Sense of agency in joint action: a critical review of we-agency.

The sense of agency refers to the experience of control over voluntary actions and their effects. There is growing interest in the notion of we-agency, whereby individual sense of agency is supplanted by a collective agentic experience. The existence of this unique agentic state would have profound implications for human responsibility, and, as such, warrants further scrutiny.

The reliability of assistance systems modulates the sense of control and acceptability of human operators.

Individuals are increasingly required to interact with complex and autonomous technologies, which often has a significant impact on the control they experience over their actions and choices. A better characterization of the factors responsible for modulating the control experience of human operators is therefore a major challenge to improve the quality of human-system interactions. Using a decision-making task performed in interaction with an automated system, we investigated the influence of two key properties of automated systems, their reliability and explicability, on participants' sense of agency (SoA), as well as the perceived acceptability of system choices.

Active self-motion control and the role of agency under ambiguity.

Purpose: Self-motion perception is a key factor in daily behaviours such as driving a car or piloting an aircraft. It is mainly based on visuo-vestibular integration, whose weighting mechanisms are modulated by the reliability properties of sensory inputs. Recently, it has been shown that the internal state of the operator can also modulate multisensory integration and may sharpen the representation of relevant inputs.

Being active over one's own motion: Considering predictive mechanisms in self-motion perception.

Self-motion perception is a key element guiding pilots' behavior. Its importance is mostly revealed when impaired, leading in most cases to spatial disorientation which is still today a major factor of accidents occurrence. Self-motion perception is known as mainly based on visuo-vestibular integration and can be modulated by the physical properties of the environment with which humans interact.

What is new with Artificial Intelligence? Human-agent interactions through the lens of social agency.

In this article, we suggest that the study of social interactions and the development of a "sense of agency" in joint action can help determine the content of relevant explanations to be implemented in artificial systems to make them "explainable." The introduction of automated systems, and more broadly of Artificial Intelligence (AI), into many domains has profoundly changed the nature of human activity, as well as the subjective experience that agents have of their own actions and their consequences - an experience that is commonly referred to as sense of agency. We propose to examine the empirical evidence supporting this impact of automation on individuals' sense of agency, and hence on measures as diverse as operator performance, system explicability and acceptability.

Modulations of one's sense of agency during human-machine interactions: A behavioural study using a full humanoid robot.

Although previous investigations reported a reduced sense of agency when individuals act with traditional machines, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning interactions with human-like automata. The aim of this study was twofold: (1) to investigate the effect of the machine's physical appearance on the individuals' sense of agency and (2) to explore the cognitive mechanisms underlying the individuals' sense of agency when they are engaged in a joint task. Twenty-eight participants performed a joint Simon task together with another human or an automated artificial system as a co-agent.

Leveraging human agency to improve confidence and acceptability in human-machine interactions.

Repeated interactions with automated systems are known to affect how agents experience their own actions and choices. The present study explores the possibility of partially restoring sense of agency in operators interacting with automated systems by providing additional information about the system's decision, i.e.

Multitasking costs on metacognition in a triple-task paradigm.

Multitasking situations, such as using one's phone while driving, are increasingly common in everyday life. Experimental psychology has long documented the costs of multitasking on task performance; however, little is known of the effects it has on the metacognitive processes that monitor such performance. The present study is a step toward filling this void by combining psychophysical procedures with complex multitasking.

Mind Wandering Influences EEG Signal in Complex Multimodal Environments.

The phenomenon of mind wandering (MW), as a family of experiences related to internally directed cognition, heavily influences vigilance evolution. In particular, humans in teleoperations monitoring partially automated fleet before assuming manual control whenever necessary may see their attention drift due to internal sources; as such, it could play an important role in the emergence of out-of-the-loop (OOTL) situations and associated performance problems. To follow, quantify, and mitigate this phenomenon, electroencephalogram (EEG) systems already demonstrated robust results.

An Electromyographic Analysis of the Effects of Cognitive Fatigue on Online and Anticipatory Action Control.

Cognitive fatigue is a problem for the safety of critical systems (e.g., aircraft) as it can lead to accidents, especially during unexpected events.

Resilience of perceptual metacognition in a dual-task paradigm.

When people do multiple tasks at the same time, it is often found that their performance is worse relative to when they do those same tasks in isolation. However, one aspect that has received little empirical attention is whether the ability to monitor and evaluate one's task performance is also affected by multitasking. How does dual-tasking affect metacognition and its relation to performance? We investigated this question through the use of a visual dual-task paradigm with confidence judgments.

The sense of agency in human-human vs human-robot joint action.

