The main hypothesis put forward in this project is that successful interactions involve characteristic transitions between coupled and decoupled interaction episodes. This challenges the prevalent assumption that higher synchrony invariably leads to more favourable interaction outcomes. Studying these transitions offers an avenue to develop new measures of interaction quality applicable across different contexts

This project is aimed at strengthening the interdisciplinary field of research on the emergence, understanding and use of abstract concepts and words in human, and in human-machine interaction through the collaboration between the University of Warsaw, the University of Manchester, Sapienza University of Rome and Aarhus University. At the same time, the goal is to strengthen the research potential and research management skills at the University of Warsaw.

The relation of symbolic cognition to embodied and situated bodily dynamics remains one of the hardest problems in the contemporary cognitive sciences. It directly concerns the fundamental assumptions in theories of such basic cognitive processes as thinking and problem solving or using natural language. The present project aims at elaboration and verifying completeness and coherence of a one of the recent theories of the relation between symbol processing and situated action.