Metacognition bridges experiences and beliefs in sense of agency.
Consciousness and cognition September 1, 2024 John P Veillette, Letitia Ho, Howard C Nusbaum
People's explicit beliefs about being an agent are not directly tied to how often they feel a sense of agency during sensorimotor tasks. Instead, the connection runs through metacognition: individuals who are less sensitive to cues indicating self-causation tend to report more negative agency beliefs, but this relationship disappears when accounting for their ability to accurately monitor their own judgments. Positive agency beliefs showed no clear link to sensorimotor measures. The findings suggest that introspective access, rather than the raw experience of agency, shapes one's enduring beliefs about being an agent.