title: Spatial parameters at the basis of social transfer of learning.
abstract: Recent research indicates that practicing on a joint spatial compatibility task with an incompatible stimulus-response mapping affects subsequent joint Simon task performance, eliminating the social Simon effect. It has been well established that in individual contexts, for transfer of learning to occur, participants need to practice an incompatible association between stimulus and response positions. The mechanisms underlying transfer of learning in joint task performance are, however, less well understood. The present study was aimed at assessing the relative contribution of 3 different spatial relations characterizing the joint practice context: stimulus-response, stimulus-participant, and participant-response relations. In 3 experiments, the authors manipulated the stimulus-response, stimulus-participant, and response-participant associations. We found that learning from the practice task did not transfer to the subsequent task when during practice stimulus-response associations were spatially incompatible and stimulus-participant associations were compatible (Experiment 1). However, a transfer of learning was evident when stimulus-participant associations were spatially incompatible. This occurred both when response-participant associations were incompatible (Experiment 2) and when they were compatible (Experiment 3). These results seem to support an agent corepresentation account of correspondence effects emerging in joint settings since they suggest that, in social contexts, critical to obtain transfer-of-learning effects is the spatial relation between stimulus and participant positions while the spatial relation between stimulus and response positions is irrelevant.
authors: Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
authors: Luisa
authors: L
authors: Lugli
authors: Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Iani
authors: Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
authors: Nadia
authors: N
authors: Milanese
authors: Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University.
authors: Natalie
authors: N
authors: Sebanz
authors: Department of Communication and Economics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
authors: Sandro
authors: S
authors: Rubichi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D066107:Social Skills; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014163:Transfer, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult