CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Ang, Jennifer |
|---|---|
| Title | Planning for a Joint Task Distribution: To be Fair and Timely |
| Summary | From housework to small group projects to large-scale international ventures, humans often must plan how to divide a task such that partners coordinate effectively and fairly. While much research has focused on the processes that enable people to plan and perform a joint action, much less is known about how joint action partners specifically plan for and achieve a fair task distribution. One possible cognitive mechanism is mentalizing, where each partner thinks about what actions the other will perform. A further process that can help with task distribution is the use of heuristics like turn-taking, where partners follow a temporal order of actions to achieve a successful task distribution. Another related mechanism is the use of perceptual features in the task, where each partner responds to different features. Using a new experimental approach that included a measure of planning time, we investigated the role of these mechanisms in task distribution. In three empirical studies, we found that people planning for a (actual or imaginary) joint task distribution preferred relying on heuristics that impose a temporal order. Pairs using heuristics were able to minimize mentalizing and even planned faster than individuals using perceptual features for their task distributions. Additionally, when these heuristics that pairs preferred were fair procedures but led to an unequal distribution of effort between partners, planning becomes more difficult and took a longer time. Altogether, these findings suggest that while many hands can make light work, this is likely dependent on the applicability of fair and easy heuristics. |
| Supervisor | Knoblich, Günther; Sebanz, Natalie |
| Department | Cognitive Science PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/ang_jennifer.pdf |
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