Current Directions in Psychological Science, Ahead of Print.
Humans have a striking ability to coordinate their actions with each other to achieve joint goals. The tight interpersonal coordination that characterizes joint actions is achieved through processes that help with preparing for joint action as well as processes that are active while joint actions are being performed. To prepare for joint action, partners form representations of each other’s actions and tasks and the relation between them. This enables them to predict each other’s upcoming actions, which, in turn, facilitates coordination. While performing joint actions, partners’ coordination is maintained by (a) monitoring whether individual and joint outcomes correspond to what was planned, (b) predicting partners’ action parameters on the basis of familiarity with their individual actions, (c) communicating task-relevant information unknown to partners in an action-based fashion, and (d) relying on coupling of predictions through dense perceptual-information flow between coactors. The next challenge for the field of joint action is to generate an integrated perspective that links coordination mechanisms to normative, evolutionary, and communicative frameworks.