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Healthy development leads to a fluid integration ofcompeting constraints. A marker of such behavior ishysteresis, reflecting a multi-stable system that takes intoaccount its immediate history. The current study investigatespatterns of hysteresis in typically developing children (TD)and those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).The task was to grasp and lift objects that increased in size,either from smallest to largest, or from largest to smallest.The objects could be picked up with one or two hands,marking a range of bi-stable behavior. Results of thegrasping task showed hysteresis in TD children, whether ornot the task was situated in the social context. In contrast,children with ASD showed hysteresis only in the non-socialcontext. For both diagnostic groups, perseveration did notcorrelate to the degree of hysteresis, regardless of thepresence or absence of social cues.

The current project examined how changes to task constraintsimpacted the behavioral dynamics of an interpersonalcollision avoidance task previously examined and modeled byRichardson and colleagues (2015). Overall, the resultsdemonstrate that decreasing the cost associated with collidinginfluences the stability and symmetry of the movementdynamics observed between co-actors in a manner consistentwith those predicted by the Richardson et al. (2015), collisionavoidance model. The current study therefore providesevidence that the behavioral dynamics that shapeinterpersonal or joint-action behavior are not only defined bythe physical and informational properties of a task, but also bythe strength and importance of the shared task goal.

Humans are able to successfully detect characteristics aboutothers that serve to guide interaction, yet the source of thisinformation is unclear. We hypothesized that biologicalmotion specifies sex and race as these invariant categoricalcharacteristics often guide interaction. Results indicated thatmovement kinematics are necessary but not sufficient for sexdetection and that race is detectable when movement isproduced by Caucasians but not African Americans, and onlywhen kinematic information is embedded in body structure.These results imply that social psychological perspectives onperson perception should be integrated with ecologicalpsychological perspectives on affordances in order tounderstand social cognition.

When jazz musicians perform an improvisational piece ofmusic their behaviors are not fully prescribed in advance.Nonetheless their actions become so tightly coordinated andtheir decisions so seamlessly intertwined that the musiciansbehave as a single synergistic unit rather than a collection ofindividuals. A fundamental aspect of such musicalimprovisation is the bodily movement coordination that occursamong the performing musicians, with the embodiedinteraction of musicians both supporting and constrainingmusical creativity. Here we consider the ability of pairs ofpiano players to improvise, to spontaneously coordinate theiractions with co-performers. We demonstrate the ability of thetime-evolving patterns of inter-musician movementcoordination as revealed by the mathematical tools of nonlineartime series analyses to provide a new understanding ofwhat potentiates the novelty of spontaneous musical action.Cross wavelet spectral analysis is applied to the musicalmovements of pairs of improvising pianists, a method thatisolates the strength and patterning of the behavioralcoordination across a range of nested time-scales. Additionally,cross-recurrence quantification analysis is applied to the seriesof notes produced by each musician to assess when and howoften they visit the same musical states throughout theimprovisation. Revealing the sophistication of the previouslyunexplored dynamics of movement coordination betweenimprovising musicians is an important step towardsunderstanding how creative musical expressions emerge fromthe spontaneous coordination of multiple musical bodies

Effective interpersonal coordination is fundamental to robustsocial interaction, and the ability to anticipate a co-actor’sbehavior is essential for achieving this coordination.However, coordination research has focused on the behavioralsynchrony that occurs between the simple periodicmovements of co-actors and, thus, little is known about theanticipation that occurs during complex, everyday interaction.Research on the dynamics of coupled neurons, human motorcontrol, electrical circuits, and laser semiconductorsuniversally demonstrates that small temporal feedback delaysare necessary for the anticipation of chaotic events. Wetherefore investigated whether similar feedback delays wouldpromote anticipatory behavior during social interaction.Results revealed that co-actors were not only able toanticipate others’ chaotic movements when experiencingsmall perceptual-motor delays, but also exhibited movementpatterns of equivalent complexity. This suggests that suchdelays, including those within the human nervous system,may enhance, rather than hinder, the anticipatory processesthat underlie successful social interaction

Previous research investigating the dynamical processessupporting coordinated joint action has typically used nongoal-directed tasks. The present study expands on thisresearch by investigating the coordination that emergesamong pairs in a complex, goal-directed task of herdingvirtual sheep to the center of a field. The results revealed thatthe majority of pairs converged on the same stable movementcoordination strategy in order to complete the task. Thisstrategy involved pairs moving in an in-phase or anti-phaseoscillatory pattern around the sheep. By adopting this strategypairs formed an interpersonal synergy. Interestingly, thestrength of this synergy was modulated by the number ofsheep being herded. More specifically, more dimensionalcompression was observed among pairs when herding the 7-sheep compared to herding 3 or 5 sheep. The implications ofthese results for understanding how task difficulty andmutually defined environmental co-regulation influenced thebehavioral dynamics of coordinated joint-action arediscussed.

