Abstract
Humans commonly engage in tasks that require or are made more efficient by coordinating with other humans. In this paper we introduce a task dynamics approach for modeling multi-agent interaction and decision making in a pick and place task where an agent must move an object from one location to another and decide whether to act alone or with a partner. Our aims were to identify and model (1) the affordance related dynamics that define an actor's choice to move an object alone or to pass it to their co-actor and (2) the trajectory dynamics of an actor's hand movements when moving to grasp, relocate, or pass the object. Using a virtual reality pick and place task, we demonstrate that both the decision to pass or not pass an object and the movement trajectories of the participants can be characterized in terms of a behavioral dynamics model. Simulations suggest that the proposed behavioral dynamics model exhibits features observed in human participants including hysteresis in decision making, non-straight line trajectories, and non-constant velocity profiles. The proposed model highlights how the same low-dimensional behavioral dynamics can operate to constrain multiple (and often nested) levels of human activity and suggests that knowledge of what, when, where and how to move or act during pick and place behavior may be defined by these low dimensional task dynamics and, thus, can emerge spontaneously and in real-time with little a priori planning.
Highlights
Living and working in shared spaces often requires that individuals coordinate their actions together to accomplish shared behavioral goals
Previous research investigating the dynamical processes of coordinated joint-action and multiagent activity has demonstrated that the behavioral order of such activity is often self-organized and synergistic, naturally emerging from the task-relevant physical, biomechanical, and informational couplings and constraints that exist between co-actors and within a joint-action task space (e.g., Schmidt et al, 1990, 2012; Schmidt and O’Brien, 1997; Marsh et al, 2006; Frank and Richardson, 2010; Richardson et al, 2010; Riley et al, 2011; Anderson et al, 2012; Richardson and Kallen, 2015; Washburn et al, 2015)
What task variables determined the participants’ decision to pass or not pass an object and what were the associated affordance related dynamics of these behavioral events? Second, where did participants choose to release the object when passing the object to a co-actor and to what degree was the pass location functionally related to the intended object goal location and/or the confederate co-actors hand location
Summary
Living and working in shared spaces often requires that individuals coordinate their actions together to accomplish shared behavioral goals. Previous research investigating the dynamical processes of coordinated joint-action and multiagent activity has demonstrated that the behavioral order of such activity is often self-organized and synergistic, naturally emerging from the task-relevant physical, biomechanical, and informational couplings and constraints that exist between co-actors and within a joint-action task space (e.g., Schmidt et al, 1990, 2012; Schmidt and O’Brien, 1997; Marsh et al, 2006; Frank and Richardson, 2010; Richardson et al, 2010; Riley et al, 2011; Anderson et al, 2012; Richardson and Kallen, 2015; Washburn et al, 2015). A growing number of researchers have argued that multiagent activity is best conceptualized as a complex dynamical system and, that the behavioral order of self-organized, synergistic multiagent coordination can be understood and modeled using low-dimensional task or behavioral dynamics principles (e.g., Schmidt et al, 1990, 1998; Warren, 2006; Lagarde, 2013; Dumas et al, 2014; Richardson and Kallen, 2015; Richardson et al, 2015)
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