Cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying interpersonal action coordination

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From the simple act of passing a coffee cup to a friend to the complex activity of dancing a tango with a partner, everyday life abounds with examples of people coordinating their actions with others. Very little research has investigated the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie interpersonal coordination; cognitive neuroscience research has focused almost exclusively on people performing tasks alone. The long-term objective of my research is to understand how people process others' actions concurrently with their own to produce fluid interpersonal coordination. The short-term goals of my research are to investigate the mechanisms that allow people to 1) achieve the precise timing that is typical of transitions between speakers' turns during conversation, 2) concurrently make predictions about the sensory consequences of their own and others' actions, and 3) monitor the outcomes of their own and others' actions to ensure that both individual and shared goals are met. Methodologies used to achieve these goals include asking listeners to rate the durations of pauses between speakers' turns during conversation (Research Program 1), examining people's neural responses to the sensory consequences of their own and others' actions using electroencephalography (EEG, used to measure brain activity; Research Program 2), and investigating the time-course of brain activity that unfolds after people receive feedback indicating that they or their partner have made an error during interpersonal coordination (Research Program 3). The proposed research will not only advance theoretical models of action and cognition that have heretofore assumed that cognitive processes operate and can be studied in isolation; it will also have implications for artificial intelligence research, as advances in understanding human interpersonal coordination contribute to improvements in human-robot interaction. In addition, the proposed research will provide numerous opportunities for high-quality training experiences that will support students' development of critical skills necessary for their success in academic contexts and in the broader work force.