abstract: The current paper presents two studies that examine how asymmetries during interpersonal coordination are compensated for. It was predicted that destabilizing effects of asymmetries are stabilized through the recruitment and suppression of motor degrees-of-freedom (df). Experiment 1 examined this effect by having participants coordinate line movements of different orientations. Greater differences in asymmetries between participants yielded greater spatial deviation, resulting in the recruitment of df. Experiment 2 examined whether coordination of movements asymmetrical in shape (circle and line) yield simultaneous recruitment and suppression of df. This experiment also tested whether the initial stability of the performed movement alters the amount of change in df. Results showed that changes in df were exhibited as circles decreasing in circularity and lines increasing in circularity. Further, more changes in df were found circular (suppression) compared to line (recruitment) movements. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013

abstract: The current work investigated the emergence of leader-follower roles during social motor coordination. Previous research has presumed a leader during coordination assumes a spatiotemporally advanced position (e.g., relative phase lead). While intuitive, this definition discounts what role-taking implies. Leading and following is defined as one person (or limb) having a larger influence on the motor state changes of another; the coupling is asymmetric. Three experiments demonstrated asymmetric coupling effects emerge when task or biomechanical asymmetries are imputed between actors. Participants coordinated in-phase (Ф =0o) swinging of handheld pendulums, which differed in their uncoupled eigenfrequencies (frequency detuning). Coupling effects were recovered through phase-amplitude modeling. Experiment 1 examined leader-follower coupling during a bidirectional task. Experiment 2 employed an additional coupling asymmetry by assigning an explicit leader and follower. Both experiment 1 and 2 demonstrated asymmetric coupling effects with increased detuning. In experiment 2, though, the explicit follower exhibited a phase lead in nearly all conditions. These results confirm that coupling direction was not determined strictly by relative phasing. A third experiment examined the question raised by the previous two, which is how could someone follow from ahead (i.e., phase lead in experiment 2). This was tested using a combination of frequency detuning and amplitude asymmetry requirements (e.g., 1:1 or 1:2 & 2:1). Results demonstrated larger amplitude movements drove the coupling towards the person with the smaller amplitude; small amplitude movements exhibited a phase lead, despite being a follower in coupling terms. These results suggest leader-follower coupling is a general property of social motor coordination. Predicting when such coupling effects occur is emphasized by the stability reducing effects of coordinating asymmetric components. Generally, the implication is role-taking is an emergent strategy of dividing up coordination stabilizing efforts unequally between actors (or limbs). / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2015

Dans une tâche virtuelle d'interception, nous nous sommes intéressés à la façon dont deux individus, pouvant déplacer chacun une raquette le long d'un axe d'interception commun, coordonnaient leurs actions dans le but d'intercepter une balle qui s'approchait. En tant que contact entre les raquettes rendrait interception impossible, la tâche de double-pong demandait aux participants de décider à chaque essai qui allait être celui à réaliser l'interception. Sans possibilités pour communication orale, seules les informations visuelles sur l’écran pouvaient être utilisées lors processus décisionnel. A travers trois expériences, en manipulant les positions initiales des raquettes et les différences individuelles de niveaux au sein des équipes, nous avons examiné comment ces équipes organisaient leur comportement d'interception. Les résultats ont révélé que toutes les équipes établissaient spontanément une division du travail caractérisée par des domaines d'interception individuels séparés par des frontières floues. Bien que les positions des limites puissent varier d'une équipe à l'autre, celles-ci ont été systématiquement affectées par les positions initiales des raquettes. Les différences de niveaux ne semblaient pas avoir un tel effet. Une définition basée sur l'action de l'opportunité selon laquelle, à chaque instant, chaque joueur se déplace vers la future position d'interception, a permis de prédire qui finirait par intercepter la balle. Dans l'ensemble, nos études suggèrent que la prise de décision de qui va intercepter la balle émerge d'un couplage informationnel entre les membres de l'équipe, considérant que la division de l'espace est un résultat émergent. / We studied the way two individuals coordinate their actions in order to intercept an approaching ball by moving individually-controlled paddles along a common interception-axis in a video game-like doubles interception task. With contact between paddles leading to their immediate disintegration, the doubles-pong task required team members to decide on each trial who would be the one to actualize the interception. Because overt communication was precluded, these decisions were informed exclusively by vision of the on-screen movements of paddles and ball. In three experiments, manipulating initial conditions (i.e., initial paddle positions) and individual skill differences within teams, we examined how teams organized their joint interception behavior. Results revealed that all teams spontaneously demonstrated a division of labor, characterized by individual interception domains separated by fuzzy (i.e., overlapping) boundaries. While boundary locations could vary over teams within a given experimental condition, they were nevertheless systematically affected for each team by initial paddle positions. Skill differences between individual team members did not appear to have such an effect. An action-based definition of the (time-evolving) expediency with which each player moved towards the future interception position allowed predicting which of the two players would end up intercepting the ball and which would abandon the interception attempt. Overall, our studies suggest that the decision of who will intercept the ball emerges from an informational coupling between team members, with the division of space being an emergent result.

