When interacting with each other, people often synchronize
spontaneously their movements, e.g.
during pendulum swinging,
chair rocking[5], walking [4][7], and when executing periodic forearm
movements[3].Although the spatiotemporal information that establishes the coupling,
leading to synchronization, might be provided by several perceptual systems,
the systematic study of different sensory modalities contribution is widely neglected. Considering a) differences in the sensory dominance on the spatial and temporal dimension[5] , b) different cue combination and integration strategies [1][2], and c)
that sensory information might provide different aspects of the
same event, synchronization should be moderated by the type of sensory
modality.
Here, 9 naïve participants placed a bottle periodically between two target zones,
40 times, in 12 conditions while sitting in front of a confederate executing the same task.
The participant could a) see and hear, b) see , c) hear the confederate, d) or audiovisual information about the movements of the confederate was
absent.
The couple started in 3 different relative positions (i.e., in-phase, anti-phase, out of phase).
A retro-reflective marker was attached to the top of the bottles. Bottle displacement was captured by a motion capture system.
We analyzed the variability of the continuous relative phase reflecting the degree of synchronization. Results indicate the emergence of spontaneous synchronization,
an increase with bimodal information, and an influence
of the initial phase relation on the particular synchronization pattern. Results have theoretical implication for studying cue combination in interpersonal
coordination and are
consistent with coupled oscillator
models.Fundação Bial (Grant 77/12) and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT: SFRH/BD/8839 6/2012; EXPL/MHC - PCN/0162/2013; FCOMP - 01 - 0124 - FEDER - 022674 and PEst - C/CTM/U10264/2011; FCOMP - 01 - 0124 - FEDER - 037281 and PEst - C/EEI/LA0014/2013. This work was financed by FEDER grants through the Operational Competitiveness Program – COMPET
