Goals rather than predictions determine the sense of agency

The sense of agency (SoA) denotes an agent's impression of controlling environmental outcomes through acting. Most theoretical approaches assume that matching predicted and actual perceptual feedback from actions creates SoA (comparator model). We propose, however, a simpler ideomotor mechanism, which proposes SoA to emerge from matching perceptual feedback to action goals. In two experiments, participants aimed at target areas on a screen and received manipulated visual feedback. The two models predict different SoA magnitudes based on the appropriateness of the executed motor activity for achieving the goal and the intendedness of the obtained feedback. In line with the ideomotor model, but contrary to the comparator model, SoA was determined solely by the match of feedback to the goal, regardless of motor activity appropriateness. This suggests that assumptions of the comparator model should be reconsidered, specifically, that predictions do not have to be assumed to explain the emergence of SoA.