08:30 - 10:00
Sense of Agency and Reinforcement Learning: Freedom of Choice Increases the Neurophysiological Impact of Affective Action Outcomes
Tue-H3-Talk 4-3903
Presented by: Maren Giersiepen
Maren GiersiepenSimone Schütz-BosbachJakob Kaiser
Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Department of General and Experimental Psychology
Freedom of choice (FoC) enhances the sense of agency over the outcomes of our actions and has been suggested to benefit experiential learning. Yet, how agency experience influences the neurophysiological processing of feedback during goal-directed behavior is not clearly understood. We performed two EEG studies to examine how FoC influences feedback processing during reinforcement learning. Participants received performance feedback in the form of monetary gains and losses following binary item choices determined by the self or the computer. Study 1 (N = 30) revealed augmented feedback-induced midfrontal theta power for free compared to forced choices, irrespective of feedback valence, suggesting enhanced performance monitoring for self-determined actions. Study 2 (N = 37) demonstrated that the choice-induced increased neural impact of affective feedback generalizes to the ERP domain. Free compared to forced choices elicited a larger N100, reflecting intensified sensory feedback processing. In addition, only self-determined action outcomes elicited a Reward Positivity, indicating a selective differentiation of positive and negative feedback for self-determined actions. Interestingly, study 2 also points towards a stronger impact of choice on midfrontal theta power for negative feedback. Crucially, our results suggest that the neuronal impact of affective feedback is specifically associated with FoC, rather than learning differences between free and forced choices. Intensified processing of affective feedback when being endowed with FoC might constitute a functional mechanism facilitating goal attainment when experiencing a high sense of agency. Further research is needed to disentangle whether positive feedback, negative feedback, or both predominantly mediate this relation.
Keywords: sense of agency, freedom of choice, reinforcement learning, feedback processing, EEG