title: Taking credit for success: the phenomenology of control in a goal-directed task.
abstract: We studied how people determine when they are in control of objects. In a computer task, participants moved a virtual boat towards a goal using a joystick to investigate how subjective control is shaped by (1) correspondence between motor actions and the visual consequences of those actions, and (2) attainment of higher-level goals. In Experiment 1, random discrepancies from joystick input (noise) decreased judgments of control (JoCs), but discrepancies that brought the boat closer to the goal and increased success (the autopilot) increased JoCs. In Experiment 2, participants raced to the goal against a computer-controlled rival boat while varying levels of noise interfered with each boat. Participants reached the goal more often and rated their own control higher when the computer rival had good control. Subjective control over moving objects depends partly on consistency between motor actions and their effects, but is also modulated by perceived success and competition.
authors.affiliation: Michigan State University, Department of Psychology, 292 Psychology Building, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. deweyjoh@msu.edu
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Dewey
authors.forename: Adriane E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Seiffert
authors.forename: Thomas H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Carr
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012649:Self Concept; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception