If we limit ourselves just to react to the actions executed by others while we ski it would be complex sharing the slopes in a coordinated manner. According to several studies, we tend to perform internal action simulations to predict the actions of others on the slopes. Motor experience studies have shown that we are more accurate in predicting those actions that we ourselves are capable of executing. Predicting and simulating are intimately related processes, intervening in the ability to respond to the actions of other people.
The common coding is based on the assumption that our own actions and the actions of others are encoded in a common representational area (Prinz, 1990 & 1997). Planning a certain action and the observation of its execution in other people might as well be the same regarding the relationship with the motor system. This encoding would make possible the prediction of ‘what’, ‘when’, and ‘where’ of actions executed as a whole. Although this mechanism would work, it is not the only one involved in the activity that skiers and snowboarders do on the slopes, which is considered to be a joint action.
‘What’ refers to the type of action that others will do according to their intentions. To predict them, it should be first understood what they are doing at that precise moment and how they may proceed. Knowing the maneuvers of other people allows simulating what they are going to do with the actions that are currently executing. This means that we can quickly adjust or compensate for the mistakes of others or initiate actions to avoid them (Sebanz and Knoblich, 2009).
‘When‘ represents the temporal action’s coordination. ‘Where‘ applies to the distribution and the sharing of common physical space in which actions are developed. These are based on dividing up common areas, avoiding collisions, and knowing to determine if paths are directed towards common targets. Sharing the same places in a slope means that we must predict where we are moving and where the objects are in the environment. The spatial relationship between Self, the others, and objects is a reference used to keep sufficient distance.
Different studies about common actions have determined the following:
- Looking the actions of another skier affects ours.
- When we are not intended to carry out any action in particular, observing the actions of the others predisposes us to perform the same actions.
- Our perceptive assessment, i.e. the judgment which is made on the actions of others, is affected by our own actions that are underway at that time.
This mirror functioning occurs when we look the actions of others, the same groups of neurons are fired: the ones of the action and the ones of the observation. This mechanism is useful in learning new motor behaviors by understanding the actions of others. Mirror neurons are utilized to represent the use of the common space of a slope, allowing the actions of others to have meaning while observing them. This neuronal activity would consent to acquire a notion of other people’s intentions, i.e., would predict what would be happening in their minds based on our own actions and how we monitor their actions.
To predict, anticipate, and prevent the actions of other people we base on predictive mechanisms by simulating their actions through parallel simulations, according to Keller, Knoblich & Repp (2007), i.e., at the same time that we do with ours, we also predict in a coordinated manner the actions of others.
Considering that on the slopes we proceed on the basis of the effects our own actions will produce, then predicting other people’s actions allows the following:
- Acting coordinately, synchronized, or alternated bringing certain complexity if time and/or space available are limited.
- Risk perception applies to avoid not only the potential dangers of the environment but also the maneuvers of the other skiers and snowboarders.
- Speed and distance perception includes our own speed and that of the others in terms of accelerations and decelerations, braking mechanisms (our own and others’), as also the prediction of time to contact on a possible collision.
- Self-efficacy, i.e. our own belief in the capacity to reduce speed, braking reaction, or change of trajectory in extreme situations.
- Visual perception involves visual anticipation not only about own trajectories but those of others as well. The degree of control of tunnel vision, especially while skiing fast; the predisposition of the target fixation, that is, fixing our gaze on the person instead of towards the adjacent space to avoid it; the perception of figure-ground contrast (people who are close and others that are further in our visual scene) that may alter our visual perception because we alternate our visual fixation between the two; the interconnection between looks help to simultaneously predict actions between two people; and the influence of the inhibition of return comply with an essential role in predicting the actions of others.
- Auditory perception influences the prediction of the distance of someone who, upon hearing the noise produced, approaches us without being seen.
- The decision-making mechanism is also collaborating, especially rapid decisions depending on the experience in similar situations. This is a complex cognitive process that results in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several alternatives. It is influenced by a large number of factors including past experiences, decision complexity, emotions, and cognitive biases.
- Spatial coordination skills as determining open spaces.
- Cognitive and emotional levelas expectations, paying attention if the other is paying attention to his/her own actions (joint attention), the simulation of the other’s actions, and the mental representation related to the motor interaction with others are all essential mechanisms to predict their actions.
