Punishment: From Anticipation to Behavior

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas B. Eder
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565209904

The proposed research investigates the mechanisms underlying behavioral control following punishment. A central hypothesis is that punished actions are not directly suppressed but are inhibited through the activation of competing intentions, particularly the intention not to act (deliberate non-action). Intentional non-action is hypothesized to function as a default response mode in punishment contexts, driven by the cognitive anticipation of sensory consequences associated with refraining from action. This theoretical framework builds on the ideomotor (IM) principle, which posits that sensory consequences are integrated into cognitive representations of intentional (non-)action and can trigger these intentions. The project is organized into four work packages (WPs). WP1 examines the IM hypothesis that sensory action effects can prime associated movements, even when these effects are aversive and unintended. Using a virtual reality (VR) ball-tossing task, participants will receive error feedback presented as specific colors. The hypothesis is that, after many repetitions, these error signals become associated with erroneous movements and, when the colors are later presented as distractors, they will prime the associated movements, increasing the likelihood of repeating the errors. Additional experiments will test whether a painful action consequence continues to facilitate the associated action, even when this action is not required in no-go trials. WP2 explores the influence of affective gradients on inhibitory action control, investigating whether upward trends in thermal pain intensity are more "punishing" (i.e., suppressive) than downward trends. These experiments extend research on the peak-end rule, traditionally applied to retrospective pain evaluation, to its impact on stopping performance in a stop-signal task. WP3 investigates whether binding deliberate non-action to subsequent sensory effects is selectively reinforced by the punishment of active behavior. WP4 employs a go/no-go backward crosstalk paradigm to examine whether intentional non-action is facilitated by the anticipation of punishment in an unrelated but upcoming task. This research aims to advance understanding of how punishment influences intentional behavior, including deliberate non-action. The findings will contribute to theoretical models of punishment and aversive action control and have practical implications for applied settings where punishment is employed to modify behavior.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants