Speaker
Description
Motor inhibition is crucial for effective collaboration between people, as it allows us to suppress and adjust actions in joint action scenarios (JA). Previous research showed a social effect on motor inhibition: a delay in stopping ongoing motor actions with others, relative to when conducting actions alone. This effect is presumably due to the need to represent both our own actions and those of our partner, thus delaying motor inhibition mechanisms. In this study, with the use of a humanoid robot, we explored the factors that contribute to this social effect on motor inhibition. We asked participants to perform a joint action task with another agent. Their task was to open a bottle held by a mechanical clamp or a partner (human or robot). On 33% of the trials, they heard a stop signal tone, which indicated that they needed to stop an ongoing action. In Experiment 1, participants performed the task with a static humanoid robot, while in Experiment 2 with a human confederate instructed to not exhibit any social behavior. In Experiment 3, participants performed the task with a robot exhibiting social behaviors. Results indicate a delay in motor inhibition in Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1, suggesting that only human partners impact motor inhibition even without any social behavior exhibited. Experiment 3 showed that the robot's social behavior speeds up motor inhibition. Results suggest that social behavior influences motor inhibition differently depending on the interaction partner.
