An Overview of the Study on Interpersonal Coordination

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of previous studies on interpersonal coordination. The first section reviews studies on unintentional interpersonal coordination in cases of rhythmic behaviors, such as synchronized movements between people. For example, when two people perform a rhythmic behavior such as swinging a pendulum, rocking in a rocking chair, or walking side-by-side, their behavior tend to synchronize automatically. Such automatic synchrony is known as entrainment. The second section reviews studies on intentional interpersonal coordination in cases of non-rhythmic behavior, often discussed in context of imitative versus complementary movement. In coordination that relies on synchronization, people perform rhythmic behaviors, which combine to achieve the shared action goal. These motor behaviors are often identical, and hence symmetrical. By contrast, in complementary coordination, while two people perform different behaviors, their behaviors link together so that the one compensates for the other to achieve the shared goal. From a developmental viewpoint, the third section reviews studies on the growth of joint action over the first 2 years of life. As for adult-infant interaction, it takes approximately 2 years for infants to become autonomous contributions to sustained, goal-directed joint activity active, collaborative partners. As for infant-infant interaction, 2-year olds were thus able to act jointly with each action in a novel situation, without the support of familiar partners, goals, or routines.