TY - JOUR

T1 - Effects of a coactor's focus of attention on task performance

AU - Böckler, Anne

AU - Knoblich, Günther

AU - Sebanz, Natalie

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Coactors take into account certain aspects of each other's tasks even when this is not required to perform their own task. The present experiments investigated whether the way a coactor allocates attention affects one's own attentional relation to stimuli that are attended jointly (Experiment 1), individually (Experiment 2), or in parallel (Experiments 3 and 4). Pairs of participants sitting next to each other performed a two-choice Navon task, responding to the identity of letters. Participants' tasks either required the same focus of attention (e.g., both attending to local stimulus features) or different foci of attention (e.g., one attending to local and the other to global features). Results revealed a significant slow-down of responses when participants focused on different features, suggesting that the coactor's attentional focus induced a conflict that affected the selection of one's own focus. This effect disappeared when no other person was present, and when mutual visual access to each other's stimuli was disrupted, but did not depend on a triangular relationship between participants and stimuli. Our findings extend previous research on joint attention and task corepresentation in revealing that representations of a coactor's task can include a specification of her focus of attention.

AB - Coactors take into account certain aspects of each other's tasks even when this is not required to perform their own task. The present experiments investigated whether the way a coactor allocates attention affects one's own attentional relation to stimuli that are attended jointly (Experiment 1), individually (Experiment 2), or in parallel (Experiments 3 and 4). Pairs of participants sitting next to each other performed a two-choice Navon task, responding to the identity of letters. Participants' tasks either required the same focus of attention (e.g., both attending to local stimulus features) or different foci of attention (e.g., one attending to local and the other to global features). Results revealed a significant slow-down of responses when participants focused on different features, suggesting that the coactor's attentional focus induced a conflict that affected the selection of one's own focus. This effect disappeared when no other person was present, and when mutual visual access to each other's stimuli was disrupted, but did not depend on a triangular relationship between participants and stimuli. Our findings extend previous research on joint attention and task corepresentation in revealing that representations of a coactor's task can include a specification of her focus of attention.

KW - Focus of attention

KW - Joint attention

KW - Navon task

KW - Task corepresentation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872341005&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/a0027523

DO - 10.1037/a0027523

M3 - Article

C2 - 22409143

AN - SCOPUS:84872341005

VL - 38

SP - 1404

EP - 1415

JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

SN - 0096-1523

IS - 6

ER -