To investigate the embodied, distributed and hence dynamically unfolding nature of social cognitive capacities, we present a novel laboratory-based coordination task: the BallGame. Our paradigm requires continuous sensing and acting between two players who jointly steer a virtual ball around obstacles towards as many targets as possible. 

Scripts and preprocessed behavioural data to conduct the main analyses (MANOVA and regression) published in:

    Lübbert A, Sengelmann M, Heimann K, Schneider TR, Engel AK, Göschl F. (2024) Predicting social experience from dyadic interaction dynamics: the BallGame, a novel paradigm to study social engagement. Scientific Reports 14, 19666. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69678-9. ;

Published open access: https://rdcu.be/dRWQV

Data was collected at the Institute of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, in 2019. 

The experiment involved twenty-three pairs of participants who played 60 one-minute trials of the ‘BallGame’, an interpersonal coordination task in which two players steer a virtual ball on a 2D surface around obstacles towards as many targets as possible by bending and flexing their index fingers. Participants played this game under three different conditions: (1) individual play: participants see the same six of nine active obstacles but play on separate landscapes (each steering their own ball), (2) joint play SAME: participants steer a shared ball, both of them see the same six of the nine active obstacles, and three obstacles remain invisible to both; and (3) joint play DIFF: participants steer a shared ball, three obstacles are visible to both players, three only to the first and three only to the second player. We used a blocked experimental design: first 10 trials of individual play, then 10 trials of either joint play SAME or DIFF (counter-balanced across pairs), followed by 10 trials of the other joint play condition. After a break, participants again completed 20 trials of joint play and 10 trials of individual play.

During the trial, we measured finger movement, ball position, target collection and obstacle collision events (as well as eye movement, EEG). After every 3-4 trials, we asked participants to rate their level of engagement, agreement and predictability. After the game we conducted individual interviews with participants. 

This work was supported by grants from the EU (project 'socSMCs,' H2020-641321) and the DFG (SFB936-178316478-A3 and TRR169-261402652-B1/B4).

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