Joint Simon Effects in Extrapersonal Space

Numerous studies have revealed that when people sit next to each other and complete separate parts of a Simon task, response times are shorter when the participants' stimulus appears in front of them than when the stimulus appears in the opposite side of space. According to the action co-repres...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of motor behavior 2013-01, Vol.45 (1), p.1-5
Main Authors: Welsh, Timothy N., Kiernan, Dovin, Neyedli, Heather F., Ray, Matthew, Pratt, Jay, Potruff, Andrew, Weeks, Daniel J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
action representation
Choice Behavior
Cooperative Behavior
Effects
extrapersonal space
Female
Human performance
Humans
joint action
joint Simon effect
Male
Motor ability
peripersonal space
Reaction Time
Signal Detection, Psychological
spatial compatibility
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Numerous studies have revealed that when people sit next to each other and complete separate parts of a Simon task, response times are shorter when the participants' stimulus appears in front of them than when the stimulus appears in the opposite side of space. According to the action co-representation account of this joint Simon effect (JSE), participants represent each other's responses and the compatibility effects emerge because of a set of facilitatory and inhibitory processes that are similar to those that are activated when individuals perform the entire Simon task alone. D. Guagnano, E. Rusconi, and C. A. Umiltà (2010) argued against this account as the sole mechanism based on their finding that a JSE was not observed when participants sat outside of each other's peripersonal space. Notably, the task in the Guagnano et al.'s was a modified version of the conventional JSE task designed to increase the independence of the partners. Here, we reconsider the arguments of Guagnano et al. and report a study in which the authors failed to replicate their key finding. Considering the extant JSE literature, we conclude that the null effect in Guagnano et al.'s study may be an anomaly and that co-representation remains a leading candidate for the critical process underlying JSEs.
ISSN:0022-2895
1940-1027
DOI:10.1080/00222895.2012.746635