Cue properties change timing strategies in group movement synchronisation
Name
Honisch-2016-Cue Properties.pdf
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675.1 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bd39335dcfa63cc06b3f6141bd19793e
Author(s)
Honisch, Juliane J.
Elliott, Mark T.
Jacoby, Nori
Wing, Alan M.
Date Issued
January 2016
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Honisch, Juliane J., Mark T. Elliott, Nori Jacoby, and Alan M. Wing. “Cue Properties Change Timing Strategies in Group Movement Synchronisation.” Scientific Reports 6 (January 19, 2016): 19439.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
To maintain synchrony in group activities, each individual within the group must continuously correct their movements to remain in time with the temporal cues available. Cues might originate from one or more members of the group. Current research suggests that when synchronising movements, individuals optimise their performance in terms of minimising variability of timing errors (asynchronies) between external cues and their own movements. However, the cost of this is an increase in the timing variability of their own movements. Here we investigate whether an individual’s timing strategy changes according to the task, in a group scenario. To investigate this, we employed a novel paradigm that positioned six individuals to form two chains with common origin and termination on the circumference of a circle. We found that participants with access to timing cues from only one other member used a strategy to minimise their asynchrony variance. In contrast, the participant at the common termination of the two chains, who was required to integrate timing cues from two members, used a strategy that minimised movement variability. We conclude that humans are able to flexibly switch timekeeping strategies to maintain task demands and thus optimise the temporal performance of their movements.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep19439
