A widespread belief is that large groups engaged in joint actions that require a high level of flexibility are unable to coordinate without the introduction of additional resources such as shared plans or hierarchical organizations. Here, we put this belief to a test, by empirically investigating coordination within a large group of 16 musicians performing collective free improvisation—a genre in which improvisers aim at creating music that is as complex and unprecedented as possible without relying on shared plans or on an external conductor. We show that musicians freely improvising within a large ensemble can achieve significant levels of coordination, both at the level of their musical actions (i.e., their individual decisions to play or to stop playing) and at the level of their directional intentions (i.e., their intentions to change or to support the music produced by the group). Taken together, these results invite us to reconsider the range and scope of actions achievable by large groups, and to explore alternative organizational models that emphasize decentralized and unscripted forms of collective behavior.

人们普遍认为，如果不引入共享计划或等级组织等额外资源，参与需要高度灵活性的联合行动的大型团体就无法进行协调。在这里，我们对这一信念进行了检验，通过实证调查由 16 名音乐家组成的一大群进行集体自由即兴创作的协调情况——即兴创作者的目标是创造尽可能复杂和前所未有的音乐，而不依赖于共同的计划或依赖外部导体。我们表明，在大型合奏团中自由即兴创作的音乐家可以在他们的音乐行为层面（即他们个人决定演奏或停止演奏）和他们的方向意图层面（即他们的演奏）实现显着的协调水平。改变或支持乐队制作的音乐的意图）。总而言之，这些结果要求我们重新考虑大型团体可实现的行动的范围和范围，并探索强调分散和无脚本形式的集体行为的替代组织模式。