CAN CHANGES IN TASK-IRRELEVANT FEATURES INFLUENCE OUR SENSE OF AGENCY?

Abstract

Sense of agency (SoA) is the feeling that we are the ones controlling our actions and their outcomes. SoA arises when there is a match between predicted and observed action outcomes. We sought to find out if changes to task-irrelevant stimulus features can influence one’s SoA. Participants made self-decided up- or down- arrow presses when a grey-filled dot stimulus was presented in the centre of the screen. The keypress triggered the dot to move in either a consistent or inconsistent direction. In a subset of trials, another stimulus feature, the colour of the dot also changed progressively from grey to light- or dark-grey as the dot moved. Participants then rated how much they felt that their keypress caused the dot’s movement. Although the participants were not asked if they were in control of the dot’s colour change, we hypothesized that changes to this task-irrelevant feature can influence SoA. Results obtained showed support for our hypothesis. It was found that congruency of the task-irrelevant feature, colour change, increased SoA ratings only when the task-relevant feature, the direction of dot movement, was congruent to the key-press. Results were discussed based on the multistage comparison model and future directions were suggested.