Attentional coordination in demonstrator-observer dyads facilitates learning and predicts performance in a novel manual task
Article
Pagnotta, M., Laland, K. N. and Coco, M. 2020. Attentional coordination in demonstrator-observer dyads facilitates learning and predicts performance in a novel manual task. Cognition. 201 (Art. 104314). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104314
Authors | Pagnotta, M., Laland, K. N. and Coco, M. |
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Abstract | Observational learning is a form of social learning in which a demonstrator performs a target task in the company of an observer, who may as a consequence learn something about it. In this study, we approach social learning in terms of the dynamics of coordination rather than the more common perspective of transmission of information. We hypothesised that observers must continuously adjust their visual attention relative to the demonstrator's time-evolving behaviour to benefit from it. We eye-tracked observers repeatedly watching videos showing a demonstrator solving one of three manipulative puzzles before attempting at the task. The presence of the demonstrator's face and the availability of his verbal instruction in the videos were manipulated. We then used recurrence quantification analysis to measure the dynamics of coordination between the overt attention of the observers and the demonstrator's manipulative actions. Bayesian hierarchical logistic regression was applied to examine (1) whether the observers' performance was predicted by such indexes of coordination, (2) how performance changed as they accumulated experience, and (3) if the availability of speech and intentional gaze of the demonstrator mediated it. Results showed that learners better able to coordinate their eye movements with the manipulative actions of the demonstrator had an increasingly higher probability of success in solving the task. The availability of speech was beneficial to learning, whereas the presence of the demonstrator's face was not. We argue that focusing on the dynamics of coordination between individuals may greatly improve understanding of the cognitive processes underlying social learning. |
Journal | Cognition |
Journal citation | 201 (Art. 104314) |
ISSN | 0010-0277 |
Year | 2020 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Accepted author manuscript | License File Access Level Anyone |
Supplemental file | File Access Level Anyone |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104314 |
Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104314 |
Publication dates | |
Online | 23 May 2020 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 23 Apr 2020 |
Deposited | 16 Jul 2020 |
Funder | John Templeton Foundation |
Leverhulme Trust | |
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia | |
Underpinning data | Supplementary material for 'Attentional coordination in demonstrator-observer dyads facilitates learning and predicts performance in a novel manual task' |
Copyright holder | © 2020 Elsevier |
https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/88391
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Accepted author manuscript
PLC_final_Cognition-1.pdf | ||
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | ||
File access level: Anyone |
Supplemental file
1-s2.0-S0010027720301335-mmc1.docx | ||
File access level: Anyone |
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