Interpersonal Coordination and Performance in Social Systems

Interpersonal coordination is an important feature of all social systems. From everyday activities to playing sport and participating in the performing arts, human behaviour is constrained by the need to continually interact with others. This book examines how interpersonal coordination tendencies in social systems emerge, across a range of contexts and at different scales, with the aim of helping practitioners to understand collective behaviours and create learning environments to improve performance. Showcasing the latest research from scientists and academics, this collection of studies examines how and why interpersonal coordination is crucial for success in sport and the performing arts. It explains the complex science of interpersonal coordination in relation to a variety of activities including competitive team sports, outdoor sports, racket sports, and martial arts, as well as dance. Divided into four sections, this book offers insight into: the nature, history and key concepts of interpersonal coordination factors that influence interpersonal coordination within social systems interpersonal coordination in competitive and cooperative performance contexts methods, tools and devices for improving performance through interpersonal coordination. This book will provide fascinating insights for students, researchers and educators interested in movement science, performance analysis, sport science and psychology, as well as for those working in the performing arts.

Table of Contents:
Part One: The Nature, Historical Perspective and Conceptual Background on Interpersonal Coordination Tendencies 1. Interpersonal coordination in biological systems : The emergence of collective behaviours 2. What’s Come Before: A Historical Survey of Interpersonal Coordination Research 3. Unintended interpersonal coordination 4. Interpersonal coordination in cooperative tasks: Contextual Emergence, Symmetry and the Behavioural Dynamics of Social Coordination Part Two: Interpersonal Coordination in Competitive and Cooperative Performance Contexts 5. How do people coordinate in cooperative team sports: Perception of shared affordances underpin group synergistic behaviour 6. Interpersonal Coordination in Performing Arts: Inspiration or Constraint 7. Interpersonal Coordination in Music 8. Interpersonal Coordination in Dance 9. Interpersonal coordination in outdoor sports - Integration of experience and behavioural data to explore inter-personal coordination: a heuristic approach illustrated through outdoor activities 10. Crew rowing: an archetype of interpersonal coordination dynamics 11. Interpersonal coordination in competitive sports contexts: An Introduction 12.Emergence of interpersonal coordination tendencies and decision making behaviours in competitive sports: An ecological dynamics perspective 13. Interpersonal coordination in team sports 14. Interpersonal coordination in martial arts 15. Interpersonal coordination in racket sports 16. Impact of mental disorders on social motor coordination 17. Coordination in horse-rider interactions Part Three: Factors that Influence Interpersonal Coordination 18. Affordances and interpersonal coordination 19. Social Coordination of Verbal and Non-Verbal Behaviours 20. How fatigue constrains interpersonal coordination Part Four: Methods, Tools and Devices 21. Measuring interpersonal coordination: Methods for quantifying human interaction 22. Modelling interpersonal coordination 23. Technological advances in studying interpersonal coordination in social collectives 24. Issues and trends for future research and applications

About the Author :
Pedro Passos is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. His research involves the study of the dynamics of interpersonal coordination in team sports. He has written numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is the author or editor of four books. His current research is on interpersonal coordination in social systems and team sports, extending the paradigm of analysis to video games and cooperative tasks, and searching for new methods of analysis in collaboration with researchers in Portugal, across Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Keith Davids is Professor of Motor Learning at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. His major research interest involves the study of movement coordination and skill acquisition in sport. He is particularly focused on understanding how to design representative learning and performance evaluation environments in sport. Jia Yi Chow is an Assistant Professor at the Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Group, and also Assistant Dean in the Office of Teacher Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His area of expertise is in examining multi-articular coordination and a pedagogical approach underpinned by principles from a dynamical systems theory (Nonlinear Pedagogy).