The influence of sense of agency on learning structured regularities: an artificial grammar learning study

In many real-life situations learning is an active process of engaging with new information, experimenting and integrating new experiences to build meaningful understanding. However, learning can have either a more active or more passive form and several factors may influence how effectively individuals learn new information in both cases. One such factor is the sense of agency, which refers to the subjective feeling of control over one's actions, and it distinguishes active experience from passive observation. The present study aims to investigate whether differences in the sense of agency affect learning, as evaluated using the artificial grammar learning task. Participants were assigned to either an active condition, where they had full control over responses, or a passive condition, where they mostly passively observed the computer performing the task and were learning through observation. At the end of the experiment, they rated their perceived control. Results showed that participants in the active condition reported a stronger sense of agency and demonstrated higher accuracy from the very beginning of the task compared to those in the passive condition. Although both groups improved with repeated trials at a similar rate, the initial advantage for the active group persisted throughout the experiment. Overall, our study suggests that sense of agency can influence learning, and that learning is more effective when individuals feel in control of their actions.