Natalie Sebanz
Biographic Data
| ID | 2751925 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Natalie Sebanz |
| GIVEN NAMES | Natalie |
| FAMILY NAME | Sebanz |
| SIGNATURE | SEBANZ N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Central European University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1280-8974 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Representing relations between individual contributions
Understanding how individuals plan, predict and adapt their actions is central to understanding the high degree of coordination involved in joint action. While previous research has examined the role of joint action plans in linking individual action representations in a two-person joint action plan, the specific conditions and representations associated with these plans are less well understood. In this study, we investigated when and how joint …
The influence of task demands on joint action planning
Joint actions require co-actors to coordinate their individual contributions to achieve joint goals. One proposal is that such coordination is supported by joint action plans. However, it remains unclear whether joint action planning is generally prioritized, or whether it is flexibly engaged depending on task demands. Here, we investigated the factors that influence co-actors' propensity to use the individual- and joint-level planning. Pairs of …
Observed reaching speed signals stimulus value and informs foraging
Optimal foraging requires agents to strike a balance between potential costs and rewards of interacting with stimuli in the environment. Research on human and animal foraging shows that the value an agent assigns to a stimulus is correlated with the speed of their reaching movement towards that stimulus (Shadmehr et al., 2019). Humans and other animals learn about the value of stimuli in their environment by observing others acting (Pyke, 1984; B…
Potential benefits of synchronous action observation and motor imagery
In a recent Psychological Research article, Eaves et al. (2022) review the literature on how motor imagery (MI) practice combined with action observation (AO) enhances motor performance. The authors propose that the synchronous form of AO and MI (AOMI) affords unique benefits to performance that are not possible when the two interventions are performed asynchronously. We discuss three questions raised by Eaves et al.’s review: (1) are there any c…
Flexible social monitoring as revealed by eye movements
Successful interactions require not only representing others' mental states but also flexibly updating them, whenever one's original inferences may no longer hold. Such situations arise, for instance, when a partner's behavior is incongruent with one's expectations. Although these situations are rather common, the question whether people update others' mental states spontaneously upon encountering unexpected behaviors and whether they use the upd…
The role of reciprocity in dynamic interpersonal coordination of physiological rhythms
A central question in social cognition research is how people coordinate their bodily rhythms, and how important reciprocity of interaction is for interpersonal coordination. Previous research has primarily focused on interpersonal action coordination, which has been shown to be facilitated by mechanisms of prediction and mutual adaption. Recent research is beginning to show that people also coordinate their physiological rhythms (i.e., respirati…
Action planning and execution cues influence economic partner choice
Prudently choosing who to interact with and who to avoid is an important ability to ensure that we benefit from a cooperative interaction. While the role of others' preferences, attributes, and values in partner choice have been established (Rossetti, Hilbe & Hauser, 2022), much less is known about whether the manner in which a potential partner plans and implements a decision provides helpful cues for partner choice. We used a partner choice par…
Computing Joint Action Costs
Successful performance in cooperative activities relies on efficient task distribution between co-actors. Previous research found that people often forgo individual efficiency in favor of co-efficiency (i.e., joint-cost minimization) when planning a joint action. The present study investigated the cost computations underlying co-efficient decisions. We report a series of experiments that tested the hypothesis that people compute the joint costs o…
Effects of a partner's task on memory for content and source
Human memories are malleable and often shaped by social interactions. Previous work has demonstrated that not only one's own goals, but also those of a task-partner can facilitate subsequent retrieval of goal-relevant lexical stimuli, known as the Joint Memory Effect (JME). We outline a social-epistemic account of the JME which proposes that this memory enhancement reflects humans' tendency to map out their interaction partners' knowledge states,…
Embodied Cognition
The term “embodied cognition” refers to a conglomerate of theories and research that share the assumption that the body and its sensorimotor abilities are central to understanding the nature of cognition. Different approaches stress the role of the natural and cultural environment in which cognitive processes take place, the action‐guiding role of cognition, or the grounding of concepts in sensorimotor experiences. By combining a focus on the bod…
Invisible Man
Social exclusion results in lowered satisfaction of basic needs and shapes behavior in subsequent social situations. We investigated participants’ immediate behavioral response during exclusion from an interaction that consisted of establishing eye contact. A newly developed eye-tracker-based “looking game” was employed; participants exchanged looks with two virtual partners in an exchange where the player who had just been looked at chose whom t…
Individualism-collectivism and interpersonal memory guidance of attention
The sense of agency during skill learning in individuals and dyads
Psychological Research on Joint Action
A minimal architecture for joint action
Disorders of Volition
Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists examine the will and its pathologies from theoretical and empirical perspectives, offering a conceptual overview and discussing schizophrenia, depression, prefrontal lobe damage, and substance abuse as disorders of volition. Science tries to understand human action from two perspectives, the cognitive and the volitional. The volitional approach, in contrast to the more dominant "outs…
Jumping on the ecological bandwagon? Mind the gap
n Contains fulltext :\n 76783.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)\n
Cognitive Ethology for humans
We discuss Kingstone et al.'s target article in the light of emerging work on cognitive ethology
Who’s calling the shots? Intentional content and feelings of control
Joint action
Representing others' actions
Individualism-collectivism and interpersonal memory guidance of attention
Cognitive Ethology for humans