The human perceptual-motor system is tightly coupled to thephysical and informational dynamics of a task environment andthese dynamics operate to constrain the high-dimensional order ofthe human movement system into low-dimensional, task-specificsynergies. The aim of the current study was to determine whethersynergistic processes constrain and organize the behavior of coactingindividuals. Participants sat next to each other and each usedone arm to complete a pointer-to-target task. Using theuncontrolled manifold, the structure of joint-angle variance wasexamined to determine whether there was synergistic organizationat the interpersonal or intrapersonal levels. The results revealed themotor actions performed were synergistically organized at both theinterpersonal and intrapersonal levels. More importantly, theinterpersonal synergy was found to be significantly stronger thanthe intrapersonal synergies. Accordingly, the results provide clearevidence that the action dynamics of co-acting individuals canbecome temporarily organized to form single synergistic twopersonsystems.

Previous research has revealed that the behavioral dynamicsof joint-action can naturally emerge from the physical andinformational constraints that define a shared task-goal. Theemergence of complementary actions or functional differencesin control also appear to be a natural part of such behavior, andare often an inherent aspect of robust and highly flexible jointactionperformance. The aim of the current study was to explorethese latter aspects of joint-action behavior. More specifically,we examined the interpersonal coordination and control thatemerged between two individuals performing a virtual labyrinthball-control game. Key manipulations involved whether controlwas symmetrical (i.e. both individuals had full control of theboard tilt), asymmetrical (i.e. one with control of the x-axis oftilt and the other with control of the y-axis of tilt), or unbalanced(i.e. one joystick had full control of the y-axis of tilt, but only ¬Ωthe gain control of the x-axis of tilt, and vice versa). Data on asolo individual two-handed version of the task was alsocollected for comparison purposes. Our results revealed that thepatterns of synergistic coordination that emerged were the samefor pairs and individuals, and that both pairs and individualsmaintain task success by mutually adapting the coordination andcontrol dynamics across the different task manipulations

Social motor coordination remains a relatively overlookeddimension of social behavior in children with ASD. Onereason for the lack of research is that the motion trackingequipment historically used for recording body movements ofchildren during social interaction has been very costly, as wellas cumbersome and impractical. Here we examined whethertwo low-cost motion-tracking options can be employed toinvestigate social motor coordination in children with ASD.Of particular interest was the degree to which these low-costmethods of motion tracking could be used to capture andindex the coordination dynamics that occurred between achild and an experimenter in comparison to a much moreexpensive, laboratory grade, motion tracking system. Overall,the results found the expensive system to be better than thelow-cost methods, but that the latter two are still able to indexdifferences in social motor coordination between typicallydeveloping and ASD children

Background: Research on teacher perceptions of student behavior problems is relatively recent in the People's Republic of China. Although some findings are consistent with research in Western settings, interesting differences have emerged. A question that has yet to be examined is the role of teacher and student gender in teachers' perceptions of student behavior problems in China. Aims: To examine the effects of student and teacher gender on Chinese teachers' perceptions of student behavior problems. In the first study teachers rated the frequency of student behavior problems, while in the second study teachers rated the seriousness of student behavior problems. Sample: In the first study 527 elementary school teachers from five provinces of China participated; 217 elementary school teachers from four provinces participated in the second study. Method: The first study was comprised of two phases: developing student behavior problem categories and questionnaire items via interviews with teachers, and collecting teacher questionnaire responses. In the second study teachers were surveyed about how serious they thought behavior problems would be if displayed by a boy versus a girl. Results: Non-attention was seen as the most frequent behavior problem for girls, while overactive was the most frequent for boys. Interaction effects for teacher and student gender, as well as main effects for teacher gender, were evident on ratings of the seriousness of student behavior problems. Teachers tended to rate less frequent behavior problems as more serious and vice versa. Conclusions: Results suggest that the most frequent type of student behavior problems in China differ from the West, and also differ for boys and girls. Teacher gender and student gender interactions appeared to influence teachers' perceptions of behavior problem seriousness. These findings support the idea that an exploration of gender and culture may be required for a more complete understanding of students' behavior problems. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

Students who experience social withdrawal and anxiety (internalizing difficulties) are often overlooked in schools due to the covert nature of their symptoms. The literature lacks empirically supported preventive approaches for kindergarten students who are socially withdrawn and behind their peers in developing social skills. Furthermore, research suggests that parents often are not adequately involved in interventions during this critical period of social development. In response to this need, a school-based intervention was implemented to increase the positive social interaction of three kindergarten students on the playground. Treatment consisted of (a) social skills training, (b) adult mediation, (c) self-evaluation and reinforcement, and (d) parent involvement through home notes. The effects of this intervention were assessed on the playground during recess using partial interval recording of target students' positive interactions. During implementation of the intervention, all target students demonstrated improvements in social interaction. Future studies should investigate whether addressing the limitations of this study would yield stronger results with this underserved population.