Ce travail vise à la construction d'un modèle d'intervention sociale qui prend comme base conceptuelle des éléments de la théorie des systèmes sociaux développée par Niklas Luhmann. La prédominance d'une différenciation sociale fonctionnelle, caractéristique d'une société moderne, suppose un monde hétérarchique et acentrique qui oblige à abandonner les principes structurels hiérarchiques des sociétés précédentes. À cet égard, l'intervention sociale ne peut être conçue que si elle s'éloigne du modèle hiérarchique associé au contrôle social, pour ainsi aller vers des stratégies de coordination qui conduisent les systèmes vers une autorégulation. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons une intervention sociale systémique caractérisée par sa contextualité et sa réflexivité, mais aussi par son improbabilité et optionnalité, compte tenu de la clôture opérationnelle qui caractérise les systèmes sociaux. Dans ce sens, l'intervention sociale est présentée comme une offre communicationnelle qui, pour avoir lieu, doit d'abord irriter l'autoréférence des systèmes vers lesquels elle dirige sa stratégie pour ainsi être sélectionnée par ces systèmes. Ainsi, elle permettra d'établir des relations intersystémiques, fondées sur l'hétérarchie, au moyen des couplages structurels. À partir de ces caractéristiques, le cycle de l'intervention se constitue comme un processus réflexif caractérisé par sa récursivité. Il comporte les phases de l'intervention où les systèmes participants convergent dans la définition de la stratégie. Ce travail propose finalement d'observer un programme social chilien, le programme Puente [Pont], afin d'observer s'il est possible d'y identifier des éléments d'une intervention sociale systémique. / The present research aims to the construction of a social intervention model considering, as a conceptual background, a number of elements from the theory of social systems developed by Niklas Luhmann. The predominance of a functional social differentiation, typical of modern societies, supposes an acentric and heterarchical world that compels to abandon the hierarchical structural principles of the former societies. To this regard, social intervention can only be conceived if it keeps away from the hierarchical model associated with social control, in order to favor coordination strategies that lead systems toward self-regulation. Consequently, we propose a systemic social intervention characterized by its context and reflexivity, and also by its improbability and optionality, in view of the operational closure that characterizes social systems. To this end, social intervention is presented as a communicational offer which, in order to occur, must at first irritate the autoreference of the systems to which it aims its strategy, in order to thus be selected by those systems. This will allow establishing intersystem relationships through structural couplings based on heterarchy. Stemming from these characteristics, the cycle of intervention is constituted as a reflexive process marked by its recursivity. It includes the intervention stages where the participating systems converge in the definition of its strategy. Finally, this research proposes to observe a Chilean social program, in order to examine if some elements of a systemic social intervention can be identified.

No description available.