Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task
In this contribution we set out to study how a team of two players coordinated their actions so as to intercept an approaching ball. Adopting a doubles-pong task, six teams of two participants each intercepted balls moving downward across a screen towards an interception axis by laterally displacing...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01910/full |
| _version_ | 1818570408917467136 |
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| author | Niek H Benerink Frank TJM Zaal Remy Casanova Nathalie Bonnardel Reinoud J Bootsma |
| author_facet | Niek H Benerink Frank TJM Zaal Remy Casanova Nathalie Bonnardel Reinoud J Bootsma |
| author_sort | Niek H Benerink |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this contribution we set out to study how a team of two players coordinated their actions so as to intercept an approaching ball. Adopting a doubles-pong task, six teams of two participants each intercepted balls moving downward across a screen towards an interception axis by laterally displacing participant-controlled on-screen paddles. With collisions between paddles resulting in unsuccessful interception, on each trial participants had to decide amongst them who would intercept the ball and who would not. In the absence of possibilities for overt communication, such team decisions were informed exclusively by the visual information provided on the screen. Results demonstrated that collisions were rare and that 91.3 ± 3.4% of all balls were intercepted. While all teams demonstrated a global division of interception space, boundaries between interception domains were fuzzy and could moreover be shifted away from the center of the screen. Balls arriving between the participants’ initial paddle positions often gave rise to both participants initiating an interception movement, requiring one of the participants to abandon the interception attempt at some point so as to allow the other participant intercept the ball. A simulation of on-the-fly decision making of who intercepted the ball based on a measure capturing the triangular relations between the two paddles allowed the qualitative aspects of the pattern of observed results to be reproduced, including the timing of abandoning. Overall, the results thus suggest that decisions regarding who intercepts the ball emerge from between-participant interactions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T13:40:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-42e3fd8ba105463f8b190fa9ca0b0fd8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T13:40:53Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-42e3fd8ba105463f8b190fa9ca0b0fd82022-12-21T22:59:27ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-12-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01910224670Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception taskNiek H Benerink0Frank TJM Zaal1Remy Casanova2Nathalie Bonnardel3Reinoud J Bootsma4Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ISMUniversity of GroningenAix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ISMAix Marseille UnivAix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ISMIn this contribution we set out to study how a team of two players coordinated their actions so as to intercept an approaching ball. Adopting a doubles-pong task, six teams of two participants each intercepted balls moving downward across a screen towards an interception axis by laterally displacing participant-controlled on-screen paddles. With collisions between paddles resulting in unsuccessful interception, on each trial participants had to decide amongst them who would intercept the ball and who would not. In the absence of possibilities for overt communication, such team decisions were informed exclusively by the visual information provided on the screen. Results demonstrated that collisions were rare and that 91.3 ± 3.4% of all balls were intercepted. While all teams demonstrated a global division of interception space, boundaries between interception domains were fuzzy and could moreover be shifted away from the center of the screen. Balls arriving between the participants’ initial paddle positions often gave rise to both participants initiating an interception movement, requiring one of the participants to abandon the interception attempt at some point so as to allow the other participant intercept the ball. A simulation of on-the-fly decision making of who intercepted the ball based on a measure capturing the triangular relations between the two paddles allowed the qualitative aspects of the pattern of observed results to be reproduced, including the timing of abandoning. Overall, the results thus suggest that decisions regarding who intercepts the ball emerge from between-participant interactions.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01910/fullDecision MakingJoint ActioncoordinationteamcollaborationPerception-Action |
| spellingShingle | Niek H Benerink Frank TJM Zaal Remy Casanova Nathalie Bonnardel Reinoud J Bootsma Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task Frontiers in Psychology Decision Making Joint Action coordination team collaboration Perception-Action |
| title | Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| title_full | Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| title_fullStr | Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| title_full_unstemmed | Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| title_short | Playing ‘pong’ together: Emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| title_sort | playing pong together emergent coordination in a doubles interception task |
| topic | Decision Making Joint Action coordination team collaboration Perception-Action |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01910/full |
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