Your colleagues might be slowing you down just by working in your line of vision, a Calgary scientist's research suggests.

Tim Welsh, an assistant professor of kinesiology, studied how the presence of a person conducting a task in another person's field of vision compromises speed and accuracy.

The study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Human Movement Science, suggests that seeing another person perform a task causes a person's brain to imagine he or she is also doing that task on top of work already being done.

'Conflict resolution takes time and it also creates the opportunity for errors to occur.'—Tim Welsh, Calgary kinesiology expert

"There is a system that's embedded in our brains that in a sense automatically draws us to simulate what other people are doing," said Welsh.

For his study, Welsh tested how people functioned while alone versus alongside others.

First, the person performed a simple computer task alone. Then a partner worked nearby on a different but related task. After that, the partner was sent to another room and the test subject was told the task had to be continued.

Welsh found the test subject worked slower and committed more errors when another person was performing a task nearby.

But when the partner left the room and the individual only saw the results of the task, not the action itself, there was no effect on the test subject's work, he said.

Welsh said the mental image of the other person's task competes with work at hand.

"You have to resolve that conflict. Conflict resolution takes time and it also creates the opportunity for errors to occur," said Welsh.

Welsh thinks his research could have implications on work environments, especially in offices where speed and accuracy are important.