title: Humans and monkeys distinguish between self-generated, opposing, and random actions.
abstract: The sense of self-agency results from monitoring the relationship between prior thoughts and action plans, sensorimotor information, and perceived outcomes. It is thought to be an important factor underlying self-recognition and self-awareness. Three experiments investigated the sense of self-agency in humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). First, humans were asked to move a cursor with a joystick while several distractor cursors also moved on-screen. They were asked to identify either the cursor they were controlling, or a distractor using visual cues alone. Six rhesus macaques were then given a similar task in which they needed to identify a self-controlled cursor that was paired with several different types of distractors. Both groups were able to identify the self-controlled cursor, and monkeys performed best when the oppositely moving cursor was the distractor. A third experiment showed that humans, like macaques, use both perceptual and self-agency information to make decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Albright College, Reading, PA, 19604, USA, jcouchman@alb.edu.
authors.forename: Justin J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Couchman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009038:Motion; D009039:Motion Perception; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D000068356:Self-Control / Q000523:psychology
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