Intention-based and sensory-based predictions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Erich Schröger
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2017 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 323116390

Human action serves the purpose to accommodate to environmental demands (stimulus-driven action) and to achieve effects in the environment (intention-based action). While stimulus-driven action is researched to a large extent, intention-based action is not, although it is of outmost importance in every-day life (as we gain control over the environmental stimuli via the control of our actions only). Research on this type of action-effect cycle has developed a theoretical perspective that puts a particular emphasis on predictive brain processes. By being able to predict the effects of our actions on the environment, we know which action to choose for a desired effect. The present project aims at investigating the impact of intentional action on action effect predictions, studies its modulation by attention, and compares this sort of intentional-action-based predictions to sensory-based predictions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Florian Waszak