Rachel W. Kallen

The Disruptive Effect of Self-Objectification on Performance

Self-objectification is the act of viewing the self, particularly the body, from a third-person perspective. Objectification theory proposes numerous negative consequences for those who self-objectify, including decreased performance through the disruption of focused attention. In the current study, we examined whether women in a state of self-objectification were slower to respond to a basic Stroop color-naming task. Results showed that regardless of the type of word (color words, body words, or neutral words), participants in a state of self-objectification exhibited decreased performance. This study lends further evidence to objectification theory and highlights the negative performance ramifications of state self-objectification.

Self-organized complementary joint action: Behavioral dynamics of an interpersonal collision-avoidance task.

Understanding stable patterns of interpersonal movement coordination is essential to understanding successful social interaction and activity (i.e., joint action). Previous research investigating such coordination has primarily focused on the synchronization of simple rhythmic movements (e.g., finger/forearm oscillations or pendulum swinging). Very few studies, however, have explored the stable patterns of coordination that emerge during task-directed complementary coordination tasks. Thus, the aim of the current study was to investigate and model the behavioral dynamics of a complementary collision-avoidance task. Participant pairs performed a repetitive targeting task in which they moved computer stimuli back and forth between sets of target locations without colliding into each other. The results revealed that pairs quickly converged onto a stable, asymmetric pattern of movement coordination that reflected differential control across participants, with 1 participant adopting a more straight-line movement trajectory between targets, and the other participant adopting a more elliptical trajectory between targets. This asymmetric movement pattern was also characterized by a phase lag between participants and was essential to task success. Coupling directionality analysis and dynamical modeling revealed that this dynamic regime was due to participant-specific differences in the coupling functions that defined the task-dynamics of participant pairs. Collectively, the current findings provide evidence that the dynamical coordination processes previously identified to underlie simple motor synchronization can also support more complex, goal-directed, joint action behavior, and can participate the spontaneous emergence of complementary joint action roles.

Origins of Order in Joint Activity and Social Behavior

How should we understand the origins of order and control that entail the systematic regularity of human behavior? Here, we address this question with respect to joint activity and social behavior via an explication of Guy Van Ordens formulation of interaction-dominant dynamics and his provocative discussion of the “blue collar brain.” Using these 2 concepts we argue that human social behavior and performance is not controlled by a cascade of fast timescale activity (i.e., neural processes or individual action) but rather emerges from the modulated enslavement of faster timescale processes by much slower dynamical processes, such as shared task outcomes and socially defined historical context. We detail this argument by reviewing 2 recent behavioral findings that we believe provide evidence that the dynamics of human performance during a socially situated activity is interaction dominant. The first concerns the behavioral coordination that emerges during a novel joint-action collision-avoidance task. The second concerns the effects of stereotype threat on an individuals cognitive performance. Finally, we discuss how identifying the role that the slower timescale dynamics of social events and structures plays in shaping complex behavioral dynamics can guide future research on joint-action and human performance.

Can Discrete Joint Action Be Synergistic? Studying the Stabilization of Interpersonal Hand Coordination

The human perceptual-motor system is tightly coupled to the physical and informational dynamics of a task environment. These dynamics operate to constrain the high-dimensional order of the human movement system into low-dimensional, task-specific synergies-functional groupings of structural elements that are temporarily constrained to act as a single coordinated unit. The aim of the current study was to determine whether synergistic processes operate when coacting individuals coordinate to perform a discrete joint-action task. Pairs of participants sat next to each other and each used 1 arm to complete a pointer-to-target task. Using the uncontrolled manifold (UCM) analysis for the first time in a discrete joint action, the structure of joint-angle variance was examined to determine whether there was synergistic organization of the degrees of freedom employed at the interpersonal or intrapersonal levels. The results revealed that the motor actions performed by coactors were synergistically organized at both the interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. More importantly, however, the interpersonal synergy was found to be significantly stronger than the intrapersonal synergies. Accordingly, the results provide clear evidence that coacting individuals can become temporarily organized to form single synergistic 2-person systems during performance of a discrete joint action.

