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Autonomous behaviour and the limits of human volition.
Keiji Ota1, Lucie Charles1, Patrick Haggard2
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Cognition
|December 15, 2023
Summary
Humans can adapt their actions to avoid predictable patterns and external triggers, demonstrating adaptive autonomy. However, they struggle to overcome learned action-outcome dependencies, even when detrimental.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Investigating human autonomy is challenging due to experimental constraints.
- Autonomy involves unconstrained, endogenously triggered behavior.
- Adaptive autonomy balances freedom with environmental coordination.
Purpose of the Study:
- To define and quantify adaptive autonomy.
- To explore the cognitive bases of unconstrained action choices.
- To understand how individuals adapt to avoid external and internal response constraints.
Main Methods:
- Participants (N=152) played a competitive game.
- Action timing was manipulated with punishments for choice biases, sequential patterns, and action-outcome dependence.
- Adaptive autonomy was measured by performance maintenance under punishment.
Main Results:
- Participants successfully reduced habitual choices and sequential action patterns.
- Individuals could not overcome action-outcome dependencies, even with poor performance.
- Reliance on belief learning increased when transition and reinforcement biases were punished.
Conclusions:
- Adaptive autonomy involves flexible, non-stereotyped action choices.
- Competitive interactions may enhance social cognition and volition.
- Voluntary action choices can be freed from immediate triggers and routine patterns.
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