Source-linked AI summary
Embodied social interaction constitutes social cognition in pairs of humans: A minimalist virtual reality experiment
Tom Froese, Hiroyuki Iizuka, Takashi Ikegami
TL;DR
Whether interaction itself can realize social cognition remains contested. In a minimal virtual-reality task, pairs moved avatars and contacted objects; co-regulated interaction was associated with identifying the other’s avatar and clearer awareness of their presence.
Problem
The central question is whether dyadic interaction can sometimes constitute individual social cognition, against views that cognition is limited to one person’s brain.
Source: p. 1Method
The study examined co-regulated embodied interaction in a minimal virtual space and assessed participants’ judgments and reported awareness of the other’s presence.
Source: pp. 4, 8Results
Co-regulated interactions were associated with correct social judgments and awareness of the other’s presence, with presence ratings tracking reciprocal success rather than click correctness alone.
Source: pp. 4, 8Takeaways & Limitations
The findings provide empirical support for the view that social interaction can partially constitute social cognition, especially when participants co-regulate their interaction.
Source: p. 8Because interaction-independent sound cues could identify the other’s avatar, the experiment leaves unresolved whether the observed cognition was interactively constituted.
Source: p. 2
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Scientists have traditionally limited the mechanisms of social cognition to one brain, but recent approaches claim that interaction also realizes cognitive work. Experiments under constrained virtual settings revealed that interaction dynamics implicitly guide social cognition. Here we show that embodied social interaction can be constitutive of agency detection and of experiencing another`s presence. Pairs of participants moved their "avatars" along an invisible virtual line and could make haptic contact with three identical objects, two of which embodied the other`s motions, but only one, the other`s avatar, also embodied the other`s contact sensor and thereby enabled responsive interaction. Co-regulated interactions were significantly correlated with identifications of the other`s avatar and reports of the clearest awareness of the other`s presence. These results challenge folk psychological notions about the boundaries of mind, but make sense from evolutionary and developmental perspectives: an extendible mind can offload cognitive work into its environment.