Humans interact in groups through various perception and action channels. The continuity of interaction despite a transient loss of perceptual contact often exists and contributes to goal achievement. Here, we study the dynamics of this continuity, in two experiments involving groups of participants ($$N=7$$ N = 7 ) synchronizing their movements in space and in time. We show that behavioural unison can be maintained after perceptual contact has been lost, for about 7s. Agent similarity and spatial configuration in the group modulated synchronization performance, differently so when perceptual interaction was present or when it was memorized. Modelling these data through a network of oscillators enabled us to clarify the double origin of this memory effect, of individual and social nature. These results shed new light into why humans continue to move in unison after perceptual interruption, and are consequential for a wide variety of applications at work, in art and in sport.
Object-mediated joint action is believed to be enabled by implicit information exchange between interacting individuals using subtle haptic signals within their interaction forces. The characteristics of these haptic signals have, however, remained unclear. Here we analyzed the interaction forces during an empirical dyadic interaction task using Granger–Geweke causality analysis, which allowed us to quantify the causal influence of each individual’s forces on their partner’s. We observed that the inter-partner influence was not the same at every frequency. Specifically, in the frequency band of [2.15–7] Hz, we observed inter-partner differences of causal influence that were invariant of the movement frequencies in the task and present only when information exchange was indispensable for task performance. Moreover, the inter-partner difference in this frequency band was observed to be correlated with the task performance by the dyad. Our results suggest that forces in the [2.15–7] Hz band constitute task related information exchange between individuals during physical interactions.
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