Abstract
Although being in control is an important aspect of human-machine interaction, little is known about the combined effect of automation and mental workload on the sense of agency. In this study, participants were asked to reproduce the time interval between a keypress and an acoustic tone presented with different time delays (1250 to 2250 ms). Automation had three levels from the human being in complete control, an intermediate condition, to the machine being fully automatic. Mental workload was manipulated with a secondary memory task with two levels. Results showed a gradual loss of sense of agency with increasing automation intervention. Mental workload was found to affect only the intermediate automation condition. Further, we found an Intentional Binding effect for delays longer than 1750 ms in this intermediate condition. These findings demonstrate the existence of a residual sense of agency, which has important implications for the future design of hybrid, semi-autonomous systems.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Haggard, P., Chambon, V.: Sense of agency. Curr. Biol. 22, R390–R392 (2012)
Jeannerod, M.: The mechanism of self-recognition in humans. Behav. Brain Res. 142, 1–15 (2003)
Chambon, V., Sidarus, N., Haggard, P.: From action intentions to action effects: how does the sense of agency come about? Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8, 320 (2014)
Haggard, P., Clark, S., Kalogeras, J.: Voluntary action and conscious awareness. Nat. Neurosci. 5, 382–385 (2002)
Moore, J.W., Obhi, S.S.: Intentional binding and the sense of agency: a review. Conscious. Cogn. 21, 546–561 (2012)
Berberian, B., Sarrazin, J.C., Le Blaye, P., Haggard, P.: Automation technology and sense of control: a window on human agency. PLoS ONE 7, e34075 (2012)
Mulder, M., Abbink, D.A., Boer, E.R.: Sharing control with haptics: seamless driver support from manual to automatic control. Hum. Factors 54, 786–798 (2012)
Yun, S., et al.: Investigating the relationship between assisted driver’s SoA and EEG. In: Masia, L., Micera, S., Akay, M., Pons, J.L. (eds.) ICNR 2018. BB, vol. 21, pp. 1039–1043. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01845-0_208
McEneaney, J.E.: Agency effects in human-computer interaction. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Int. 29, 798–813 (2013)
Obhi, S.S., Hall, P.: Sense of agency in joint action: influence of human and computer co-actors. Exp. Brain Res. 211, 663–670 (2011)
Wohlschläger, A., Haggard, P., Gesierich, B., Prinz, W.: The perceived onset time of self and other-generated actions. Psychol. Sci. 14, 586–591 (2003)
Banks, V.A., Stanton, N.A.: Keep the driver in control: automating automobiles of the future. Appl. Ergon. 53, 389–395 (2016)
Reinartz, S., Gruppe, T.: Information requirements to support operator-automatic co-operation. In: Human Factors in Nuclear Safety Conference, pp. 22–23. IBC, London (1993)
Fan, J., Smith, A.P.: The impact of workload and fatigue on performance. In: Longo, L., Leva, M.C. (eds.) H-WORKLOAD 2017. CCIS, vol. 726, pp. 90–105. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61061-0_6
Young, M.S., Brookhuis, K.A., Wickens, C.D., Hancock, P.A.: State of science: mental workload in ergonomics. Ergonomics 58, 1–17 (2015)
Endsley, M.R., Kiris, E.O.: The out-of-the-loop performance problem and level of control in automation. Hum. Factors 37, 381–394 (1995)
Hon, N., Poh, J., Soon, C.S.: Preoccupied minds feel less control: sense of agency is modulated by cognitive load. Conscious. Cogn. 22, 556–561 (2013)
Howard, E.E., Edwards, S.G., Bayliss, A.P.: Physical and mental effort disrupts the implicit sense of agency. Cognition 157, 114–125 (2016)
Peirce, J., et al.: PsychoPy2: experiments in behavior made easy. Behav. Res. Methods 51, 195–203 (2019)
Sternberg, S.: High-speed scanning in human memory. Science 153, 652–654 (1966)
Van den Bussche, E., Alves, M., Murray, Y.P.J., Hughes, G.: The effect of cognitive effort on the sense of agency. PLoS ONE 15, 1–20 (2020)
Humphreys, G.R., Buehner, M.J.: Magnitude estimation reveals temporal binding at super-second intervals. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 35, 1542 (2009)
Wenke, D., Haggard, P.: How voluntary actions modulate time perception. Exp. Brain Res. 196, 311–318 (2009)
Wen, W., Haggard, P.: Control changes the way we look at the world. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 30, 603–619 (2018)
Bednark, J.G., Franz, E.A.: Agency attribution: event-related potentials and outcome monitoring. Exp. Br. Res. 232, 1117–1126 (2014)
Eitam, B., Kennedy, P.M., Higgins, E.T.: Motivation from control. Exp. Br. Res. 229, 475–484 (2013)
Shneiderman, B., Plaisant, C.: Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Pearson Education, India (2010)
Acknowledgments
This material was funded and delivered in partnership between the Thales Group and the University of Bristol, and with the support of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Grant Award EP/R004757/1 entitled ‘Thales-Bristol Partnership in Hybrid Autonomous Systems Engineering (T-B PHASE)’.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zanatto, D., Chattington, M., Noyes, J. (2021). Sense of Agency in Human-Machine Interaction. In: Ayaz, H., Asgher, U., Paletta, L. (eds) Advances in Neuroergonomics and Cognitive Engineering. AHFE 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 259. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80285-1_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80285-1_41
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80284-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80285-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)