Never run a changing system: Action-effect contingency shapes prospective agency

• Published in: Cognition Vol. 229; p. 105250
• Main Authors: Schwarz, Katharina A., Klaffehn, Annika L., Hauke-Forman, Nicole, Muth, Felicitas V., Pfister, Roland
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01.12.2022; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Action control; Action-effect contingency; Contingencies; Interindividual differences; Neurosis; Neuroticism; Person-situation interaction; Prospective agency; Reinforcement; Sense of agency; Person-situation interaction; Action-effect contingency; Prospective agency; Interindividual differences; Sense of agency
• ISSN: 0010-0277; 1873-7838
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105250

Human action control is highly sensitive to action-effect contingencies in the agent's environment. Here we show that the subjective sense of agency (SoA) contributes to this sensitivity as a subjective counterpart to instrumental action decisions. Participants (N = 556) experienced varying reward probabilities and were prompted to give summary evaluations of their SoA after a series of action-effect episodes. Results first revealed a quadratic relation of contingency and SoA, driven by a disproportionally strong impact of perfect action-effect contingencies. In addition to this strong situational determinant of SoA, we observed small but reliable interindividual differences as a function of gender, assertiveness, and neuroticism that applied especially at imperfect action-effect contingencies. Crucially, SoA not only reflected the reward structure of the environment but was also associated with the agent's future action decisions across situational and personal factors. These findings call for a paradigm shift in research on perceived agency, away from the retrospective assessment of single behavioral episodes and towards a prospective view that draws on statistical regularities of an agent's environment. •Sense of agency (SoA) is highly sensitive to action-effect contingencies.•We provide evidence for a quadratic relation of contingency and SoA.•Interindividual differences affected SoA in situations of high outcome uncertainty.•SoA scores were also associated with the agent's subsequent action decisions.