Abstract
The most common explanation for joint-action effects has been the action co-representation account in which observation of another's action is represented within one's own action system. However, recent evidence has shown that the most prominent of these joint-action effects (i.e., the Social Simon effect), can occur when no co-actor is present. In the current work we examined whether another joint-action phenomenon (a movement congruency effect) can be induced when a participant performs their part of the task with a different effector to that of their co-actor and when a co-actor's action is replaced by an attention-capturing luminance signal. Contrary to what is predicted by the action co-representation account, results show that the basic movement congruency effect occurred in both situations. These findings challenge the action co-representation account of this particular effect and suggest instead that it is driven by bottom-up mechanisms.
Highlights
Joint-action processes have generated a considerable amount of interest amongst cognitive psychologists over the past decade or so
Typical results reveal a basic ‘‘Simon effect’’; participants are quicker to respond to stimuli appearing on the side of the display associated with their button
In the present Experiment 1 we examined whether this particular movement congruency effect would still occur even if the co-actors used different parts of their body to make a response, and no action congruency or mirroring could take place
Summary
Joint-action processes have generated a considerable amount of interest amongst cognitive psychologists over the past decade or so. Joint-action phenomena reflect many everyday situations where coordination and synchronization between individuals is often required. One of the most popular paradigms to study joint-action generates the so-called Social Simon effect ( known as the interactive/joint Simon task), first reported by Sebanz and colleagues [3]. The task is carried out jointly by two individuals with one of them responding to the appearance of, say, a particular colour by pressing a left key, whereas the other presses a right key when a different colour is displayed. The standard Simon task, in which one participant makes both left and right responses, is usually explained by the event coding approach [5]. The Simon effect is only present when two participants share the task (social version) or when an individual performs alone but operates both responses (standard version). The effect is abolished in the single-participant Simon paradigm where the participant operates only one of the buttons [7]
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