How do partner reactions affect task set selection: Specific imitation or abstract tasks?

Abstract

Task set selection is facilitated when people expect a partner to perform the same task, suggesting that the features of the partner’s performance are represented. However, it is unclear how similar the partner’s reactions must be to promote compatibility effects: does a partner have to imitate subjects’ specific actions or is it enough to perform the same task while responding to different stimuli with different actions? This present study investigated this question in a joint picture–word interference paradigm. Subjects either named pictures or read words, and a partner responded by performing the same or the competing task. In Experiment 1, the partner used the same picture–word combinations as the subject and thus compatible trials implied a complete imitation. Compatibility benefits were observed. In Experiment 2, the partner performed the same or the competing task on different stimuli, producing different actions. Compatibility effects were absent. To test whether this indicates that an overlap in abstract task features is insufficient or resulted from excessive task difficulty, Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 with a smaller stimulus set. Compatibility benefits were found. Taken together, the results suggest that a partner’s abstract task can be represented and affect task set selection processes even without an overlap in stimulus-response mappings.

Social Action Effects: Representing Predicted Partner Responses in Social Interactions

“…In the latter case, the follower’s response is replaced with stimuli representing the reactions of a human partner, e.g., images of facial expressions or animated body movements. As a starting point, higher level goals and mutual coordination of movements that play a role in both everyday social interactions and in joint action research (Vesper et al, 2010 ; Sacheli et al, 2015 ) were typically excluded by design, and are yet to be implemented in this framework (for a recent step in this direction, see Müller and Jung, 2018 ; Müller, 2020 ). Since the action options of both participants are limited to a large degree by the experimental setup and corresponding instructions, this approach usually results in situations that do not capture all facets of social interaction proper.…”