We discuss Kingstone et al.'s target article in the light of emerging work on cognitive ethology
Representing others' actions
Joint action
Who’s calling the shots? Intentional content and feelings of control
Cognitive Ethology for humans
We discuss Kingstone et al.'s target article in the light of emerging work on cognitive ethology
Disorders of Volition
Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists examine the will and its pathologies from theoretical and empirical perspectives, offering a conceptual overview and discussing schizophrenia, depression, prefrontal lobe damage, and substance abuse as disorders of volition. Science tries to understand human action from two perspectives, the cognitive and the volitional. The volitional approach, in contrast to the more dominant "outs…
Jumping on the ecological bandwagon? Mind the gap
n Contains fulltext :\n 76783.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)\n
A minimal architecture for joint action
Psychological Research on Joint Action
The sense of agency during skill learning in individuals and dyads
Invisible Man
Social exclusion results in lowered satisfaction of basic needs and shapes behavior in subsequent social situations. We investigated participants’ immediate behavioral response during exclusion from an interaction that consisted of establishing eye contact. A newly developed eye-tracker-based “looking game” was employed; participants exchanged looks with two virtual partners in an exchange where the player who had just been looked at chose whom t…
Individualism-collectivism and interpersonal memory guidance of attention
Embodied Cognition
The term “embodied cognition” refers to a conglomerate of theories and research that share the assumption that the body and its sensorimotor abilities are central to understanding the nature of cognition. Different approaches stress the role of the natural and cultural environment in which cognitive processes take place, the action‐guiding role of cognition, or the grounding of concepts in sensorimotor experiences. By combining a focus on the bod…
Effects of a partner's task on memory for content and source
Human memories are malleable and often shaped by social interactions. Previous work has demonstrated that not only one's own goals, but also those of a task-partner can facilitate subsequent retrieval of goal-relevant lexical stimuli, known as the Joint Memory Effect (JME). We outline a social-epistemic account of the JME which proposes that this memory enhancement reflects humans' tendency to map out their interaction partners' knowledge states,…
Computing Joint Action Costs
Successful performance in cooperative activities relies on efficient task distribution between co-actors. Previous research found that people often forgo individual efficiency in favor of co-efficiency (i.e., joint-cost minimization) when planning a joint action. The present study investigated the cost computations underlying co-efficient decisions. We report a series of experiments that tested the hypothesis that people compute the joint costs o…
The role of reciprocity in dynamic interpersonal coordination of physiological rhythms
A central question in social cognition research is how people coordinate their bodily rhythms, and how important reciprocity of interaction is for interpersonal coordination. Previous research has primarily focused on interpersonal action coordination, which has been shown to be facilitated by mechanisms of prediction and mutual adaption. Recent research is beginning to show that people also coordinate their physiological rhythms (i.e., respirati…
Action planning and execution cues influence economic partner choice
Prudently choosing who to interact with and who to avoid is an important ability to ensure that we benefit from a cooperative interaction. While the role of others' preferences, attributes, and values in partner choice have been established (Rossetti, Hilbe & Hauser, 2022), much less is known about whether the manner in which a potential partner plans and implements a decision provides helpful cues for partner choice. We used a partner choice par…
Potential benefits of synchronous action observation and motor imagery
In a recent Psychological Research article, Eaves et al. (2022) review the literature on how motor imagery (MI) practice combined with action observation (AO) enhances motor performance. The authors propose that the synchronous form of AO and MI (AOMI) affords unique benefits to performance that are not possible when the two interventions are performed asynchronously. We discuss three questions raised by Eaves et al.’s review: (1) are there any c…
Flexible social monitoring as revealed by eye movements
Successful interactions require not only representing others' mental states but also flexibly updating them, whenever one's original inferences may no longer hold. Such situations arise, for instance, when a partner's behavior is incongruent with one's expectations. Although these situations are rather common, the question whether people update others' mental states spontaneously upon encountering unexpected behaviors and whether they use the upd…
Observed reaching speed signals stimulus value and informs foraging
Optimal foraging requires agents to strike a balance between potential costs and rewards of interacting with stimuli in the environment. Research on human and animal foraging shows that the value an agent assigns to a stimulus is correlated with the speed of their reaching movement towards that stimulus (Shadmehr et al., 2019). Humans and other animals learn about the value of stimuli in their environment by observing others acting (Pyke, 1984; B…
Representing relations between individual contributions
Understanding how individuals plan, predict and adapt their actions is central to understanding the high degree of coordination involved in joint action. While previous research has examined the role of joint action plans in linking individual action representations in a two-person joint action plan, the specific conditions and representations associated with these plans are less well understood. In this study, we investigated when and how joint …
The influence of task demands on joint action planning
Joint actions require co-actors to coordinate their individual contributions to achieve joint goals. One proposal is that such coordination is supported by joint action plans. However, it remains unclear whether joint action planning is generally prioritized, or whether it is flexibly engaged depending on task demands. Here, we investigated the factors that influence co-actors' propensity to use the individual- and joint-level planning. Pairs of …
Psychology (18 works) · Cognitive psychology (16 works) · Action Observation and Synchronization (14 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Cognitive science (8 works) · Neuroscience (8 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (7 works) · Cognition (7 works) · Action (physics) (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works)