In daily life, humans frequently perform visuospatial tasks together (e.g., visual search) and distribute the labor in such tasks. Previous research has shown that humans prefer a left and right labor division in a joint multiple object tracking (MOT) task. Yet, findings from studies investigating individuals’ tracking ability suggest attentional capacities may be more maximally used with a top and bottom labor division. We investigated whether co-actors’ labor division preference is influenced by how they are seated (neighboring vs. opposite of each other) or how the MOT task is displayed (portrait vs. landscape). We find that pairs attain a higher performance using a top and bottom labor division and preferred this labor division compared to a left and right division. This preference was unaffected by the seating arrangement. For the landscape display, however, we find that participants no longer attain a higher performance for the top and bottom labor division and accordingly participants’ preference for this labor division was greatly reduced as well. Overall, we propose that co-actors are sensitive to changes within their environment, which allows them to choose a labor division that maximizes use of their individual attentional capacities.

中文翻译：

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联合任务中的分工：人类最大限度地利用他们的个人注意力。

在日常生活中，人类经常一起执行视觉空间任务（例如，视觉搜索）并在这些任务中分配劳动。先前的研究表明，在联合多对象跟踪 (MOT) 任务中，人类更喜欢左右分工。然而，调查个人跟踪能力的研究结果表明，上下分工可能更能最大限度地利用注意力能力。我们调查了合作者的分工偏好是否受到他们的坐姿（相邻与彼此相对）或 MOT 任务的显示方式（纵向与横向）的影响。我们发现，使用上下分工的配对获得了更高的性能，并且与左右分工相比，他们更喜欢这种分工。这种偏好不受座位安排的影响。然而，对于景观展示，我们发现参与者对于顶部和底部的分工不再获得更高的表现，因此参与者对这种分工的偏好也大大降低。总的来说，我们建议合作者对其环境中的变化很敏感，这使他们能够选择最大限度地利用他们个人注意力能力的分工。