Abstract
This study seeks to investigate whether users activate cognitive representations of their partner’s action when they are involved in tactile collaborative tasks. The social Simon effect is a spatial stimulus–response interference induced by the mere presence of a partner in a go/nogo task. It has been extensively studied in the visual and auditory sensory modalities, but never before in the tactile modality. We compared the performances of 28 participants in three tasks: (1) a standard Simon task where participants responded to two different tactile stimuli applied to their fingertips with either their left or right foot, (2) an individual go/nogo task where participants responded to only one stimulus and (3) a social go/nogo task where they again responded to only one stimulus, but were partnered with another person who responded to the complementary stimulus. The interference effect due to spatial incongruence between the side where participants received the stimulus and the foot used to answer increased significantly in the standard Simon task compared to the social go/nogo task. Such a difference was not observed between the social and individual go/nogo tasks. Performances were nevertheless enhanced in the social go/nogo task, but irrespectively of the stimulus–response congruency. This study is the first to report a negative result for the social Simon effect in the tactile modality. Results suggest that cognitive representation of the co-actor is weaker in this modality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baron-Cohen S, Wheelwright S, Skinner R, Martin J, Clubley E (2001) The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): evidence from asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, malesand females, scientists and mathematicians. J Autism Dev Disord 31(1):5–17. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005653411471
Colzato LS, de Bruijn ERA, Hommel B (2012) Up to “Me” or up to “Us”? The impact of self-construal priming on cognitive self-other integration. Front Psychol 3:341. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00341
Costantini M, Vacri AD, Chiarelli AM, Ferri F, Romani GL, Merla A (2013) Studying social cognition using near-infrared spectroscopy: the case of social Simon effect. J Biomed Op 18(2):025005. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.18.2.025005
de la Asuncion J, Docx L, Morrens M, Sabbe B, de Bruijn ERA (2015) Neurophysiological evidence for diminished monitoring of own, but intact monitoring of other’s errors in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 230(2):220–226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.08.043
Dittrich K, Rothe A, Klauer KC (2012) Increased spatial salience in the social Simon task: a response-coding account of spatial compatibility effects. Atten Percept Psychophys 74(5):911–929. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0304-1
Dittrich K, Dolk T, Rothe-Wulf A, Klauer KC, Prinz W (2013) Keys and seats: spatial response coding underlying the joint spatial compatibility effect. Atten Percept Psychophys 75(8):1725–1736. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-013-0524-z
Dittrich K, Bossert M-L, Rothe-Wulf A, Klauer KC (2017) The joint flanker effect and the joint Simon effect: on the comparability of processes underlying joint compatibility effects. Q J Exp Psychol 70(9):1808–1823. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2016.1207690
Dolk T, Liepelt R, Villringer A, Prinz W, Ragert P (2012) Morphometric gray matter differences of the medial frontal cortex influence the social Simon effect. NeuroImage 61(4):1249–1254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.03.061
Dolk T, Hommel B, Prinz W, Liepelt R (2013) The (not so) social Simon effect: a referential coding account. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 39(5):1248
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, Buchner A (2007) G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 39(2):175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146
Gallotti M, Frith CD (2013) Social cognition in the we-mode. Trends Cognitive Sci 17(4):160–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.002
Guagnano D, Rusconi E, Umiltà CA (2010) Sharing a task or sharing space? On the effect of the confederate in action coding in a detection task. Cognition 114(3):348–355. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2009.10.008
Hasbroucq T, Guiard Y (1992) The effects of intensity and irrelevant location of a tactile stimulation in a choice reaction time task. Neuropsychologia 30(1):91–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(92)90017-G
Hommel B, Colzato LS, van den Wildenberg WPM (2009) How social are task representations? Psychol Sci 20(7):794–798. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02367.x
Iani C, Anelli F, Nicoletti R, Arcuri L, Rubichi S (2011) The role of group membership on the modulation of joint action. Exp Brain Res 211(3–4):439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-011-2651-x
