The predictability of a partner’s actions modulates the sense of joint agency

Distinguishing “self” from “other” in a dynamic synchronization task with an adaptive virtual partner

“…In the present study, ratings of oneness and influence were lower when tapping with an unstable partner in conjunction with ambiguous auditory feedback. Work by Bolt and Loehr has described a relationship not only between an individual's own performance stability and joint agency but also between reliability of a co-actor's actions and a shared sense of control (Bolt and Loehr, 2017). Previous work has suggested that assessing and attributing agency is dependent on the sensory reliability and distinctiveness of the signal (Elliott, M. T., Wing, A. M., & Welchman, 2014).…”

“…The obtained ratings of oneness serve not only to explore the neural correlates of self-other merging but also to test the hypothesis that to successfully perform the task, that is, maintain a stable level of synchronisation, an element of self-other distinction is also required (Gallotti et al, 2017;Novembre et al, 2016Novembre et al, , 2012. We predicted that ratings of oneness would be lowest when tapping with an unstable partner with ambiguous auditory feedback because in this case the variable timing of the VP works against self-other integration while the timbrally indistinguishable tones produced by the participant and VP work against self-other segregation (Bolt and Loehr, 2017). ***************************** Figure 1 here ************************************* We further hypothesize that manipulation of our two factors (timing and timbre) will affect the perceived influence that the participant feels s/he is exerting within the partnership over the tempo -an assessment that we posit requires an increased awareness of self/other distinction that can be linked to greater selfagency.…”

“…However, with only a few exceptions (Guionnet et al, 2011), these approaches have not examined agency within a social and interactive context (David, 2012;Schilbach et al, 2013) and do not distinguish between feelings and judgments of agency, that is, implicit and explicit senses of agency (Miele et al, 2011;Synofzik et al, 2008). Most recently, using a temporal coordination task, Bolt & Loehr detail the nature of so-called joint agency in which, under certain circumstances of coordinated joint action, participants feel a sense of shared control (Bolt and Loehr, 2017).…”

“…is used here to describe "the degree of perception of parts of the self in the other" or "the extent of informal or formal tie [s] or the extent of interdependence" (Aron et al, 1992;Cialdini et al, 1997;Davis et al, 1996). This may be linked to similar concepts such as "we-ness" as described by Gallotti and Frith (Gallotti and Frith, 2013) or "togetherness" (Hart et al, 2014), shared or joint agency (Bolt and Loehr, 2017) and in music, this sense of oneness is an aspect of being "in the groove" (Janata et al, 2012). This is relevant to group music making, where not only are movements synchronized but also the produced sounds overlap in time and space, potentially underlying shared representations of self and other (Sebanz et al, 2006).…”

Agents' pivotality and reward fairness modulate sense of agency in cooperative joint action

“…Any voluntary action is typically associated to a certain sense of agency (SoA), that is, a feeling of control over actions and their consequences (Haggard & Tsakiris, 2009;Moore, 2016), and recent work has shown that people do experience a sense of joint agency in motor coordination tasks involving two partners (e.g., Obhi & Hall, 2011;Dewey, Pacherie, & Knoblich, 2014;Bolt et al, 2016;Loehr, 2018). However, relative to individual action, the SoA in joint action has received much less attention and very little is known about the concrete factors that contribute to its emergence or alteration (see Pacherie, 2012Pacherie, , 2014Bolt & Loehr, 2017). Thus, the aim of the present experimental study was two-fold.…”