Herd Those Sheep: Emergent Multiagent Coordination and Behavioral-Mode Switching:

Effectively coordinating one’s behaviors with those of others is essential for successful multiagent activity. In recent years, increased attention has been given to understanding the dynamical principles that underlie such coordination because of a growing interest in behavioral synchrony and complex-systems phenomena. Here, we examined the behavioral dynamics of a novel, multiagent shepherding task, in which pairs of individuals had to corral small herds of virtual sheep in the center of a virtual game field. Initially, all pairs adopted a complementary, search-and-recover mode of behavioral coordination, in which both members corralled sheep predominantly on their own sides of the field. Over the course of game play, however, a significant number of pairs spontaneously discovered a more effective mode of behavior: coupled oscillatory containment, in which both members synchronously oscillated around the sheep. Analysis and modeling revealed that both modes were defined by the task’s underlying dynamics and, moreover, reflected context-specific realizations of the lawful dynamics that define functional shepherding behavior more generally.

To Pass or Not to Pass: Modeling the Movement and Affordance Dynamics of a Pick and Place Task

Humans commonly engage in tasks that require or are made more efficient by coordinating with other humans. In this paper we introduce a task dynamics approach for modeling multi-agent interaction and decision making in a pick and place task where an agent must move an object from one location to another and decide whether to act alone or with a partner. Our aims were to identify and model (1) the affordance related dynamics that define an actors choice to move an object alone or to pass it to their co-actor and (2) the trajectory dynamics of an actors hand movements when moving to grasp, relocate, or pass the object. Using a virtual reality pick and place task, we demonstrate that both the decision to pass or not pass an object and the movement trajectories of the participants can be characterized in terms of a behavioral dynamics model. Simulations suggest that the proposed behavioral dynamics model exhibits features observed in human participants including hysteresis in decision making, non-straight line trajectories, and non-constant velocity profiles. The proposed model highlights how the same low-dimensional behavioral dynamics can operate to constrain multiple (and often nested) levels of human activity and suggests that knowledge of what, when, where and how to move or act during pick and place behavior may be defined by these low dimensional task dynamics and, thus, can emerge spontaneously and in real-time with little a priori planning.

Modeling Embedded Interpersonal and Multiagent Coordination

Interpersonal or multiagent coordination is a common part of everyday human activity. Identifying the dynamic processes that shape and constrain the complex, time-evolving patterns of multiagent be ...

PAPAc: A Pick and Place Agent Based on Human Behavioral Dynamics

Humans often engage in tasks that require or are made more efficient by coordinating with other humans. The coordination involved in these tasks can be understood in terms of the behavioral and affordance dynamics of socially embedded agents engaged in joint action activities. Behavioral dynamics provide mathematical (differential equation) models of human behavior and interaction and affordance dynamics identify and model the ways that an agents action capabilities evolve over time. Taken together, models of human joint-action based on these approaches may provide a basis for developing robust, natural, and easy to engage artificial agents. In this paper we introduce behavioral and affordance dynamics models of human joint action in a pick-and-place task. Based on these models we provide a proof of concept pick-and-place artificial agent and implement the agent in a 3D virtual environment to interact with human co-actors.

Symmetry-Breaking and the Contextual Emergence of Human Multiagent Coordination and Social Activity

Here we review a range of interpersonal and multiagent phenomena that demonstrate how the formal and conceptual principles of symmetry, and spontaneous and explicit symmetry-breaking, can be employed to investigate, understand, and model the lawful dynamics that underlie selforganized social action and behavioral coordination. In doing so, we provided a brief introduction to group theory and discuss how symmetry groups can be used to predict and explain the patterns of multiagent coordination that are possible within a given task context. Finally, we argue that the theoretical principles of symmetry and symmetry-breaking provide an ideal and highly generalizable framework for understanding the behavioral order that characterizes everyday social activity.

Postural Sway Dynamics and Complexity Matching during the Disclosure of a Concealable Stigmatized Identity

This positional paper is the first of its kind to provide a framework to bridge the gap between disclosure research and embodied cognition via postural sway behavior. Despite the potential for experiencing discrimination or stigmatization, research suggests that revealing a concealable stigmatized identity (CSI), or any identity that can be hidden but when revealed has the potential for social devaluation, often leads to positive psychological and interpersonal outcomes. However, this typically only happens when a disclosure confidant provides support in response to disclosure. Therefore, this work aims to uncover how someone’s antecedent goals (either approach or avoidance oriented) can impact the disclosure event using an embodied perspective whereby goal orientation has the propensity to affect unconscious behaviors such as postural sway. Healthy adults typically exhibit complex, fractal sway behaviors; therefore, any loss of complexity could be associated with maladaptive disclosure motivations. Finally, we suggest a future plan of research aimed at capturing the disclosure confidant’s perception of the disclosure event and if they are more likely to exhibit complexity matching in their postural sway behaviors as a function of disclosure motivation.