Physical and mental effort disrupts the implicit sense of agency

Howard, Emma E., Edwards, S. Gareth and Bayliss, Andrew P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4810-7758 (2016) Physical and mental effort disrupts the implicit sense of agency. Cognition, 157. 114–125. ISSN 0010-0277

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Abstract

We investigated the effect of effort on implicit agency ascription for actions performed under varying levels of physical effort or cognitive load. People are able to estimate the interval between two events accurately, but they underestimate the interval between their own actions and their outcomes. This effect is known as ‘intentional binding’, and may provide feedback regarding the consequences of our actions. Concurrently with the interval reproduction task, our participants pulled sports resistance bands at high and low resistance levels (Experiments 1 and 2), or performed a working memory task with high and low set-sizes (Experiment 3). Intentional binding was greater under low than high effort. When the effort was task-related (Experiment 1), this effect depended on the individual’s explicit appraisal of exertion, while the effect of effort was evident at the group level when the effort was task-unrelated (physical, Experiment 2; mental, Experiment 3). These findings imply that the process of intentional binding is compromised when cognitive resources are depleted, either through physical or mental strain. We discuss this notion in relation to the integration of direct sensorimotor feedback with signals of agency and other instances of cognitive resource depletion and action control during strain.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The data accompanying this article is open data under the CC BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sense of agency,temporal binding,intentional binding,experience of effort,time perception
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Social Cognition Research Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2016 00:30
Last Modified:	19 Apr 2023 16:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60072
DOI:	10.1016/j.cognition.2016.08.018

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