Effect of Perceived Interpersonal Closeness on the Joint Simon Effect in Adolescents and Adults

Abstract

Here we investigated the effect of interpersonal closeness on joint action using the joint Simon task in adolescents and adults. In a two-choice reaction time task, spatially defined responses to non-spatial stimulus attributes are faster when stimulus and response locations are congruent than when they are incongruent. This phenomenon is called Simon effect and is absent or strongly weakened when a participant responds to only one of the stimuli. However, the effect reappears when two participants carry out the same go/no-go tasks cooperatively. This re-emergence of the Simon effect in joint action is called the joint Simon effect (JSE). In this study, we first replicated the standard and joint Simon effects in adolescents, as well as adults with similar magnitude of the effects in the two age groups. The magnitude of the JSE was positively correlated with the level of closeness as measured by Inclusion of Other in the Self scale. This correlation was not significantly different in adolescents compared to adults. Our findings show that joint action is sensitive to the social factor such as interpersonal closeness, and the underlying mechanisms are already mature by adolescence.

Minimal cooperation: insights from autism

“…On a cognitive dimension, this suggests that individuals form shared task representations by integrating the coactor's actions in their own action planning in a joint Simon task . On an affective dimension, the joint Simon effect has been found to be influenced by empathy insofar as its magnitude was correlated with perceived interpersonal closeness (Shafaei et al, 2019) and empathy among friends but not strangers (Ford & Aberdein, 2015). On a social dimension, the joint Simon effect has been found to depend on group memberships, insofar as the effect disappears when interacting with out-group members (Mu¨ller et al, 2011) and is stronger in collectivistic religions like Buddhism (Colzato et al, 2012).…”

“…When being engaged in the experiential sharing of enjoying a movie together, for example, each agent does not only empathetically experience that the other agent is jointly enjoying the movie but that experience, in turn, also affects the quality and structure of their own enjoyment. Empathy may be influenced by the personal relationships between the agents and perceived interpersonal closeness like feelings of connectedness with, for example, friends (Shafaei et al, 2019). In general, shared affective states being involved in cooperative activities can be regarded as a matter of degree with respect to both the intensity of the experienced affects as well as their temporal duration throughout the cooperative activity.…”