes responsible for the emergence of these IIIs from the perspective of an enactive cognitive science. Our proposal hinges primarily on the development of two related notions: enhabiting and coenhabiting. First, we introduce the notion of enhabiting, a set of processes at the individual level whereby structural interdependencies stabilize and thereafter undergird the habits, networks of habits, and personal identities through which we make sense of our experience. Articulating this position we lean on the notion of a tendency toward an optimal grip, though offering it a developmental framing, whereby iterative states of selective openness help realize relatively stable autonomous personal identities with their own norms of self-regulation. We then extend many of the notions found applicable here to an account of social coenhabiting, in particular, we introduce the notion of tending toward a co-optimal grip as central to the development of social habits, networks of habits, and ultimately IIIs. Such structures, we propose, also emerge as autonomous structures with their own norms of self-regulation. We wind down our account with some reflections on the implications of these structures outside of the interactions wherein they come into being and offer some thoughts about the complex animations of the individual embodied subjects that instantiate them.

Cognitive science as complexity science

It is uncontroversial to claim that cognitive science studies many complex phenomena. What is less acknowledged are the contradictions among many traditional commitments of its investigative approaches and the nature of cognitive systems. Consider, for example, methodological tensions that arise due to the fact that like most natural systems, cognitive systems are nonlinear; and yet, traditionally cognitive science has relied on linear statistical data analyses. Cognitive science as complexity science is offered as an interdisciplinary framework for the investigation of cognition that can dissolve such contradictions and tensions. Here, cognition is treated as exhibiting the following four key features: emergence, nonlinearity, self-organization, and universality. This framework integrates concepts, methods, and theories from such disciplines as systems theory, nonlinear dynamical systems theory, and synergetics. By adopting this approach, the cognitive sciences benefit from a common set of practices to investigate, explain, and understand cognition in its varied and complex forms. This article is categorized under: Computer Science > Neural Networks Psychology > Theory and Methods Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science Neuroscience > Cognition.

Multiscale movement coordination dynamics in collaborative team problem solving

During collaborative problem solving (CPS), coordination occurs at different spatial and temporal scales. This multiscale coordination should play a functional role in facilitating effective collaboration. To evaluate this, we conducted a study of computer-based CPS with 42 dyadic teams. We used cross-wavelet coherence to examine movement coordination, extracted from videos, at several scales, and tested whether the observed coordination was greater than expected due to chance and due to task demands. We found that coordination at scales less than 2s was greater than chance and at most scales (except 16s, 1m, and 2m), was greater than expected due to task demands. Lastly, we observed that coherence at .25s and 1s scales was predictive of performance. However, when including relative phase, our results suggest that higher in-phase movement coordination at the 1s scale was the strongest predictor of CPS performance. Further, we used growth curve modeling to examine how movement coordination changes across the duration of the task and whether this is moderated by CPS performance. We found that coordination over the duration of the CPS task is quadratic (a U shape) and that better performing teams have higher coordination with a shallower curve. We discuss these findings and their relevance to understanding how low-level movement coordination facilitates CPS.

Interactive Brain Activity: Review and Progress on EEG-Based Hyperscanning in Social Interactions

When individuals interact with others, perceived information is transmitted among their brains. The EEG-based hyperscanning technique, which provides an approach to explore dynamic brain activities between two or more interactive individuals and their underlying neural mechanisms, has been applied to study different aspects of social interactions since 2010. Recently there has been an increase in research on EEG-based hyperscanning of social interactions. This paper summarizes the application of EEG-based hyperscanning on the dynamic brain activities during social interactions according to the experimental designs and contents, discusses the possibility of applying inter-brain synchrony to social communication systems and analyzes the contributions and the limitations of these investigations. Furthermore, this paper sheds light on some new challenges to future EEG-based hyperscanning studies and the emerging field of EEG-based hyperscanning for pursuing the broader research field of social interactions.

The Stance Leads the Dance: The Emergence of Role in a Joint Supra-Postural Task

Successfully meeting a shared goal usually requires co-actors to adopt complementary roles. However, in many cases, who adopts what role is not explicitly predetermined, but instead emerges as a consequence of the differences in the individual abilities and constraints imposed upon each actor. Perhaps the most basic of roles are leader and follower. Here, we investigated the emergence of “leader-follower” dynamics in inter-personal coordination using a joint supra-postural task paradigm (Ramenzoni et al., 2011; Athreya et al., 2014). Pairs of actors were tasked with holding two objects in alignment (each actor manually controlled one of the objects) as they faced different demands for stance (stable vs. difficult) and control (which actor controlled the larger or smaller object). Our results indicate that when actors were in identical stances, neither led the inter-personal (between actors) coordination by any systematic fashion. Alternatively, when asymmetries in postural demands were introduced, the actor with the more difficult stance led the coordination (as determined using cross-recurrence quantification analysis). Moreover, changes in individual stance difficulty resulted in similar changes in the structure of both intra-personal (individual) and inter-personal (dyadic) coordination, suggesting a scale invariance of the task dynamics. Implications for the study of interpersonal coordination are discussed.

Joint Action of a Pair of Rowers in a Race: Shared Experiences of Effectiveness Are Shaped by Interpersonal Mechanical States

The purpose of this study was to understand how a single pair of expert individual rowers experienced their crew functioning in natural conditions when asked to practice a joint movement for the first time. To fulfill this objective, we conducted a field study of interpersonal coordination that combined phenomenological and mechanical data from a coxless pair activity, to analyze the dynamics of the (inter)subjective experience compared with the dynamics of the team coordination. Using an enactivist approach to social couplings, these heterogeneous data were combined to explore the salience (and accuracy) of individuals' shared experiences of their joint action. First, we determined how each rower experienced the continuous crew functioning states (e.g., feelings of the boat's glide). Second, the phenomenological data helped us to build several categories of oar strokes (i.e., cycles), experienced by the rowers as either detrimentally or effectively performed strokes. Third, the mechanical signatures that correlated with each phenomenological category were tracked at various level of organization (i.e., individual-, interpersonal-, and boat-levels). The results indicated that (a) the two rowers did not pay attention to their joint action during most of the cycles, (b) some cycles were simultaneously lived as a salient, meaningful experience of either a detrimental (n = 15 cycles) or an effective (n = 18 cycles) joint action, and (c) the mechanical signatures diverged across the delineated phenomenological categories, suggesting that the way in which the cycles were experienced emerged from the variance in some mechanical parameters (i.e., differences in peak force level and mean force). Notably, the mechanical measures that helped to explain differences within the phenomenological categories were found at the interpersonal level of analysis, thus suggesting an intentional inter-personal mode of regulation of their joint action. This result is further challenged and discussed in light of extra-personal regulation processes that might concurrently explain why participants did not make an extensive salient experience of their joint action. We conclude that attempts to combine phenomenological and mechanical data should be pursued to continue the research on how individuals regulate the effectiveness of their joint actions' dynamics.