Klempova B, Liepelt R (2016) Do you really represent my task? Sequential adaptation effects to unexpected events support referential coding for the joint Simon effect. Psychol Res 80(4):449–463. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0664-y
Kuhbandner C, Pekrun R, Maier MA (2010) The role of positive and negative affect in the “mirroring” of other persons’ actions. Cogn Emot 24(7):1182–1190. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930903119196
Liepelt R, Wenke D, Fischer R, Prinz W (2011) Trial-to-trial sequential dependencies in a social and non-social Simon task. Psychol Res 75(5):366–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-010-0314-3
Liepelt R, Wenke D, Fischer R (2013) Effects of feature integration in a hands-crossed version of the social Simon paradigm. Psychol Res 77(2):240–248. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-012-0425-0
Medina J, McCloskey M, Branch H, Rapp B (2014) Somatotopic representation of location: evidence from the Simon effect. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 40(6):2131–2142. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037975
Ruys KI, Aarts H (2010) When competition merges people’s behavior: interdependency activates shared action representations. J Exp Soc Psychol 46(6):1130–1133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.016
Salzer Y, Aisenberg D, Oron-Gilad T, Henik A (2014) In touch with the Simon effect *the FIRST two authors contributed equally. Exp Psychol 61(3):165–179. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000236
Sebanz N, Knoblich G, Prinz W (2003) Representing others’ actions: just like one’s own? Cognition 88(3):B11–B21. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00043-X
Sebanz N, Knoblich G, Stumpf L, Prinz W (2005) Far from action-blind: representation of others’ actions in individuals with Autism. Cognitive Neuropsychol 22(3–4):433–454. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290442000121
Sebanz N, Knoblich G, Prinz W, Wascher E (2006) Twin peaks: an ERP study of action planning and control in coacting individuals. J Cogn Neurosci 18(5):859–870. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.5.859
Sebanz N, Rebbechi D, Knoblich G, Prinz W, Frith CD (2007) Is it really my turn? An event-related fMRI study of task sharing. Soc Neurosci 2(2):81–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470910701237989
Senju A, Southgate V, White S, Frith U (2009) Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome. Science 325(5942):883–885. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1176170
Simon JR (1969) Reactions toward the source of stimulation. J Exp Psychol 81(1):174
Stenzel A, Chinellato E, Tirado A, del Pobil ÁP, Lappe M, Liepelt R (2012) When humanoid robots become human-like interaction partners: corepresentation of robotic actions. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 38(5):1073–1077. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029493
Stenzel A, Dolk T, Colzato LS, Sellaro R, Hommel B, Liepelt R (2014) The joint Simon effect depends on perceived agency, but not intentionality, of the alternative action. Front Hum Neurosci 8:595. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00595
Tsai C-C, Brass M (2007) Does the human motor system simulate pinocchio’s actions?: coacting with a human hand versus a wooden hand in a dyadic interaction. Psychol Sci 18(12):1058–1062. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02025.x
Tsai C-C, Kuo W-J, Hung DL, Tzeng OJL (2008) Action co-representation is tuned to other humans. J Cogn Neurosci 20(11):2015–2024. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.20144
Vlainic E, Liepelt R, Colzato LS, Prinz W, Hommel B (2010) The virtual co-actor: the social simon effect does not rely on online feedback from the other. Front Psychol 1:208. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00208
Welsh TN (2009) When 1 + 1=1: the unification of independent actors revealed through joint Simon effects in crossed and uncrossed effector conditions. Hum Mov Sci 28(6):726–737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2009.07.006
Welsh TN, Kiernan D, Neyedli HF, Ray M, Pratt J, Potruff A, Weeks DJ (2013) Joint simon effects in extrapersonal space. J Mot Behav 45(1):1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00222895.2012.746635
Zajonc RB (1965) Social facilitation. Science 149(3681):269–274
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Handling editor: Katsumi Watanabe (Waseda University Tokyo); Reviewers: Marcello Costantini (University of Chieti) and a second reviewer who prefers to remain anonymous.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pérusseau-Lambert, A., Anastassova, M., Boukallel, M. et al. The social Simon effect in the tactile sensory modality: a negative finding. Cogn Process 20, 299–307 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-019-00911-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-019-00911-4