Communicated priors tune the perception of control

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• The sense of agency, crucial for effective action, is traditionally thought to arise from sensorimotor signals.
• Sensorimotor signals are ambiguous, potentially distorting our perception of control.
• Existing theories do not fully account for how external information influences the sense of agency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how explicit beliefs about environmental control, acquired through communication, influence the sense of agency.
• To explore the cognitive and computational mechanisms underlying the integration of prior beliefs with sensorimotor evidence.

Main Methods:

• Development of novel tools to measure and model control decisions.
• Experimental manipulation of explicit beliefs about environmental controllability.
• Computational modeling to capture the effects of prior beliefs on agentic choices.

Main Results:

• Explicit beliefs about control significantly alter both the sensitivity and bias of agentic choices.
• Participants showed improved detection of control and an increased bias towards feeling in control when expecting it.
• A computational model demonstrated that expecting control exaggerates the sensitivity of agency-detection mechanisms.

Conclusions:

• Public communication about controllability can reshape an individual's private sense of agency.
• The study reveals a cognitive mechanism where prior beliefs amplify the detection of both true and illusory agency.
• This research provides a framework for understanding how social information modulates our fundamental sense of control.