Endogenous versus exogenous change: change detection, self and agency
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Virtual Hand with Ambiguous Movement between the Self and Other Origin: Sense of Ownership and 'Other-Produced' Agency
Published on: October 28, 2020
Bruno Berberian1, Axel Cleeremans
1Unité de Recherche Conscience, Cognition and Computation, Université Libre de Bruxelles - CP 191, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50, Bruxelles, Belgium. bruno.berberian@ulb.ac.be
Abstract:
The goal of this study is to characterize observers' abilities to discriminate between endogenous (i.e., self-produced) and exogenous changes. To do so, we developed a new experimental paradigm. On each trial, participants were shown a dot pattern on the screen. Next, the pattern disappeared and participants were to reproduce it. Changes were surreptuously introduced in the stimulus, either by presenting participants anew with the dot pattern they had themselves produced on the previous trial (endogenous change) or by presenting participants with a slightly different dot pattern (exogenous changes). We analyzed awareness of the changes and behavioral adaptation to them in a dynamical manner. We observe (1) signal attenuation in the presence of endogenous change, (2) dissociation between self-attribution reports and behavioral effect of agency. We discuss the source of this sensitive attenuation as well as the relation between a minimal or core self and an extended, narrative or autobiographical self.
Related Concept Videos
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Self Within Cultural Contexts
Self-Awareness and Its Effects
Understanding the Self
Self-Schemas
Understanding Self-Concept

