Effects of free choice and outcome valence on the sense of agency: evidence from measures of intentional binding and feelings of control

Date

2017-10-27

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

Everyday actions can be characterized by whether they are freely chosen or commanded by external stimuli, and whether they produce pleasant or unpleasant outcomes. To assess how these aspects of actions affect the sense of agency, we asked participants to perform freely selected or instructed key presses which could produce pleasant or unpleasant chords. We obtained estimates of the key press–chord intervals and ratings of the feeling of control (FoC) over the outcomes. Interval estimates were used to assess intentional binding—the perceived tempo- ral attraction between actions and their outcomes. Results showed stronger binding and higher FoC ratings in the free compared to instructed condition. Additionally, FoC was stronger for pleasant compared to unpleasant outcomes, and for pleasant outcomes that were produced by freely selected compared to instructed actions. These results highlight the importance of free choice and outcome valence on the SoA. They also reveal how freedom of action selection and pleas- antness of action-outcomes can interact to affect the FoC.

Description

The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.

Keywords

Sense of agency, Intentional binding, Outcome valence, Freedom, Action selection

Citation

Barlas, Z., Hockley, W. E. and Obhi, S. S. (2018) Effects of free choice and outcome valence on the sense of agency: evidence from measures of intentional binding and feelings of control. Experimental Brain Research, 236(1), pp. 129–139.

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Research Institute