Social Cognition Seminar - Mental alignment and reciprocity: Characterising dynamic, reciprocal two-way interactions

Speaker: Merle Fairhurst, Institute of Philosophy, University of London

Everyday social interactions involve the dynamic give-and-take between individuals.In the example of group music making, for example, a player performing the accompaniment in order to better follow might adapt their behaviour to that of the player holding the melody. Similarly, the melodic leader will variably adapt to fellow players depending on the need to maintain an overall tempo. Data will be presented from a series of behavioual and neuroimaging experiments in which participants (both healthy musicians and high functioning autistics) synchronised finger tapping with an adaptive virtual partner. The case will be made for varying synchronisations strategies that emphasize either a focus on self-paced tapping or on greater interactive coupling, and in so doing highlight the importance of self-other information as an informative ratio that not only influences tapping behaviour but also agency attribution. The proposal I will make will explain the spectrum of social interactions as a function of the degree and nature of information exchange between individuals and thus describe coupling as reciprocal mutual alignment. 

Time: 1pm, 16 June 2016

Venue: Room 448, 26 Bedford Way, WC1H 0AP