Effects of Space Discrepancy and Latency on the Sense of Agency with Discrete and Continuous Operations

Abstract

This study aims to find how space discrepancy and latency affect the implicit and explicit sense of agency (SoA) with discrete and continuous operations, and whether these two factors have an interaction effect. In Experiment 1, for discrete operations, participants were asked to press a button to make a ball move. In Experiment 2, for continuous operations, participants were required to copy four shapes shown on the screen. Space discrepancy and latency were set in both experiments. Subjective scores of the SoA are used to measure the explicit SoA. The intentional binding and relative distance between the shape shown and participants’ drawing are used to measure the implicit SoA, respectively. From the experimental results, we learn how latency and space discrepancy affect the SoA and these two factors have an interaction effect. The SoA has the same manner in discrete and continuous operations according to the explicit results.