Sensorimotor faculties bias choice behavior

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Embodied Cognition
• Psychology

Background:

• Higher-order cognitive processes, like decision-making, are traditionally viewed as independent of motor and sensory systems.
• Embodied cognition research suggests that physical attributes and bodily states can unexpectedly influence cognitive functions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of handedness and auditory system asymmetries on human decision-making.
• To determine if motor biases (handedness) and sensory biases (auditory perception) affect choice behavior.

Main Methods:

• Participants (right- and left-handed) performed an auditory decision task, judging the location of click sounds.
• Response choices were made using either the left or right index finger.
• Trials included both stimulus-driven choices and free choices without auditory cues.

Main Results:

• In free-choice scenarios, handedness significantly predicted choice direction: left-handers showed a leftward bias, and right-handers showed a rightward bias.
• In stimulus-driven choices, a bias towards perceiving more clicks in the right ear was observed, modulated by response-stimulus congruence.
• The findings indicate that both motor (handedness) and sensory (auditory) system properties shape decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Human choices are not solely based on rational deliberation but are demonstrably influenced by inherent motor and sensory system characteristics.
• Handedness acts as a significant bias in free choice selection.
• Auditory perception exhibits biases that can be revealed through decision tasks, highlighting the integration of sensory input into choice mechanisms.