Joint Action Over Zoom: Assessing Corepresentation of Task Partners in Remote Collaborations

Abstract

Humans do not live in isolation but coordinate their actions with other people in their environment, known as “joint action.” Today, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much joint action and collaborative work takes place online, and this trend is predicted to remain prevalent. Therefore, it is important for researchers and employers to understand how this shift to technologically mediated collaboration will influence team performance. One cognitive reaction-time task that has been used to study underlying mechanisms of joint action for in-person teams is the joint Simon task. Although this task has been extensively studied, it has never been used in fully remote contexts. Using a novel, online version of the joint Simon task, the current study sought to determine if a joint Simon compatibility effect would occur in remote collaboration. From these findings, there is preliminary evidence that the joint Simon task was partially successful in transitioning to an online setup. Overall, this study sheds light on (1) the sensitivity of the joint Simon task as a measure of self-other integration in partners and (2) how task performance can be influenced by working in-person versus remotely.