title: Prime and probability: causal knowledge affects inferential and predictive effects on self-agency experiences.
abstract: Experiences of having caused a certain outcome may arise from motor predictions based on action-outcome probabilities and causal inferences based on pre-activated outcome representations. However, when and how both indicators combine to affect such self-agency experiences is still unclear. Based on previous research on prediction and inference effects on self-agency, we propose that their (combined) contribution crucially depends on whether people have knowledge about the causal relation between actions and outcomes that is relevant to subsequent self-agency experiences. Therefore, we manipulated causal knowledge that was either relevant or irrelevant by varying the probability of co-occurrence (50% or 80%) of specific actions and outcomes. Afterwards, we measured self-agency experiences in an action-outcome task where outcomes were primed or not. Results showed that motor prediction only affected self-agency when relevant actions and outcomes were learned to be causally related. Interestingly, however, inference effects also occurred when no relevant causal knowledge was acquired.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, PO Box 80140, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands. a.vanderweiden@uu.nl
authors.forename: Anouk
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van der Weiden
authors.forename: Henk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aarts
authors.forename: Kirsten I
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Ruys
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D011336:Probability; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D060865:Repetition Priming