Abstract
Research on voluntary action has focused on the question of how we represent our behavior on a motor and cognitive level. However, the question of how we represent voluntary not acting has been completely neglected. The aim of the present study was to investigate the cognitive and motor representation of intentionally not acting. By using an action-effect binding approach, we demonstrate similarities of action and nonaction. In particular, our results reveal that voluntary nonactions can be bound to an effect tone. This finding suggests that effect binding is not restricted to an association between a motor representation and a successive effect (action-effect binding) but can also occur for an intended nonaction and its effect (nonaction-effect binding). Moreover, we demonstrate that nonactions have to be initiated voluntarily in order to elicit nonaction-effect binding.
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The work was supported by a dissertation grant from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, awarded to the first author.
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Kühn, S., Elsner, B., Prinz, W. et al. Busy doing nothing: Evidence for nonaction-effect binding. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 542–549 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.3.542
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.3.542