Synchronization in a goal-directed task: Human movement coordination with each other and robotic partners

Synchronization occurs frequently in human behaviour: Everybody has experienced that in a group of people walking pace tends to equalize. The phenomenon of synchrony has been established in the literature in tasks which have little in common with daily life such as pendulum swinging and chair rocking. We extend the knowledge about human movement synchronization by showing that it also occurs during goal-directed actions. In a first experiment, we investigate how synchrony emerges develops over time. In a second experiment, we show that humans also synchronize their actions with a robot. Results are interpreted in the light of joint action theory. Possible implications and improvements for human-robot interaction are discussed.