Kinesthesis pertains to the perception of moving body parts, while the sense of agency refers to the experience of controlling one's action-effects. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that the sense of agency would decrease in joint action with a robot compared to a human partner. Pairs of participants were jointly manipulating two interconnected haptic devices enabling them to feel each other's forces.

Brain-Computer Interface-Based Adaptive Automation to Prevent Out-Of-The-Loop Phenomenon in Air Traffic Controllers Dealing With Highly Automated Systems.

Increasing the level of automation in air traffic management is seen as a measure to increase the performance of the service to satisfy the predicted future demand. This is expected to result in new roles for the human operator: he will mainly monitor highly automated systems and seldom intervene. Therefore, air traffic controllers (ATCos) would often work in a supervisory or control mode rather than in a direct operating mode.

Action co-representation and the sense of agency during a joint Simon task: Comparing human and machine co-agents.

Recent studies have suggested that individuals are not able to develop a sense of joint agency during joint actions with artificial systems. We sought to examine whether this lack of joint agency is linked to individuals' inability to co-represent the machine-generated actions. Fifteen participants observed or performed a Simon response time task either individually, or jointly with another human or a computer.

Human or not human? Performance monitoring ERPs during human agent and machine supervision.

Performance monitoring is a critical process which allows us to both learn from our own errors, and also interact with other human beings. However, our increasingly automated world requires us to interact more and more with automated systems, especially in risky environments. The present EEG study aimed at investigating and comparing the neuro-functional correlates associated with performance monitoring of an automated system and a human agent using a vertically-oriented arrowhead version of the flanker task.

Influence of automation on mind wandering frequency in sustained attention.

There is accumulating evidence which shows that mind wandering may be increased within automated environments. This is particularly concerning when considering the negative effect of mind wandering on short-term performance. Seventeen participants performed an obstacle avoidance task under two conditions, manual and automated, each lasting 40 min.

Evaluation of performance monitoring ERPs through difficulty manipulation in a response-feedback paradigm.

Performance monitoring is an amply studied function, since it is of major importance in carrying out actions in our everyday life. No consensus has been reached on the functional role and the relationship between each event-related potential (ERP) characterizing this function. In this study, we used a modified version of the flanker task, measuring the impact of task difficulty on the amplitudes of response-locked and feedback-locked performance monitoring ERPs in a single trial.

Out of the Loop, in Your Bubble: Mind Wandering Is Independent From Automation Reliability, but Influences Task Engagement.

This study examined the influence of automation reliability on task-unrelated mind wandering (MW) frequency and the impact of MW on task engagement. Automated environment features make it particularly prone to increase MW frequency. Through mechanisms like complacency or agency, automating a task could increase MW frequency for the operator.

Agency modulates interactions with automation technologies.

The increasing presence of automation between operators and automated systems tends to disrupt operators from action outcomes, leading them to leave the control loop. The theoretical framework of agency suggests that priming the operator about the system's upcoming behaviour could help restore an appropriate sense of control and increase user acceptance of what the system is doing. In a series of two experiments, we test whether providing information about what the system is about to do next leads to an increase in the level of user acceptance, concomitant with an increase in control and performance.

Corrigendum: Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review.

[This corrects the article on p. 52 in vol. 11, PMID: 29081744.

Predictive Mechanisms Are Not Involved the Same Way during Human-Human vs. Human-Machine Interactions: A Review.

Nowadays, interactions with others do not only involve human peers but also automated systems. Many studies suggest that the motor predictive systems that are engaged during action execution are also involved during joint actions with peers and during other human generated action observation. Indeed, the comparator model hypothesis suggests that the comparison between a predicted state and an estimated real state enables motor control, and by a similar functioning, understanding and anticipating observed actions.

Autopilot, Mind Wandering, and the Out of the Loop Performance Problem.

To satisfy the increasing demand for safer critical systems, engineers have integrated higher levels of automation, such as glass cockpits in aircraft, power plants, and driverless cars. These guiding principles relegate the operator to a monitoring role, increasing risks for humans to lack system understanding. The out of the loop performance problem arises when operators suffer from complacency and vigilance decrement; consequently, when automation does not behave as expected, understanding the system or taking back manual control may be difficult.

Performance Monitoring Applied to System Supervision.

Nowadays, automation is present in every aspect of our daily life and has some benefits. Nonetheless, empirical data suggest that traditional automation has many negative performance and safety consequences as it changed task performers into task supervisors. In this context, we propose to use recent insights into the anatomical and neurophysiological substrates of action monitoring in humans, to help further characterize performance monitoring during system supervision.

Automation technology and sense of control: a window on human agency.

Previous studies have shown that the perceived times of voluntary actions and their effects are perceived as shifted towards each other, so that the interval between action and outcome seems shortened. This has been referred to as 'intentional binding' (IB). However, the generality of this effect remains unclear.