Automation technology and sense of control: A window on human agency
Open accessAbstract
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. Here we demonstrate that Intentional Binding also occurs in complex control situations. Using an aircraft supervision task with different autopilot settings, our results first indicated a strong relation between measures of IB and different levels of system automation. Second, measures of IB were related to explicit agency judgement in this applied setting. We discuss the implications for the underlying mechanisms, and for sense of agency in automated environments.
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Automation can create a diminished sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency among human operators.
“Automation can also create a diminished sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency among human operators”
From The flaws of policies requiring human oversight of government algorithms (2022) · cites this paper as Berberian et al., 2012
The Introduction (‘Automation and feeling of control’; page unavailable) says that increased automation can decrease pilots’ feeling of control, and the study examines operators’ sense of agency at different automation levels. The paper does not address diminished responsibility or moral agency; its agency measures concern perceived causal control. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAutomation can reduce its users' sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency.
“Furthermore, given that automation can reduce its users' sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency ( Berberian et al., 2012 ;Cummings, 2006 ), it is important to continuously monitor whether the algorithm distorts or erodes the moral agency of decision-makers.”
From The flaws of policies requiring human oversight of government algorithms (2022) · cites this paper as Berberian et al., 2012
The Introduction ('Automation and feeling of control'; page unavailable) says increasing automation can decrease pilots’ feeling of control, and the Results examine agency judgments across automation levels. The passages support reduced felt control, but do not establish reduced responsibility or moral agency. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
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“Automation can also create a diminished sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency among human operators (Berberian et al., 2012; Cummings, 2006).”
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- Authors
- Berberian, B., Sarrazin, J.-C., Le Blaye, P., & Haggard, P.
- Affiliations
- Office National d'Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales (FR)
- University College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Berberian, Bruno
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2012-03-30
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- e34075
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3316600
- OpenAlex
- W2115897811
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 13 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 7
- FWCI
- 1.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- intentional binding, sense of agency, human agency, system automation, human-automation interaction
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Automation, Aviation, Awareness, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Biological, Perception, Psychomotor Performance, Sensation, Systems Theory, Technology, Time Perception, Intention
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