Physiological Synchrony Predict Task Performance and Negative Emotional State during a Three-Member Collaborative Task
Open accessAbstract
Evaluation of team performance in naturalistic contexts has gained popularity during the last two decades. Among other human factors, physiological synchrony has been adopted to investigate team performance and emotional state when engaged in collaborative team tasks. A variety of methods have been reported to quantify physiological synchrony with a varying degree of correlation with the collaborative team task performance and emotional state, reflected in the inconclusive nature of findings. Little is known about the effect of the choice of synchrony calculation methods and the level of analysis on these findings. In this research work, we investigate the relationship between outcomes of different methods to quantify physiological synchrony, emotional state, and team performance of three-member teams performing a collaborative team task. The proposed research work employs dyadic-level linear (cross-correlation) and team-level non-linear (multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis) synchrony calculation measures to quantify task performance and the emotional state of the team. Our investigation indicates that the physiological synchrony estimated using multidimensional recurrence quantification analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between the subjectively reported frustration levels and overall task performance. However, no relationship was found between cross-correlation-based physiological synchrony and task performance. The proposed research highlights that the method of choice for physiological synchrony calculation has direct impact on the derived relationship of team task performance and emotional states.
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Much existing research on IPS has focused on contexts where individuals are explicitly instructed to perform a social task.
“Yet, to date, much of the existing research on IPS has focused on contexts where individuals are explicitly instructed to perform a social task.”
From Interpersonal Synchronization of Autonomic Physiology via Mere Visual Contact (2026) · cites this paper as [25]
Some studies found a positive relationship between physiological synchrony and task performance, others reported no relation, or even a detrimental effect.
“While some studies found a positive relationship, others reported no relation between the two, or even a detrimental effect of physiological synchrony on task performance (see also Algumaei et al. 2023).”
From Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony During Dyadic Joint Action Is Increased by Task Novelty and Reduced by Social Anxiety (2025) · cites this paper as Algumaei et al. 2023
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- Authors
- Algumaei, M., Hettiarachchi, I., Veerabhadrappa, R., & Bhatti, A.
- Affiliations
- Deakin University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Algumaei, Mohammed
- Venue
- Sensors
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-02-17
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 2268
- ISSN
- 1424-8220 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9960820
- OpenAlex
- W4321377066
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 5.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sensors (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation (IISRI), Deakin University, Australia and Defence Science Institute (DSI)
- DSI Research Higher Degree (RHD) Student Grant
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Emotion and Mood Recognition
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Team Dynamics and Performance
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Keywords
- physiological synchrony, team performance, negative emotions, frustration, cross correlation function, recurrence quantification analysis, heart rate
- MeSH terms
- Emotions, Humans, Task Performance and Analysis
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