Having a sense of agency can improve memory

Abstract

In most situations, we are able to tell those outcomes we cause from those we do not. By now, research has provided us with a reasonably good understanding of the cognitive processes that underlie this sense of agency – it is thought to be produced by a comparison between a prediction of the outcome and the actual outcome that occurs. What is less clear is whether having a sense of agency can, itself, influence cognition. In the current study, we examined the possibility that sense of agency can affect memory, and we report evidence that stimuli that one feels a sense of agency over are, in fact, better remembered than counterparts without this. This self-agency effect can be distinguished from previously described control-related memory enhancements and adds to what we know of the cognitive consequences of having a sense of agency.