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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 12, 2026

Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm

Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm

Published on: May 14, 2014

Intentional binding in self-made and observed actions.

S K Poonian¹, Ross Cunnington

¹Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia. s.poonian@uq.edu.au

Experimental Brain Research

|April 12, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We perceive a temporal link between actions and outcomes, a phenomenon known as intentional binding. This study shows intentional binding occurs for both self-made and observed actions, suggesting shared causal attribution processes.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology
Social Cognition

Background:

Sense of agency involves understanding the link between actions and sensory events.
Intentional binding, a temporal perception shift, measures agency for self-made actions.
It remains unclear if similar processes apply to understanding others' actions and their outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate intentional binding for observed actions.
To determine if humans use similar causal attribution processes for self- versus other- actions.
To explore the mechanisms underlying the perception of agency in social contexts.

Main Methods:

Utilized an interval estimation paradigm to measure perceived time between actions and sensory events.
Experiment 1 compared intentional binding for self-made actions, observed actions, and tones.
Experiment 2 used a visual-auditory control stimulus to validate findings for observed actions.

Main Results:

Intentional binding was observed for both self-made and observed actions, indicated by a perceived temporal shortening.
The effect for observed actions was significant and distinct from control conditions.
This suggests shared neural or cognitive mechanisms for processing self- and other- agency.

Conclusions:

Humans exhibit intentional binding when observing others' actions, not just their own.
Shared processes are likely involved in attributing causality for self- and other- actions.
Findings advance our understanding of social cognition and the sense of agency.