Abstract
Typically, when two individuals perform a task together, each partner monitors the other partners’ responses and goals to ensure that the task is completed efficiently. This monitoring is thought to involve a co-representation of the joint goals and task, as well as a simulation of the partners’ performance. Evidence for such “co-representation” of goals and task, and “simulation” of responses has come from numerous visual attention studies in which two participants complete different components of the same task. In the present research, an adaptation of the attentional blink task was used to determine if co-representation could exert an influence over the associated attentional mechanisms. Participants completed a rapid serial visual presentation task in which they first identified a target letter (T1) and then detected the presence of the letter X (T2) presented one to seven letters after T1. In the individual condition, the participant identified T1 and then detected T2. In the joint condition, one participant identified T1 and the other participant detected T2. Across two experiments, an attentional blink (decreased accuracy in detecting T2 when presented three letters after T1) was observed in the individual condition, but not in joint conditions. A joint attentional blink may not emerge because the co-representation mechanisms that enable joint action exert a stronger influence at information processing stages that do not overlap with those that lead to the attentional blink.
Highlights
In many daily tasks, such as cooking in a kitchen or searching for several items in a room, an individual will recruit the help of other people to complete the task more efficiently than if that individual performed the task alone
Responses at T2 were analyzed regardless of accuracy at T1 because responses were made by two separate individuals and participants were not given any specific instructions to monitor the performance of their partner on T1
To determine if an attentional blink was present in each condition, the analysis focused on the difference between the accuracy of detecting T2 at Lag 3 and Lag 5 (MacLean and Arnell, 2012)
Summary
In many daily tasks, such as cooking in a kitchen or searching for several items in a room, an individual will recruit the help of other people to complete the task more efficiently than if that individual performed the task alone. For example, a situation in which Bob and Doug are searching for the items they need to go out and buy coffee and jelly doughnuts from the local coffee shop. Both Bob and Doug understand the super-ordinate goal of leaving the house efficiently and that, to achieve that goal, each person might be responsible for finding different items: Bob may be tasked with retrieving the wallet and the keys to the van while Doug must find the hats and mittens. To ensure the overall job is completed efficiently, Bob and Doug will likely maintain the goals of
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