Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size

authored by: Basil Wahn, Veera Ruuskanen, Alan Kingstone, Sebastiaan Mathôt
Abstract: Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size – a physiological correlate of mental effort – can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner and either devised a division of labor strategy (main experiment) or the labor division was already pre-determined (control experiment). We observed that pupil sizes increase relative to performing the MOT task alone in the main experiment while this is not the case in the control experiment. These findings suggest that pupil size can detect a rise in coordination effort, extending the view that pupil size indexes mental effort across a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks.
Organisation(s): Institute of Psychology
External Organisation(s): University of British Columbia
University of Groningen
Type: Article
Journal: Acta psychologica
Volume: 215
No. of pages: 8
ISSN: 0001-6918
Publication date: 04.2021
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103291 (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@article{2afbbd0a186d4b1985c69c636a17ae3a,
title = "Coordination effort in joint action is reflected in pupil size",
abstract = "Humans often perform visual tasks together, and when doing so, they tend to devise division of labor strategies to share the load. Implementing such strategies, however, is effortful as co-actors need to coordinate their actions. We tested if pupil size – a physiological correlate of mental effort – can detect such a coordination effort in a multiple object tracking task (MOT). Participants performed the MOT task jointly with a computer partner and either devised a division of labor strategy (main experiment) or the labor division was already pre-determined (control experiment). We observed that pupil sizes increase relative to performing the MOT task alone in the main experiment while this is not the case in the control experiment. These findings suggest that pupil size can detect a rise in coordination effort, extending the view that pupil size indexes mental effort across a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks.",
keywords = "Collaboration, Human-robot interaction, Joint action, Multiple object tracking, Pupillometry, Social cognition",
author = "Basil Wahn and Veera Ruuskanen and Alan Kingstone and Sebastiaan Math{\^o}t",
note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the support of a DFG research fellowship (WA 4153/2-1) awarded to BW, and an NSERC Discovery Grant awarded to AK.",
year = "2021",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103291",
language = "English",
volume = "215",
journal = "Acta psychologica",
issn = "0001-6918",
publisher = "Elsevier",
}