Methodological Proposal for the Analysis of Coupling and Alteration Contacts

Abstract

The present work describes a proposal for the study of coupling and alteration contacts. Using a procedure like those employed in the tracking and catching literature, a task was designed and adapted in which participants were presented with two situations in which they had to adjust to a moving object by scrolling on a computer screen. In the first situation, the occurrence conditions of the moving object (speed or trajectory) were constant and were not modified by the response pattern displayed by the participants; in the second situation, the response pattern altered the occurrence conditions of the object (its speed). The first situation was considered equivalent to a coupling condition; the second, to an alteration condition. Exemplars of the molar measurements that can be obtained from the recordings are shown in the results. It is considered that the procedure may be useful for the evaluation of coupling and alteration contacts.